Jean Hu Interim CEO, QLogic

QLogic Corp. announced that Simon Biddiscombe has resigned his positions as president and CEO and also as a director in order to pursue other opportunities.

Simon’s resignation was effective immediately.

 The board has appointed CFO Jean Hu, 49, as CEO on an interim basis. He currently serves a SVP and CFO. She oversees all company financial matters and will retain her CFO responsibilities during the interim period. She has more than 18 years of financial and corporate development experience, including her most recent position as SVP, CFO and treasurer of Conexant Systems, Inc. Prior to joining QLogic, she served at Conexant and its predecessor company, Rockwell International, since 1997 and held various senior-level executive positions in financial planning, strategy, and corporate development.

The board will begin an immediate search for a permanent CEO, and the search committee will be led by William M. Zeitler.

"On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Simon Biddiscombe for his contributions to QLogic over the last five years. We wish Simon well in his future endeavors," said H.K. Desai, chairman and executive chairman, QLogic.

 Simon Biddiscombe, 45, served as the CEO and president of QLogic from November 15, 2010 to May 2013. He served as the CFO and SVP at the company from April 30, 2008 to November 15, 2010. He was CFO, SVP and treasurer of Mindspeed Technologies Inc., from June 2003 to April 21, 2008 and its secretary from April 2004 to April 21, 2008. He has over 18 years of accounting and financial reporting experience. He served as principal accounting officer of Mindspeed Technologies until April 21, 2008 and as VP for finance and controller of the internet infrastructure business of Conexant from December 2000 to June 2003. He served as SVP and CFO of Wyle Electronics (distributor of semiconductor products) from May 1999 to December 2000 and COO from May 2000 to December 2000. He also served as manager and senior manager of the Silicon Valley technology accounting and audit practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He has been a director of Volterra Semiconductor Corporation since December 5, 2012.

Biddiscombe holds a B.A. (Hons) in Business Studies from the Polytechnic of Wales and is a Chartered Accountant from the United Kingdom.