History (1995): Bill Miller Resigns as CEO of Quantum

It’s musical chairs for the heads of the storage industry.

William J. Miller, 49, has resigned as CEO and COB of Quantum Corp. (Milpitas, CA) , in the wake of similar abdications in past months by Larry Smart (Maxtor), John Adler (Adaptec), Ed Zschau (IBM SSD) and Stuart Mabon (Micropolis).

Miller will remain as CEO until his replacement is named by Stephen Berkley, CEO and COB at Quantum until 1992, who has resumed as COB since Miller announced his departure.

Miller’s decision is explained that “above all by his desire to ease up on his fast-paced lifestyle and the demands of a multinational operation,” according to Quantum’s press release.

With Miller at the helm, Quantum increased its yearly business from $1.2 to nearly $4 billion.

Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Control Data, where he rose to corporate VP and president of information services. He left following a Seagate buy-out and was named CEO of Quantum in 1992, succeeding Berkley as chairman in 1993.

Born in Fargo, ND, Miller holds a BS in Economics as well as his JD degree, both from the University of Minnesota.

In a separate development, Quantum has appointed 2 new VPs for its Specialty Storage Products Group (SSPG) in charge of tape and SSDs.

Linda Metzer has been recruited as VP of marketing. She was formerly director of the Value Workstation product line at DEC.

Robert L. Bell, a 17-year veteran at Hewlett-Packard, has been appointed to the position of VP of operations for SSPG. He will assume responsibility for manufacturing and quality/reliability.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 92, published on September 1995.

Note: Miller joined Avid as chairman and CEO in 1996.