Dennis McKenna lasted all of 14 months as CEO of SGI.

The server maker today tapped Robert "Bo" Ewald as its new chief. Ewald used to head up Linux Networx, Scale Eight and E-Stamp, so he's quite familiar with CEO duties. The hardware buff also once worked as COO of both SGI and Cray.

McKenna guided SGI out of bankruptcy and has watched the reborn shares of the company shoot from around $20 to more than $30 per share.

“It was a board level decision,” said an SGI spokesman. “Dennis was completely supportive of and involved in the whole process.

“Now that we have done the first phase of our turnaround, the board really wanted to accelerate our growth with someone who is an industry veteran.”

So, poor McKenna had to wallow in the muck and then hand over a shiny, new SGI to a shiny, new CEO.

"The Board and employees of SGI are extremely grateful to Dennis McKenna for his decisive leadership and contributions over the past year, successfully restructuring and stabilizing the company," said SGI Chairman Kevin Katari.

SGI is trying to reach outside of its graphics and high performance computing niche to sell to a wide range of customers. ®

Related stories

SGI's ICE, ICE bladey (27 June 2007)
Four-core Opteron box fiasco crushes Cray's 2007 (4 June 2007)
Sun CEO doesn't know what a bubble looks like (3 November 2006)
Gutted SGI 'blasts out' of, er, bankruptcy (18 October 2006)
SGI to emerge from bankruptcy cocoon (20 September 2006)
SGI chief outlines roadmap out of mortuary (10 June 2006)
SGI kicks off new era by firing 12% of its staff (3 March 2006)
SGI moves Bishop to avoid checkmate (1 February 2006)