By John Oates, 10 December 1999 00:20
NEWS Ted Waitt, the 36 year old co-founder and CEO of Gateway, is to take a back seat role at the consumer giant. He will be replaced as CEO by Jeff Weitzen who is currently COO and president. Waitt will stay on as chairman and take a more strategic role in the company. Mike Maloney, marketing director for Gateway Europe, said "This is a natural progression for Ted. We have 15 senior VPs across the globe - 11 of these have been appointed in the last 18 months - so the whole company has been gearing up for the next stage. Ted is not retiring and will still be looking at strategy but he has a young family and wants to spend more time actively involved in their upbringing." Maloney denied that Waitt would be returning to the farm in Iowa where the company began. In an October video interview with Silicon.com, Waitt denied any wish to retire. He said "We've got a great management team in place but I like to keep busy... I've no desire to just sit on a beach I'd go crazy and drive everyone around me crazy." You can watch the interview with Ted Waitt in the Desktop Strategies Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a33355 ).
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