3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS) announced yesterday that the company’s board of directors has appointed Robert Mao as the new Chief Executive Officer. He is replacing Edgar Masri, who is leaving the company. Mao will continue to serve on the company’s board. 3Com also hired Ronald Sege as President and Chief Operating Officer and appointed him to the board effective today.

“We wish to thank Edgar for his leadership and contributions to 3Com,” said Chairman of 3Com’s Board of Directors, Eric Benhamou. “Edgar helped the company through a challenging period and helped us make progress on a number of fronts, including the successful acquisition of H3C and the development of a differentiated technology strategy with Open Services Networking, or OSN. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Prior to Mao joining 3Com, he worked for Nortel Networks, where he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the company’s greater China operations from 1997 to 2006. Sege most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tropos Networks, Inc. from 2004 to 2008. He previously spent nine years at 3Com Corporation, from 1989-1998 serving in several different senior management roles.

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