Lotus Names Manzi To Additional Post Of Chief Executive

The Wall Street Journal

April 8, 1986

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Lotus Development Corp. named president Jim P. Manzi to the additional post of chief executive officer, succeeding Mitchell D. Kapor, who continues as chairman.

Mr. Kapor, 35-year-old founder of the personal-computer software company, said he will work full time on new products, new business opportunities for the concern and overall corporate strategy.

Mr. Manzi, 34, spent four years with McKinsey & Co., a New York-based management consulting firm, before joining Lotus in May 1983 as director of marketing. He has been president since October 1984. Mr. Manzi said the added title "fundamentally won't change anything that's been going on around here for the last 12 months." Mr. Kapor said he hasn't been using the title of chief executive in news releases for the past six or nine months.

Richard P. Sherlund, a software analyst with Goldman, Sachs & Co., described Mr. Kapor as "very conceptual and intuitive" and Mr. Manzi as "more practical and numbers-oriented."

"This is just one more step for Mitch (Kapor) back into the R&D lab," Mr. Sherlund said. "Where the company really needs help is in developing products."

Although Lotus's first product, a combination spreadsheet, record-keeping and graphics package called 1-2-3, was a blockbluster, the company's more recent products haven't been as successful. Because the expense of introducing new products wasn't matched by a surge in revenue, Lotus reported lower earnings in the third and fourth quarters last year.

Mr. Kapor said his interests aren't limited to software, but extend to other ways in which personal computers might be made more effective assistants to business users. "I'm certainly very interested in artificial intelligence," he said. "I've been wading in it, but I haven't been swimming in it."

Copyright (c) 1986, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.