Jack Messman

Jack Messman is the CEO of Novell, Inc. ( NOVL). Novell Inc.’s board of directors ousted Chairman and CEO Jack Messman and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Tibbetts in a move designed to accelerate the company’s growth, Novell said today. Ron Hovsepian, Novell’s president and chief operating officer, was made CEO in addition to his existing duties. Dana Russell, Novell’s vice president of finance, becomes interim CFO.

The changes are effective immediately. Messman, 66, will remain on Novell’s board until the end of October, the company said. Hovsepian, 45, was also made a Novell board member.

In a conference call this morning, the company shed no further light on Messman’s or Tibbett’s departure. Thomas Plaskett, a Novell director who takes Messman’s job as chairman, said only that the company is “genuinely appreciative” of their contributions. The departing executives offered no comments in Novell’s press statement.

In an interview, Hovsepian said only that Messman’s departure was a “formal separation.” Messman took over as CEO from former president and CEO Eric Schmidt in March of 2001, when Novell acquired IT services and consulting firm Cambridge Technology Partners Inc., where Messman had been president and CEO.

Novell’s NetWare, once the dominant network operating system, has seen its lead erased by Microsoft Windows. Under Messman’s leadership, Novell set out on a new strategy several years ago to build a business based on the open-source Linux operating system, acquiring German vendor SUSE Linux in 2003.