Novell Names Colleen O'Keefe to Lead Services Business

Former NCR executive to oversee Novell's technical support offerings

4 December 2006

Novell today named Colleen O'Keefe senior vice president of services at Novell. A former NCR executive, O'Keefe will oversee Novell's technical support offerings, critical competitive differentiators for Novell in the Linux* market. With over 28 years in operations and services positions in the telecommunication and technology sector, O'Keefe brings deep expertise that will help ensure Novell customers receive world-class services to optimize the value of their Novell® investments.

“The Linux and open source model is based primarily on services offerings, since the software itself is free, so vendors like Novell increasingly compete on the quality of the services they deliver,” said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell. “Colleen has spent a career developing and delivering world class services for industry leading companies like NCR, AT&T and more. We're excited to have a proven senior leader like Colleen taking charge of Novell's services business as we attack new opportunities in the market for our Linux and management offerings.”

As senior vice president for services, O'Keefe will oversee Novell's global technical support group, which provides both onsite and telephone support services, as well as outsourced IT management services to customers. She will report to Hovsepian. O'Keefe joins Novell after four years at NCR, where she served most recently as vice president and general manager, Payment Solutions Division. Prior to NCR, she served as senior vice president, Customer Services, at Global Crossing, and senior vice president, Telecom Operations, at e.Spire Communications. Earlier in her career, she served as Local Operations Vice President at AT&T, and spent 18 years at Southern New England Telecommunications in a variety of business and management roles. She has an Masters in Business Administration from the University of Hartford, and a Bachelor's degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross.

“Linux and open source are revolutionizing the software industry, and the value of what vendors deliver to customers is moving away from a license model toward services,” said O'Keefe. “Novell is one of the leaders in driving this new paradigm. At the same time, Novell has more than two decades delivering enterprise class services to customers, so we're perfectly positioned to lead this charge. I look forward to making Novell the company that customers want to work with to meet their IT needs.”

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers Software for the Open Enterprise™. With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, 4,700 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world, Novell helps customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com.

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