Enterprise infrastructure provider, Aruba Networks, has appointed David Humphries as the country manager, responsible for the sales of Aruba for Australia and New Zealand. Humphries comes to Aruba with 20 years experience in the Australian Networking Industry. Most recently Humphries was at Avnet, where he was managing the networking arm of its distribution business. Before that, he held various sales roles at Memorex Telex, Xylan (acquired by Alcatel), Arrowpoint Communications (acquired by Cisco) and network management company, Concord Communications (recently acquired by CA).

Intelligent Business Research Services (IBRS) has appointed high profile industry analyst Dr Kevin McIsaac to a senior research role. Dr McIsaac was formerly research director Asia Pacific with META Group, prior to its take-over by Gartner. Dr McIsaac is an expert in infrastructure, operations and vendor management and works with CIOs and IT management teams on strategy development and the key issues associated with running IT as a business. His first report, entitled:" Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) – Who Dares Wins" examines the impact of the SAS communication protocol on the storage market.

Online training and recruitment company TodayCorp Pty Ltd, has acquired privately held Impart.

Business performance software vendor, Hyperion, has appointed Thomas Palmer as director of sales for the company's Australia and New Zealand operations. Palmer, who the company considers one of its top 5 sales executives worldwide, joined Hyperion Solutions in 1999 as strategic account manager in Atlanta. Prior to joining Hyperion, Palmer held senior business development, sales and marketing positions at Cap Gemini Insurance. His experience also includes stints as director of sales & marketing at Business Intelligence and e-business consulting firm Blackstone and Cullen Inc., account manager at National Education Training Group, and business systems consultant with the Atlanta office of Arthur Andersen S.C.

Business intelligence vendor, Business Objects, has named John Schwarz chief executive officer. Company founder, Bernard Liautaud, continues as chairman of the board and assumes the new role of chief strategy officer. Schwarz joins the company from Symantec Corporation, where he held the position of president and was responsible for leading the company's six lines of business. At Symantec, Schwarz played a key role in the recent combination of Symantec and VERITAS. Previously, he spent 25 years at IBM Corporation working in development, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. He was general manager of IBM's Industry Solutions unit, a worldwide organization focused on building business applications and related services for IBM's large industry customers.

Business solutions consulting firm, Votar Partners, has appointed Laurie Ward as NSW/ACT strategic business development Manager. Ward joins Votar Partners after a career of more than 20 years in the IT industry, working for companies such as ICL Australia, NCR, Seagate, Aspect and most recently Advanced Data Integration.

Research group, Gartner, has issued a warning that the current shortage of skilled labour is negatively affecting the Indian call centre industry.

Privately held telco, Arrow Voice & Data, has appointed James T Dominguez as chairman of the board. Formerly founder and chairman of Dominguez Barry Samuel Montagu, and later SBC Dominguez Barry investment bank — now UBS Australia — Dominguez has considerable experience at board level. He holds advisory roles for a number of technology companies, including Cisco Systems Australia and Fuji Xerox. Dominguez also serves as non-executive director of a number of companies including ETrade Australia, Nestle Australia, O'Connell Street Associates, Tat Hong (Singapore) and WESBEAM Holdings.

Content management vendor, Vignette, has appointed Carl Jones as senior pre-sales engineer, based in Melbourne. Jones has previously worked with content management company Fatwire Software. He has also held down successful stints at Candle Corporation, Opus Group Australia and San Francisco based Ipsys Software.

Network security vendor, Fortinet, has appointed data security specialist Steve Clack as manager, Australia and New Zealand. Clack was previously channel director ANZ for Trend Micro and he is a former UK sales director for McAfee. He was also director of a secure networking company in the UK, and UK managing director of a web-based customer service solutions provider.

Enterprise content management provider, Interwoven, has appointed Christopher Lynch as managing director, of the company's Australia and New Zealand office. Lynch spent more than a decade sin executive sales, channel, and operational management roles with companies including Hummingbird, Norada, and Software Spectrum. Prior to joining Interwoven, Lynch was the managing director for Hummingbird's ANZ operations for over five years, starting his career at the company as the national sales manager.

Business intelligence solutions provider, Business Objects, has named Pat Wynne to the position of group vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific region. Wynne most recently as the interim managing director of Australia and New Zealand for Business Objects. She joined Business Objects in 2001 as vice president of sales, before moving to the role of vice president of employee retention and motivation where she specifically focused on the integration of the Crystal Decisions and Business Objects sales teams. Prior to Business Objects, Wynne held positions at Brience Corporation, Backweb Technologies, and also held key senior sales positions for 9 years with Oracle Corporation, including the position of area vice president, west.

ICT recruiter, Candle Australia, has established a co-sourcing practice and appointed Danny Normington as general manager. Normington and his team of six in the Technology Co-sourcing Solutions division join Candle as a result of the acquisition of Parker Bridge Australia. As an associate director, Normington managed the Parker Bridge ICT division for four years prior to the acquisition and has more than ten years European and Australasian recruitment experience.

Executive demand in the information technology sector surged in August, with the IT sector rushing to its highest point since the 2001 tech wreck, signalling a real return to life in the IT industry, according to a new report.