Software delivery vendor, Borland, has appointed Richard Grant as southern region manager, Borland Australia, based in Melbourne. Grant has more than 22 years’ of sales and marketing experience in Australia and New Zealand, having worked for companies including SAS Institute, PeopleSoft, SSA Pacific and JD Edwards. Most recently he was sales director for DiscLinc Asia Pacific.

PC vendor Acer Computer Australia has appointed Mike Cefai to the company in the role of national government sales manager. Cefai previously spent four years as Acer's national education and government sales manager. He has spent a total of 14 years with Acer.

Web content management provider, Indigo Pacific, has appointed Simon Madsen as IT infrastructure manager, based in Sydney. Madsen joins Indigo Pacific from Novell where, as an IT Analyst, his role involved the management and support of the internet data centre and network infrastructure for the Asia Pacific region. He has also held IT support roles at Cambridge Technology Partners and the South West Sydney Institute of TAFE.

Software delivery vendor Borland Software Corporation has appointed Tod Nielsen as its new president and CEO, effective 9 November, 2005.  Nielsen has held executive level positions at Microsoft Corporation, BEA Systems, and Oracle Corporation. He most recently served as senior vice president, marketing and global sales support for Oracle.  His responsibilities included marketing support of the server technologies products including the Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware product lines.  Prior to Oracle, Nielsen was the chief marketing officer and executive vice president of Engineering of BEA Systems. Nielsen joined BEA after the acquisition of his private company, Crossgain Inc, where he served as its CEO. Nielsen also spent twelve years with Microsoft Corporation, including a stint as general manager of database and developer tools, vice president of developer tools, and at the time of his departure, vice president of Microsoft’s platform group.

CRM implementer Snapdragon Consulting,has appointed Karl Reader as manager of its new division, Snapdragon Innovation, which  will focus on developing add-on modules for Microsoft CRM. Reader's 18 year career has spanned four continents and includes consulting for software company Synon in Chicago, Hong Kong and Sydney, then working his way through South America managing IT projects for Amway before being seconded to Europe to coordinate the company’s European IT operations. More recently, Reader worked for GE Finance, Essential Computer Systems and Prota TECH in Australia.

Brisbane based HRMS software company, Aurion Corporation has appointed two senior professionals to its management team. Paul MacRae, who founded email filtering company MessageLabs in Australia, has joined as national sales manager with responsibility for marketing and sales.   He joins commercial manager Frank Gilmartin, who was previously at Carter Holt Harvey in senior roles within their packaging business division for the past seven years.

Data centre infrastructure and power protection provider American Power Conversion (APC) has appointed David Plumer as vice president of its Asia Pacific operations. Plumer joined APC in January 2005 as president of Japan. Je moved to APC after a 26 year career with IBM, where he held key general management positions across several divisions and served a wide range of multinational customers. He held various positions in manufacturing, sales, marketing, product operations and finance, and spent over 12 years experience living and working across Asia. In his last assignment at IBM, Plumer was managing principal for IBM Global Services.

Gartner has appointed the ex CIO and Director of the Office of State Revenue for NSW, Mike Kennedy, as senior program director with Gartner Executive Programs, based in Sydney. Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) is a membership-based organisation of more than 3,000 CIOs and IT Directors worldwide. Kennedy will be responsible for delivery of the program which provides tailored advice, research and access to exclusive events for CIOs in Australia and New Zealand. Prior to his position at the Office of State Revenue, Kennedy worked with Westpac, General Electric, Avco and SMS Consulting.

IT services and procurement company NetOptions has appointed Clark Hobson as its director, based in Brisbane. Hobson was previously a director of NetOptions’ parent company, Datacom Systems in Sydney, where he spent six years with the IT services provider.

XML integration specialist Software AG has expanded its sales and pre-sales team with the appointment of three new account managers and a business analyst. Christian Anders, formerly of Computer Associates and David Harvey, formerly with Leading Solutions, have joined the Melbourne sales team.  Robert David, who previously worked with Sybase, has joined the team in Sydney. All three will focus primarily on new business in the XML integration area, but will also manage a number of existing accounts.

Digital video compression developer, Mediaware, has appointed military and intelligence sector veteran, Jason Frye, to the newly created position vice president, defence and intelligence, based in Washington, D.C. Frye’s role is considered pivotal for Mediaware’s growth, as 90% of the Australian company’s revenue is derived from US-based clients. He joins Mediaware from a tenure with L-3 Communications Government Services Inc. Prior to his role at L-3 Communications, Frye served in a variety of positions within the ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) sector. In 2000, he was awarded the Defence Information Systems Agency’s Director’s award for science and engineering excellence as a result of his work for the US Joint Interoperability Test Command as ISR systems test director. Previous to that role, he held a senior position designing integration and standards conformance testing at BDM Federal Inc. Frye joined BDM after a 23-year career with the US Army, where he held various technical and leadership positions focused on intelligence roles, including direction of a key joint service intelligence gathering mission.

Content management systems vendor Vignette has promoted Melbourne-based Craig Broadbent to VP professional services Asia Pacific. Broadbent previously held the position of managing principal for Vignette’s Melbourne office, a position he had been in for six months since joining Vignette. He was previously Australia country manager for Talgentra following a 4-year stint as professional services manager at PeopleSoft.

Microsoft Australia has appointed Therese McGrath to the role of small business director. With previous roles at Thomsen NETg, Thomson Legal & Regulatory Asia Pacific, Lion Nathan Australia, Diageo PLC and Avis Europe, Ms McGrath has fifteen years’ international experience in strategy, business development finance and business operations.

Privately held information security specialist, Cybertrust, has appointed former HP CEO Carleton S. (Carly) Fiorina to its its board of directors. Fiorina was fired from her job at HP early this year, reportedly after a growing rift with the company's board.