Speech and imaging solutions provider, Nuance Communications, has appointed a new head of its desktop application and imagining division to lead a growth push in the Asia Pacific market.

Internode founder and managing director, Simon Hackett, is to step down in August and become a non-executive director of Internode's parent company, iiNet. The move is one of several changes to the top ranks of Internode executives as the integration of the two businesses nears completion.

A number of Australian employees of Hewlett-Packard are facing the loss of their jobs as the global computer giant looks to slash its worldwide workforce by up to 30,000.

Subscription billing and commerce provider Zuora has appointed John Ruthven as its vice president for Australia and New Zealand.

SME-focussed networking vendor D-Link has appointed Ettore Alterisio to the role of business sales and marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Hosting and managed service provider UltraServe has appointed Peter Kensey as its national sales manager.

The New South Wales Government has urged the state’s young people to consider studying information and communications technology (ICT) and take advantage of a potential jobs boom in the sector over the next decade.

Bill Barney, the long serving CEO of Pacnet has departed suddenly with no explanation given and CFO Brett Lay has been made interim CEO.

Last month, Stefano Zacchiroli was re-elected as leader of the Debian GNU/Linux project for a third term, the first leader to earn such a mandate. Only the founder, Ian Murdock, has headed the project for anything approaching three years.

Mobile solutions vendor, Good Technology, is ramping up its government business effort In Australia with the appointment of a new government account director to be based in Canberra.

Many Australians, it seems, believe they need to spend more than half a hour a day ‘progressing’ their career, according to what they have told LinkedIn, but a leading global personal branding expert maintains that nine minutes a day is all you need to maintain a “healthy and successful” career.

Websense has appointed Simone Neunz as territory account manager for New Zealand.

Consulting and solutions provider Tecala has made two senior account management and client services appointments.

Field force automation provider Retriever Communications has appointed Steve Schultz as its operations director.

Ecommerce platform provider BigCommerce has appointed Steven Power as its chief revenue officer.

Unified storage and computing appliance provider Pivot3 has appointed Cal Anderson as regional sales manager for Asia Pacific.

Network solutions vendor, Brocade, has appointed a 20-year industry veteran to head up its Asia Pacific operation from Singapore, responsible for charting the company’s overall growth strategy across the region.

Richard Stallman, the head of the Free Software Foundation, was taken to hospital in Barcelona yesterday when he felt ill midway through a speech.

Foxtel has a new chairman with Telstra appointing one of its senior executives to the role to replace the pay TV operator’s retiring chairman, Bruce Akhurst.

Technology employers still face skills shortages, and for software developers it’s a ‘sellers’ market, as they continue to be the most in-demand IT professionals in Australia, according to a survey of the technology jobs market by one IT recruitment firm.