Capellas, 44, joined Compaq only last August, replacing John White as senior vice president and chief information officer. In early June, after Compaq's board ousted CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer, Capellas was elevated to a newly created chief operating officer post. He was the only executive reporting directly to the Office of the Chief Executive, created after Pfeiffer's departure and comprising chairman Ben Rosen and board members Frank Doyle and Robert Ted Enloe.
Capellas' appointment is surprising because many analysts had expected Pfeiffer's replacement to come from outside the company. Much had been made of Pfeiffer's failure to groom a successor internally.
As CIO, Capellas has been under the microscope to merge Compaq's information systems with that of Tandem and Digital, a monumental task that executives had said was moving slower than expected.
Before joining Compaq 11 months ago, Capellas was senior vice president and general manager at Oracle's Global Energy Sector. Prior to that, he spent a year at SAP America and 15 years at Schlumberger Ltd.
Hewlett-Packard surprised the tech world on Tuesday with its appointment of Carly Fiorina as CEO. Ann Livermore, a 17-year HP veteran, had been widely anticipated to get the job.
