DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Avadis "Avie" Tevanian, a former Apple Inc. (APPL) executive,
has joined Elevation Partners as a managing director.
He will assist the private-equity firm in evaluating new
investment opportunities, advise those companies and help devise
the firm's strategy.
Elevation is the largest investor in Palm Inc. (PALM), which
hired former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein as executive chairman
two years ago to turn around the struggling smart-phone maker.
Palm has been battling for market share in that very competitive
category against Apple's iPhone and the Blackberry, made by
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM). A recent skirmish involved the
latest software for Apple's iTunes music store disabling the Palm
Pre phone's ability to sync with iTunes.
Tevanian worked at Apple for about 10 years and was chief
software technology officer and a member of the company's senior
management team when he left in 2006. He had led the software
engineering team that developed OS X.
Earlier, he was a vice president of software engineering at NeXT
Computer. He is a director at Dolby Laboratories Inc. (DLB).
At Elevation, Tevanian will reunite with Fred Anderson, a former
Apple chief financial officer who is a co-founder and managing
director at the firm.
Elevation, which includes investors such as U2's Bono, also owns
a minority stake in Forbes Inc.
-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357;
kathy.shwiff@dowjones.com
(Eric Savitz contributed to this report.)