Rolm President Paboojian Quits

International Business Machines Corp. said Wednesday that the president of its Rolm Corp. subsidiary has resigned. IBM stressed, however, that the move is not related to last month’s reorganization of the telecommunications unit, which merged Rolm’s sales and service organizations into its own marketing group.

A Rolm spokeswoman said Dennis Paboojian decided to step down for personal reasons and will remain at IBM as a consultant. “He wanted to take some personal time off,” she said.

Paboojian will be succeeded by IBM vice president Ray AbuZayyad.

The restructuring in March was viewed by some analysts as a way of taming Rolm’s fiercely independent spirit and relegating it to a role as a manufacturing and product development unit within IBM.

Scores of Rolm veterans have left the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which makes telephone exchanges and other communications equipment, since it was acquired by IBM in 1984. Rolm founder Ken Oshman, for example, departed more than a year ago.

IBM analysts had expected last month’s move toward further integration to trigger a further exodus of Rolm executives and some cited Paboojian as a prime candidate.