Former Hewlett-Packard Executive Will Lead Octel

Octel Communications, a fast-growing vendor of voice-mail equipment, has appointed former Hewlett-Packard executive Douglas C. Chance president and chief executive. He replaces company founder Robert Cohn, who remains chairman of the Milpitas firm.

Chance, 48, held a variety of posts in his 24 years at Hewlett-Packard, most recently executive vice president in charge of much of the company’s computer operations. He is only the second executive at that level ever to leave H-P. Chance said his departure was unrelated to the H-P reorganization announced Friday.

Cohn, 41, said that he will continue to work full-time at Octel, which he founded with Executive Vice President Peter Olson in 1982, but that Chance would exercise full management control. He said Octel, which had $127.8 million in sales last year, needed top management with experience guiding an organization into the billion-dollar sales realm.

“It’s less that I wasn’t up to the job; I could do it if I spent no time with my family,” Cohn said in explaining why he decided to cede the CEO spot. “I’m very excited that we were able to attract Doug.”

Chance said he considered the voice-processing market “the biggest new long-term opportunity” in high-tech. Octel is the market leader in voice-mail systems, which are attached to office telephones or public telephone networks to allow people to leave and retrieve messages.

Analysts expect the market for such systems, which has been growing 40% annually, to continue expanding as voice-processing technology is integrated into multimedia computer systems.