President of Irvine’s Platinum Software to Resign : Technology: Company, coming off losses and layoffs, will look for marketing expert to replace David Proctor.

Platinum Software Corp., a financial software company that has posted deep losses and laid off about 100 employees in recent months, said Wednesday that one of its top executives is leaving at the end of December.

David Proctor, who joined the company in May 1994, has been president, chief operating officer and a member of the board of directors. Carmelo Santoro, chief executive at Platinum, said he will assume Proctor’s duties until a replacement can be found.

“The company has been unable to build the volume of sales that it needs,” Santoro said. “I’m looking for a replacement with a bent toward marketing and sales. [Proctor’s] history is in development.”

Santoro did praise Proctor for helping the company develop programs for the popular Windows operating systems.

Proctor was unavailable for comment on his resignation, said Platinum spokeswoman Geri Schanz. The company said Proctor will return to Austin, Texas, where his family has remained since he joined Platinum.

Platinum recently laid off about 100 employees, including 50 from the company’s sales force. Those cuts were part of a strategic switch in which Platinum will no longer sell its products directly, but instead rely on “value-added-resellers,” companies that buy computer products and sell them in bundles to corporations or retailers.

Platinum, which employs about 460 people, reported a loss of $4.48 million in its first fiscal quarter that ended Sept. 30, compared to a profit of $51,000 a year earlier. Sales totaled $12.6 million in the first quarter, down 14% from $14.6 million in the comparable period a year earlier.

The company blamed the loss partly on lackluster sales of its Enterprise software, targeted for large corporations.