Western Digital’s Braun Quits Exec Post
Joining the ranks of other high-profile executives leaving the boardroom to head home, Kathryn A. Braun--one of the highest paid technology executives in California--is retiring as head of a key division at Western Digital Corp.
Braun, 47, said her desire to have a family and pursue her charitable interests are worth more than the $3.6 million she earned last year as president and chief operating officer of the company’s high-end disk drive division.
“There’s got to be more to life than disk drives,” Braun said. “For 20 years, I’ve had a fairly uni-dimensional life. I gave up having children. I’ve managed to keep a second husband, but not the first.
“I’m so driven that I can’t find an equal balance between both areas,” she said.
To replace Braun, Irvine-based Western Digital tapped Matthew E. Massengill, 37, to head the company’s personal storage division.
Braun’s departure, though not a surprise to friends and staff, revives the debate about how executives juggle work and family. A string of high-level female executives have quit at least partly because of family, from PepsiCo’s Brenda Barnes to Microsoft’s Patty Stonesifer.
“I think women are realizing that you may not be able to have it all at the same time,” said Melissa Wahl, national director of the National Assn. for Female Executives. “In the ‘80s, we had the ‘superwomen’ syndrome. Now, in the ‘90s, people are realizing that you have to sometimes experience your life in stages.”
A 20-year Western Digital veteran, Braun has always stood out in the clubby, male-dominated industry. Known for her straightforward nature and candid views, she earned a reputation as a cool head in the nail-biting, cyclical nature of the disk-drive business.
Friends call her demanding--more on herself than on her staff--and unwilling to be cowed. Industry watchers have long speculated that Braun and Charles Haggerty, Western Digital’s chief executive, did not get along because the pair share strong personalities yet conflicting management approaches.
Both Braun and Haggerty have denied such speculation. But Haggerty once required Braun to attend a “charm school for executives” so she would be less aggressive--a requirement not made of any male employee, according to court documents in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former middle manager.
Braun joined Western Digital as a technical support staff member in 1978, when the firm was wading through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Under her leadership--first as general manager, then as president and chief operating officer--Western’s personal storage division grew enormously. In its most recent fiscal year, the division shipped 21.8 million disk drives and accounted for about 85% of the company’s $3.5 billion in revenue.
