Western Digital Fills 2 Top Posts

Irvine-based Western Digital Corp. has named Matthew Massengill and Russell Stern as co-chief operating officers, the company said Thursday.

The responsibilities of the two executives have not been altered, but the change in titles signals that the two are the leading internal candidates to take over the computer hard drive manufacturer when Charles Haggerty steps down next year.

Massengill, who joined Western Digital as a product engineer in 1985, was executive vice president and general manager of worldwide hard drive operations, including centralized research, development, manufacturing and marketing of the company’s line of hard drives.

Stern, who started with the company in 1994 as vice president of new product introductions for the personal storage group, was senior vice president. He is responsible for developments in the company’s five principal lines of business, as well as engineering and strategic business development.

The company said it will also consider outside candidates to replace Haggerty, who announced last month that he would retire next year.

The company has been struggling the last two years as the entire personal computer storage industry has endured a prolonged slump. In the last fiscal year, Western lost $493 million on sales of $2.8 billion.