Marconi Chairman, CEO Resign Amid Job Cuts

Marconi’s chairman and chief executive announced their resignations as the battered telecommunications company said it would lay off an additional 2,000 employees, half of them in the United States.

The job cuts amount to about 5% of its total work force and come on top of 8,000 layoffs earlier this year.

The British company also reported a first-quarter operating loss of about $329 million and warned that an operating loss was likely for the first half of the fiscal year.

The surprise resignations of Chairman Roger Hurn and CEO George Simpson came just two months after the resignation of Deputy Chief Executive John Mayo.

Mike Parton, who heads Marconi’s Networks division, has been named the new chief executive. Derek Bonham, a senior nonexecutive director, will serve as interim chairman.