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There were more management changes at Conexant Systems yesterday, as the fabless company announced that D Scott Mercer has been appointed chairman of the board of directors.

Mercer, who replaced Dan Artusi as CEO of the Newport Beach, Calif-based company in April, has been a Conexant director since 2003.

Artusi held the seat for less than a year after Dwight W Decker resigned as CEO in March 2007.

Mercer replaces Decker, who, in addition to resigning in 2007, also resigned as Conexant's CEO in February 2004 when the company merged with GlobespanVirata.

As of today, Decker will continue as a company director.

"I'm pleased with the opportunity to serve as chairman of Conexant's board of directors in addition to my day-to-day responsibilities as chief executive officer," Mercer said in a statement.

"On behalf of the entire board of directors, I'd like to thank Dwight for his leadership and dedication to Conexant over many years. Dwight joined Rockwell International in 1989 and was named chairman and chief executive officer of Conexant at the time of the company's spin-off from Rockwell in 1999. He served in both roles until 2004, retired briefly, and returned as chief executive officer until 2007."
 
Mercer serves on the boards of Palm, Polycom, SMART Modular Technologies, and Adaptec, where he is chairman. Mercer has more than 30 years of experience in technology businesses having served in senior executive positions at Dell, Western Digital, TeraLogic, and LSI, as well as serving as interim CEO at Adaptec in 2005.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News - Electronic News