Sun Java executive surfaces at software startup

A former Sun Microsystems Inc. Java executive, who left the company just a week after Sun and Microsoft Corp. announced their landmark settlement and partnership agreement on April 2, has surfaced. His new employer: software vendor Cassatt Corp.

Rich Green, who up until Friday had served as the head of Sun’s Java tools division, began his first day as Cassatt’s executive vice president of product development this Monday, according to Cassatt spokesman Lonn Johnston.

In 2002, Green testified against Microsoft as part of Sun’s private antitrust case against its rival, and he was well regarded by Java developers.

“He was the best friend the developer community had inside Sun,” said Rick Ross the founder of the Java developer advocacy group JavaLobby.

In an essay posted to the JavaLobby.org Web site last week, Ross speculated that the fact that Green had decided to depart so soon after the settlement raised doubts about whether the Microsoft settlement would be in Java developers’ interests. “I cannot see Rich’s exit as an unrelated or inconsequential occurrence,” he wrote. “Sun’s principal Java leader and champion has left the company on the heels of the Microsoft settlement announcement. On the surface, at least, it would appear to speak volumes.”

Ross said that since his essay was published, he has been contacted by a number of sources inside Sun who have convinced him that media reports that Green had left in “disgust” were unfounded. “All of the external reads that I have suggest that the ‘disgust’ thing was not the case,” said Ross.

Java creator James Gosling, who reported to Green at Sun, said that the Java executive’s departure was fuelled by personal reasons. “I was right next to Rich. I talked to him every day,” said Gosling. “I know everything about why he (went to Cassatt) and it had nothing to do with disgust. It had to do with wanting a simpler life,” he said.

“For him it’s entirely personal,” Gosling added. “He’d been at Sun for 14 years. He’s had an unbelievably stressful few years. He just got married,” he said.

“I’m sure he finds it very refreshing to go to a nice uncomplicated company,” said another of Green’s co-workers at Sun, who asked not to be identified. “He’s not going to fly to Washington, D.C. every six weeks to be deposed,” the co-worker said.

According to Gosling, the Microsoft settlement will, in general, have no effect on Java. “There’s no shift in Java strategy at all as a result of it,” he said. “The biggest effect is that those of us who were more involved in litigation aren’t being distracted by it anymore.”

An undetermined amount of the $2 billion Microsoft settlement will be used to fund Java development, Gosling said.

Green is not the first Sun employee to be added to the Cassatt payroll. The San Jose, California, company, which employes about 100, was founded by Bill Coleman, a former Sun executive, and the founder of BEA Systems Inc. Over the last year, it has also hired a number of engineers from Sun’s software group, according to Cassatt’s Johnston.

Founded in 2003, Cassatt is developing virtualization software that allows users to pool and centrally manage “networking, storage, computation and application” resources, according to the company’s Web site.

The company plans to launch its first product sometime this year, said Johnston.

Cassatt’s senior executives, including Green, declined to be interviewed for this story.

According to Gosling, Green has decided to remain silent on the reasons for his departure. “He felt awkward about making statements that get perceived as though he’s acting in an official capacity as a Sun executive, when he’s in fact on the way out,” said Gosling. “He just felt that ethically, the clean way to do it was just to be quiet.”