Sun’s HR chief also to head up European ops

Sun Microsystems  is shaking up its European operations, creating a new position for a company veteran to oversee the region.

Crawford Beveridge, Sun’s executive vice president, people and places, and chief human resources officer, is to add to his duties for the company, a Sun spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. In the newly created role of executive vice president and chairman of Sun Europe, Beveridge will report directly to Sun Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy.

Beveridge, 58, who originally hails from Scotland, has yet to determine where he’ll be based, the Sun spokeswoman said. For the time being, he’ll continue to work out of his office in California and engage in a substantial amount of travel to Europe, she added.

A member of Sun’s Executive Committee, Beveridge was hand-picked by McNealy for the company back in 1985. In fact, McNealy had to spend time talking the Scot into the job since Beveridge was unfamiliar with the technology company at that point.

In 1991, Beveridge left Sun, becoming chief executive of Scotland’s economic development agency Scottish Enterprise. His tenure wasn’t a complete success, largely due to his championing of the Business Birth Rate Strategy, an unsuccessful project to recreate the buzz of Silicon Valley in Scotland and encourage startups backed by venture capitalists. Beveridge returned to Sun in April 2000 as head of human resources.