I Guess You Could Say He Ver-Resigned– Ba-Dum PSH!

“We keep the Internet’s dial tone up.” When VeriSign Chief Executive Officer Stratton Sclavos (at right, happy to see you) said that at the Tech Policy Summit in February, I wonder if he had any idea that the “we” to which he referred would soon become “they.” Because here we are about three months later and he’s resigned as CEO of the provider of digital-infrastructure services–a position he held for 12 years. VeriSign offered no real explanation for the surprise resignation, saying only that the company “has reached a point in its evolution where it can benefit from new leadership.”

An interesting choice of words, yeah? Some sort of new corporate euphemism, I suppose. I’m sure all will be revealed in the next few days.

Anyway … VeriSign tapped William Roper Jr. as president and chief executive. Roper, a board member since November 2003, has been the lead independent director. He most recently served as executive vice president of Science Applications International Corp., a diversified technology services company.