Sun Microsystems Fills Technology Chief Post

Sun Microsystems Inc. on Wednesday named Greg Papadopoulos chief technology officer, filling a vacancy left last April when Eric Schmidt became Novell Inc.’s chairman and chief executive.

Papadopoulos, 39, was formerly vice president of technology and advanced development for Sun Microsystems Computer Co. He’ll be responsible for assessing Sun’s technology investments and directing the laboratories where much of the company’s research and development takes place.

Schmidt, who left Sun a year ago to head Novell, was one of Chief Executive Scott McNealy’s top lieutenants and a chief proponent of the Java computer-programming language. Papadopoulos brings a background in and experience from the computer-hardware side of the business, which makes up the majority of Sun’s revenue.

“The hardware side is still paying the bills” at Sun, said analyst Evan Quinn of International Data Corp. “It’s no surprise he came up through SMCC.”

Palo Alto-based Sun Microsystems shares rose $2 to close at $42.19 on Nasdaq.

Papadopoulos has held several positions at Sun since joining the company in 1994. He was chief scientist for server systems engineering and chief scientist for the enterprise servers and storage business unit within Sun’s computer division.

Papadopoulos said he’ll focus on Sun’s push for network computing, or linking together large numbers of machines in corporate networks.