VeriSign replaces CEO Sclavos

VeriSign, a vendor of cybersecurity products and operator of the .com and .net top-level domains, has replaced CEO Stratton Sclavos with a member of its board of directors.

William Roper Jr., a former executive vice president and chief financial officer at Science Applications International, will take over as VeriSign's president and CEO, the company said in a press release. Roper has served on the company's board of directors since November 2003.

Roper also worked at Network Solutions, a domain name registrar, from 1995 to 2000.

Sclavos, one of VeriSign's first employees, served as the company's president, chairman, and CEO before his resignation. The board also elected Edward Mueller chairman. Mueller, who joined VeriSign's board in March 2005, is the former CEO of Williams-Sonoma, a specialty retailer.

The company is in the midst of restructuring, and Roper said in a statement he was pleased with the progress so far.

VeriSign also reported that a review of the company's historical stock option grant practices by members of its board of directors is substantially completed. The review did not find intentional wrongdoing by any current member of senior management, including Sclavos, the company said. VeriSign, in November, announced it would have to restate as much as $250 million in earnings between 2001 and 2006 due to administrative mistakes.

A VeriSign spokeswoman declined to talk about the reason for Sclavos' departure. "It definitely was not related" to the stock options probe, she said.

Sclavos, who has worked at VeriSign for 12 years, said in a statement that he was "proud of my role in building VeriSign into the great company it has become."

VeriSign's 2007 analyst day, previously scheduled for June 6 at VeriSign's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., has been postponed.