Michael Skarpzynski was named today as component and software developer Performance Technologies’ new president and CEO. Skarpzynski replaced Donald Turrell, who expressed his desire to pursue other interests earlier this year.

Skarpzynski also will hold a seat on the Board of Directors. The 27-year veteran of executive leadership served earlier this year as a senior advisor to Hudson Abel Partners LLP, an investment bank in New York. Prior to that he led two ventures as CEO: Xebeo, an IP broadband switch acquired by UTStarcom and Predictive Networks, an application service provider offering a business intelligence and analytics overlay network.

From 1992 to 1999, Skarpzynski held various executive roles at AT&T, Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies. He served as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Trade Development in the Department of Commerce from 1989-1991, and held business development and international sales and marketing roles at Motorola from 1985 to 1989. He holds a Masters in Business Administration degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University.

Skarpzynski plans to make Performance Technologies the No. 1 or No. 2 global strategic supplier of embedded solutions and platforms to the world's leading communications, military and equipment providers.

Turrell had been with the company for more than twenty years as it grew from a start-up to a public company with a market capitalization of more than $l00 million. He will remain on the Board of Directors and will assist in the transition over the next couple of months.

Last week, the company reported third-quarter revenues of $12.3 million. It also announced that it has begun shipping its new SEGway 6300 Compact-STP to telecom providers throughout the U.S. and Mexico. The SEGway 6300 Compact-STP is a carrier-grade, redundant system designed to bridge SS7 networks by supporting both IP-based and circuit-switched SS7 signaling.