Siebel: Lawrie out, Shaheen in

When Mike Lawrie, a 26-year IBM veteran, was appointed as Siebel Systems's chief executive last year, he had a clear mandate.

"I've spent most of my career doing turnarounds at IBM. That's what I've done and, yes, that's exactly what I signed up to do here," Lawrie told CNET News.com in October. "Almost every aspect of how you go about transforming an institution needs to be addressed at Siebel Systems," Lawrie said.

Roughly six months later, Lawrie is now out of a job and Siebel is warning that it will report an unexpected first quarter loss.

Stepping into the breach is George Shaheen, who spent years running Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). The big question: Will Shaheen continue Lawrie's experiment in expanding Siebel's product line? Or will he concentrate on prepping the company for sale? Stay tuned.