Sun Microsystems today announced the appointment of Michael Lehman as chief financial officer, replacing current chief financial officer, Steve McGowan, effective February 22, 2006. Sun has been conducting a search for a new CFO since McGowan announced his plans to retire from the post in October 2005. McGowan, who has served as Sun's CFO and executive vice president of Corporate Resources since July 2002, will remain at Sun as executive vice president of Finance and will work closely with Lehman to ensure a seamless transition. Lehman and McGowan will report directly to Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and chief executive officer. "Mike has been a trusted advisor to Sun during both his tenure on the board and his 15 years of full time service," said McNealy. "Mike demonstrated the ability to recruit and develop great people and helped manage a tight ship. This is the kind of leader we should all aspire to be." Lehman, former executive vice president, Corporate Resources and chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002, returns to Sun after serving on the company's board of directors in various capacities. Since 2002, he has served as a business consultant while sitting on the boards of Echelon Corporation, MGIC Investment Corporation and NetIQ Corporation. Lehman will maintain his director position on the board of MGIC Investment Corporation. "Having now tried retirement briefly, I find that I like being involved in leading change and driving the business more directly," said Lehman. "The strength of the new product lines, the tremendous success of the open and free Solaris 10 operating system coupled with the opportunity within the StorageTek portfolio leads me to believe Sun can deliver more value to customers than HP, IBM and others combined. I believe I can more effectively serve Sun's shareholders, customers, employees, and other stakeholders by participating directly in day-to-day operations and fiduciary leadership of the company." "We have worked hard for the past several years to position Sun for sustained profitability and growth and it is great to see a senior statesman like Mike join the team," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer. "We are fortunate to be able to tap into Mike's deep knowledge of the business, his breadth of senior management experience and legendary focus on execution. Mike is well respected by Wall Street, our customers and employees, and maintains the highest standards of integrity." Sun also announced today that Robert Finocchio, Jr. has been elected to the company's board of directors. Finocchio will also join Sun's audit committee effective immediately and qualifies as an "audit committee financial expert" under SEC rules.