Neterion Technologies, a one-year-old data networking startup, has persuaded a Hewlett-Packard veteran to come on board as chief executive. Dave Zabrowski, a former vice-president and general manager of California-based HP, officially takes over Neterion on Monday but has been working out of the startup's Cupertino, California, office for the past few days.

"I'd been looking for a more entrepreneurial environment, and there were plenty of opportunities here in the Valley," said Mr. Zabrowski, "but I am very impressed with the Neterion team."

Mr. Zabrowski had been in charge of HP's personal computer unit for Canada and the U.S. — a $1.5 billion-a-year business.

Neterion was launched last September by five former Nortel employees. Three of the founders have roots in Alteon, a content aware switching firm bought by Nortel in mid-2000. They are based in California. The other two founders — Dennis Shwed and Lee Shepherd — are long-term Nortel veterans and operate out of Ottawa.

About two-thirds of the firm's 40 employees are Ottawa-based while the remainder work in Cupertino.

"Our intention is not to move jobs out of Ottawa — quite the reverse," said Mr. Zabrowski. "We expect to have about 100 employees by the time we start generating revenues."

"Neterion claims its data networking connectivity products are being evaluated by the industry's top computer server and storage companies, a group that likely includes Sun Microsystems, HP and IBM, among others.

Mr. Zabrowski, 38, said Neterion is targeting the second quarter of 2003 to achieve full production of the firm's first family of products.

These are specialty chips that incorporate high-speed technologies based on a technical standard known as ethernet. The idea is to accelerate the speed at firms can access and store information contained on their networks of servers.

Neterion raised $9 million U.S. last fall from Vengrowth Capital and the Business Development Bank of Canada. Mr. Zabrowski intends to secure a more substantial second round before year-end.

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