MILPITAS, CA -- Solectron Corp. president and chief executive Michael Cannon resigned yesterday, effective immediately, to take a job as president of global operations at Dell.

Chief financial officer Paul Tufano, 53, was named interim CEO and principal executive officer. A search is underway for a permanent replacement. Tufano has been executive VP and CFO since Jan. 30, 2006.
He was president and chief executive of Maxtor Corp. from 2003 through 2004, and CFO from 1996 to 2003. He also spent 17 years at IBM.

A top tier EMS provider, Solectron has been struggling since the 2001 downturn.

It was the second sudden departure of a top executive at a major EMS firm in the past few months. In November, Celestica CEO and chairman Steve Delaney left the company, and was replaced to pursue "other business interests," and was replaced by president Craig Muhlhauser. Celestica has also been under fire for poor operational results.