Jon Rubinstein Appointed Palm Chairman and CEO

Palm, Inc., the company that made waves in the telecoms media this year with the launch of its new mobile phone, the Palm Pre, announced on Wednesday that its board of directors had appointed Jon Rubinstein as the company's Chairman and CEO. Rubinstein will succeed Ed Colligan at the helm of Palm.

According to the company, Rubinstein, who joined Palm as executive chairman in October 2007, will take over as CEO on June 12. As many of you might already know, Rubinstein is a former Apple executive, who stepped down from the company's iPod division back in 2005. Yesterday's announcement also explains why Rubinstein was the one to present the Pre at last month's D: All Things Digital event.

“I am very excited about taking on this expanded role at Palm,” Rubinstein said. “Ed and I have worked very hard together the past two years, and I'm grateful to him for everything he's done to help set the company up for success. With Palm webOS we have ten-plus years of innovation ahead of us, and the Palm Pre is already one of the year's hottest new products. Due in no small part to Ed's courageous leadership, we're in great shape to get Palm back to continuous growth, and we plan to keep the trajectory going upward.”

In addition to announcing that Rubinstein would become the company's CEO, Palm also announced that Ed Colligan, who has led the smartphone maker for the past 16 years, intended to take some time off, after which he would join Elevation Partners. Colligan became CEO back in 2005, after Todd Bradley resigned.

“I'm very proud of what Palm has accomplished so far,” Colligan said. “We pioneered two major product categories and I believe we are on our way to defining the standard for the mobile web. I'm extremely proud of our team, and grateful to have played a role in turning Palm around. I know that Jon, the Board and the Palm executive team will do an incredible job driving Palm to new heights.”