Here's another highly-speculative take on why Gary Daichendt may have abruptly quit as president and COO in June after being hired with so much acclaim three months earlier. From what I understand, the search for a new CEO can take as long as six months given travel schedules, work commitments, etc. Let's assume, Nortel began its search for a new CEO to replace Bill Owens in April - rather than the immediately after its AGM in late-June as chairman Harry Pearce said earlier this week when the company announced the hiring of Mike Zafirovski as president and CEO. Given this hiring scenario, maybe Daichendt found out there was a search going on for a CEO and was disappointed about not being considered for the job. After all, he didn't come out of retirement to be #2 again.
Of course, this is all pure speculation. Perhaps Daichendt was promised Nortel's CEO job at some point or maybe not. The bottom line is it seems strange that Owens suddenly decided to "retire" only four months after the well-respected Daichendt left due to differences in style. It's a shame Daichendt left and Nortel was forced to conduct another CEO search - one that has already become embarassing.