Jon Rubinstein Appointed CEO of Palm

Cementing a management structure that many have assumed that has been in place informally for quite awhile, Jon Rubinstein has replaced Ed Colligan as CEO of Palm. 

From the Press Release:

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 10, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) today announced that its board of directors has appointed Jon Rubinstein to lead the company as Chairman and CEO upon the departure of Ed Colligan, who is stepping down after sixteen years of leadership at the company. Rubinstein, who joined Palm as Executive Chairman in October 2007 to help bring innovation back to the company, assumes his role as CEO on June 12. Colligan plans to take some time off, then join Elevation Partners.

"I am very excited about taking on this expanded role at Palm," said Rubinstein. "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."

"I'm very proud of what Palm has accomplished so far," said Colligan. "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."

As you can see above, it's unclear whether or not Colligan will continue on with Palm in a direct capacity on the Board of Directors or no, though he clearly will continue to have input in his new future role at Palm investor Elevation Partners.

We offer our sincere thanks to Colligan for steering Palm through its incredibly stormy (and deadly calm) waters these past few year.  We're also quite excited for the future with Rubinstein, the Pre-Father.