Broadcom COO fired over questions about academic degrees
Posted by Jack Davis on December 3rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm | Categorized as Departures, Semiconductor industry, Stock sales | Tagged as Broadcom, Departures, Semiconductor industry
Vahid Manian, a senior vice president of Broadcom and the head of its manufacturing operations, had his employment with the company “terminated” today, according to a terse regulatory filing. The company said it has begun a search to find his successor. The termination came after “questions surfaced about the validity of academic degrees listed in his company biography,” according to a Bloomberg News report.
Bloomberg reported that Manian didn’t earn degrees from the University of California at Irvine that are cited on the company’s Web site, according to the schools registrar. Broadcom’s Web site said Manian had bachelors and masters of business administration degrees from the University of California at Irvine, according to the Bloomberg report. The executive attended the school between September 1979 and August 1983 but wasn’t awarded any degrees, according to the report citing Mark Fonseca, who is responsible for privacy issues in the school’s registrar’s office.
Manian joined Broadcom in 1996 as director of operations and became vice president of operations the following year. He was elevated to his most recent position in 2005.
Manian was also recently elected vice chairman of the board of the Global Semiconductor Alliance in order to fill the seat vacated by former Qualcomm executive Sanjay Jha, who stepped down after being named co-chief executive at Motorola overseeing its mobile devices division.
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I guess it is true as the saying goes: “what goes around, comes around”. when you steal from people, it’ll come back to bite you in the @33! be it right then, or 20 years later! Vahid, you know what I mean. Don’t you?????
Don’t know who Ann is, but I agree 100%. Vahid was, bar none, the worst boss I ever had. A real pointy-haired character who once banned the posting of Dilbert cartoons. (Too close to home, I suppose.)
Wow, Ann. I don’t know what you mean - but I want to know more! Sounds like you must have known Mr. Manian? Do tell.
The saying might be true for some people Ann, but in Vahid’s defense, he never “stole” If you read the article his records showed that he got certain degrees which turned out to be not true. He still was with the company 20 + years and apparently knew his job. Even though it is wrong, in Mr. Manian’s, the only reason why this happened is because some random crook who was in jail for scamming business came out and decided to look up other company CEO’s and try dig up bad information. In my opinion Wilkov (correct me if I’m wrong I think that is his name) is scum and tries to short sale companies before he tries to get the CEO’s fired. It is sort of sad to see a man’s long career to go out of the window just so it benefits some convict.
Yes, I knew Vahid for 4 years and thought of him as an older brother. I was only 18 years old at the time and very naive. I was having difficulty paying my college tuition, and knowing this, he tricked me into giving him all my savings to invest in Cisco stocks promising me big returns withing 2-4 weeks. 3 months later when I asked for my money back, he wouldn’t even return my calls.
That sounds like a lie to me. And if for some crazy reason that was true, why would you give him all your money to invest in cisco. you do know you can buy shares yourself?
“what goes around, comes around”
He lied once and got a good job and money for a couple of years. Net he only gained. Subsequently “what goes around, comes around” does not apply here. Does it?
As I said I was only 18 year old and didn’t have a clue about the stock market, let alone buying stocks. I have no reason to lie. I don’t gain anything from lying about this. My original comment was just for Vahid, and no one else and he knows what happened. That was a long time ago and I lost a lot of money due to my trust in him. I am a lot wiser for it now. Vahid was a very close friend at the time and I trusted him wholeheartedly, and that’s how I felt safe giving him all my money. Especially when he reassured me that he had inside information that the Cisco stocks would be shooting up soon and I would double my money in no time. I guess I should have known something was up, when he asked me to write the check to cash instead of to his name. Live and learn. My point is, he knew exactly what he was doing and he took advantage of my innocence, my trust in him, and the hard times my sister and I were going through and that’s that. So, you are free to believe it or not!
Ann, I knew Vahid for over 10 years, and had the misfortune of working for him for the last five of those years (not by choice - a reorganization stuck me in that position). I’m not at all surprised by your story. Concerning the ex-con who exposed him: nice job. Maybe he too is a sleazebag, but from my experience with Vahid, this was overdue. But Vahid will probably find a way to land on his feet. He is a slick operator.
I too had the unfortunate task to work with Vahid. He is the biggest jerk I know. I am still laughing out loud that he was fired. Broadcom didn’t even go to bat for him. That speaks volumes. He is an arrogant pig who got what was coming to him. HA HA VAHID!
He already joined a startup, symwave.
Moral of the story : If you want to be successful, fake your degree!!!