Extreme Networks have appointed Charles Berger as its new chief executive, becoming the company's fifth CEO in seven years.

Following the resignation of Oscar Rodriguez after three years in the job, the Ethernet switch company elected Berger as his replacement - effective immediately.

"We appreciate Oscar's contributions over his past three years of service to Extreme Networks and in particular his technical and sales efforts," says Ed Meyercord, chairman, Extreme Networks.

"Oscar helped build a talented team and a foundation for future growth.

"We thank him and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

"We are pleased to have Chuck [Berger] as our leader to drive the continued development and delivery of Extreme Networks market leading technology for our customers and to focus the team on growing shareholder value.

"Our Board of Directors unanimously agreed that Chuck's track record of execution and his extensive contacts in the technology industry make him the right leader for Extreme Networks with the enormous amount of change going on in data networking today."

Rodriguez leaves the company with a diminished market share in the industry, currently below 1.5%, while Berger joins following the successful sale of ParAccel, a privately held software analytics company to Actian.

An established chief executive officer and director with 30 years of experience in the technology sector, Berger has held top roles at DVDPlay, Nuance Communications, Vicinity Corporation, AdForce, and Radius.

He has also held executive positions in sales, marketing and finance at Apple and Sun Microsystems.

"I look forward to working with our dedicated employees to continue to introduce innovative products, change the dynamics of the switching market with our SDN capabilities and serve our customers globally," Berger says.

"There is a lot to do and I am excited to get started."