Horizon Technology has announced its second management shake-up in 18 months with founder and former chief executive Mr Samir Naji returning to the post following the resignation of Mr Charles Garvey.

Mr Garvey will remain on the Horizon board as a non-executive director. He had decided to step down from the chief executive's position to pursue other interests, a group spokesman said. Mr Garvey had been chief executive since March 2001 and steps down from the position on September 30th.

He is understood to have signalled to the board some months ago his intention to step down. While Mr Naji assumes the chief executive's position, which he held from 1988 to 2001, his current term of office is intended as an interim measure.

The resignation of Mr Garvey comes just 18 months after former chairman Mr Kevin Melia stepped down. At that time, Mr Naji took over as company chairman.

The company also announced yesterday the appointment of Mr Gary Coburn to the board. He has been with Horizon for 10 years and was previously director of its infrastructure business and, more recently, chief operating officer. Before joining Horizon he spent nine years in senior positions with IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Mr Garvey's time at the helm coincided with difficult market conditions and a seriously depressed share price as the tech sector worldwide was dogged by difficult trading conditions.

In March of this year, Horizon announced operating losses of €21.53 million in the six months to December 31st, 2001, citing poor market conditions in the Republic and Britain. Two years earlier, interim profits almost trebled to €3.63 million.

When announcing the most recent interim loss, the group, which cut its staff from 720 to 390 in May 2001, warned that, while its underlying financial performance was satisfactory, market conditions remained difficult. Mr Naji said at that time that he was "cautiously optimistic that modest growth could be achieved this year".

Operating losses from continued operations in the six months to December 2001 were €11.35 million. The loss on discontinued operations was €2.8 million with an additional €7.6 million being spent on closing down certain divisions.

The company floated in 1999 at €1.64 per share. The shares traded as high as €14 in February 2000 but have languished below €0.50 of late.