Ron Vangell last week was appointed as the chief executive officer of Gauss Interprise, the German-American provider of enterprise content management software for OS/400 and other platforms. Vangell had been the CEO of Irvine, California, based Magellan Software before Gauss bought it in the spring of 2000, and he most recently had been the chief operating officer of Gauss' operations in North and South America, working out of its co-headquarters in Irvine; the other co-headquarters is in Hamburg, Germany. Vangell, like other CEOs at IT companies, faces challenges. Gauss reported that revenues in fiscal 2001 declined six percent, to 32.8 million Euros, in a worldwide economy that has been kind to few technology companies. As part of its break-even imitative that started last year, the company sold off its U.S. consulting subsidiary, closed operations in France, Spain, and Sweden, and laid off about 50 percent of its worldwide workforce, or 250 employees, to cut costs and make ends meet. Vangell takes over the CEO position from Heino Büchner, who resigned last year but remains on the advisory board for Gauss Interprise Group, a Gauss Interprise subsidiary, to help guide the company during its transition. In his capacity as CEO, Vangell will concentrate on worldwide marketing and sales, Gauss said. At the same time, the company announced that Olaf Siemens, formerly the chief operating officer for Gauss' operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, will go back to research and development as the chief technology officer.