In Brief Once a Sun Microsystems CFO, always a Sun Microsystems CFO. Or so seems to be the case with Mike Lehman.

Lehman has emerged from retirement to take back the CFO post he held between 1998 and 2002. Lehman's return allows current CFO Steve McGowan to go through with his own retirement plans.

It's unclear why Lehman decided to accept the job now, since McGowan announced his own plans to depart last October. Sun has been searching for a new CFO for the last four months.

"The board did a very thorough internal and external search," a Sun spokeswoman told El Reg.

Lehman has been working as a consultant at Sun since his "retirement". McGowan will stay on at Sun as EVP of finance, helping with the transition.

"Having now tried retirement briefly, I find that I like being involved in leading change and driving the business more directly," Lehman said.

Both McGowan and Lehamn have solid reputations with Wall Street analysts - not that they're the most discerning bunch. Sun has long produced clear financial reports during both boom and bust times. ®

Related stories

• Sun trims loss despite weaker server sales (2 November 2005)
• Sun begins CFO hunt after surprise retirement (27 October 2005)