Western Digital Names New CEO as Coyne Set to Retire

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) named Steve Milligan as its new chief executive on Monday, set to replace John Coyne, who is retiring in January.

Milligan, currently a president at Western Digital, will also be appointed to the company’s board of directors.

Coyne, 63, has served as CEO since January 2007. He joined the company in 1983 and has helped transform it into the world’s largest maker of hard drives. Since taking the helm about six years ago, Western Digital’s revenue has increased three fold.

Milligan, 49, rejoined the company earlier this year as a result of its $4.3 billion Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) acquisition. He had served as both HGST’s chief financial officer and later as its CEO.

Western Digital makes hard-disk drives. About 60% of its production is based in Thailand, however it has been trying to recover from severe flooding in the region last year and has since restarted some of its shuttered operations there.