Ralph Yarro III

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Ralph Yarro III is currently chairman of the board and the largest stockholder in The SCO Group, Inc. Previously, he was CEO of The Canopy Group, Inc.

Yarro appears to be one of the driving forces behind the lawsuit that SCO brought against IBM (see additional reference). Yarro was at least partially responsible for hiring Darl McBride to run The SCO Group, Inc. His SCO bio lists as prior experience: employment by the Noorda Family Trust as a graphic artist.

Ralph Yarro III is currently keeping a low profile. His level of popularity in tech circles is nearly as low as that of Darl McBride.

[edit] Yarro Case

Recently, Yarro was involved in a lawsuit, known as the Yarro case. Yarro was fired for cause from his job as Director of the Canopy Group, along with two other Canopy executives, Darcy Mott (who had been the Chief Financial Officer) and Brent Christensen (who had been the Corporate Council), by the founders Raymond and Lewena Noorda. Yarro, Mott, and Christensen sued Canopy for $100,000,000.00 US, claiming they were "illegally ousted"[1] by a group led by Val Noorda Kreidel, Raymond Noorda's only daughter.

The Canopy Group (now run by William Mustard) countersued, claiming that Yarro had misappropriated $20,000,000.00 by "a series of self-dealing and wasteful transactions." On March 8, 2005, the day before initial hearings, the suit was abruptly settled[2]. It was disclosed that the negotiated settlement would result in Yarro gaining all of The Canopy Group's shares in The SCO Group, and that Yarro, Mott, and Christensen would be paid an undisclosed sum of money. The actual settlement is sealed, so that only the principals know the full details, though a joint statement was issued[3].

Shortly afterward, Val Noorda Kreidel committed suicide.[4][5]. She was the second person connected with the case to commit suicide; Rob Penrose, the Canopy IT Manager, had taken his life on Decemper 23, 2004[6].