Hey Thompson, I Hear Obama Is Hiring

Let's face it. At 59 and earning $122 million over the last five years, according to Forbes, Thompson is still in the prime of his life. So, what now?

The San Jose Mercury News speculated that he is a prime candidate for President-elect Barack Obama's newly created CTO position, which the President-elect is aiming to fill soon. And it wouldn't be that far of a stretch. Thompson was an ardent Obama supporter, and a significant executive donor, donating at least a reported $7,400 to Obama's campaign, according to Forbes.

Yes, Thompson has in so many words stated that his post-retirement plans don't include a government post. Thompson told the San Jose Mercury News Monday that, "The only thing I have in mind is a chaise lounge on the beach, and a Mai Tai. My personal aspirations are just to relax and spend more time with my family."

And never mind that previous to his announced retirement, Thompson told Byte and Switch that his fervent support of Obama had "no strings attached."

"I have no interest in a Cabinet post; I have no interest in a political appointment. I just want to see change in the White House," he said.

But his experience as both an IT executive and technology adviser makes him a good, if not a likely, contender for the job. Despite his vehement denial, a spot on Obama's cabinet is also something Thompson has indicated he has at least considered during an interview with Webwereld.com. "Clearly, if I were to get a call from the President-elect, it would be not only stupid, but unpatriotic to not take the call and consider anything that he might want to chat with me about," Thompson said.

Needless to say, the timing of Thompson's retirement certainly hasn't gone unnoticed by the blogosphere. Thompson's impending departure from Symantec follows shortly after the company's Q2 earnings, which, like many other industries, projected slowed growth and reduced spending. Thompson's conservative forecast drove Symantec shares further downward, while the company anticipates rounds of layoffs in 2009.

No doubt, Thompson was integral in building Symantec up from a small desktop antivirus company to a global enterprise security and storage leader, and arguably one of the most influential security companies in the world. But while Symantec seems to have finally got back on its feet after it completed the $13.5 billion acquisition of storage giant Veritas in 2005, its stocks never quite achieved pre-acquisition levels.

The security giant further shook up the channel in July after an analyst transcript became public in which COO Enrique Salem, who is slated to fill Thompson's role of CEO, announced to Wall Street investors that the company planned to make changes to its business model. Among the changes, the company maintained that it officially planned to give its top 900 customers the option of purchasing product directly, as well as automating software subscription renewals in the SMB space.

Plus, Thompson isn't the only executive to part ways with the security giant in recent weeks -- former Symantec VP of Global Channels Julie Parrish left the company last month to take a channel position for storage vendor NetApp.

Coincidence aside, Thompson's tenure with Symantec comes to an end in April, while Obama hopes to fill the CTO position in January. And Thompson, if he were to be in the running, would face some pretty stiff competition, namely from possible contenders such as Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has made no pretenses of his support for the President-elect.

Even still, the possibility of Thompson stepping into the public sector should not entirely be ruled out.