SiliconBeat

Juniper Networks is losing another operations executive. Edward Minshull, its executive vice president for worldwide field operations “informed” Juniper’s management Tuesday that he plans to leave the company and terminate his “full-time” employment as of Sept. 30, according to an SEC filing.

His decision to leave, we are assured by the company, was not due to disagreements on any matters related to the company’s “operations, policies or practices.” Such a specific list like that usually prompts us to wonder, are there other possible areas of disagreement intentionally left off of it, like the company’s prospects?

(We wrote earlier this year about Stephen Elop, Juniper’s former chief operating officer who gave his notice to quit the company a year to the day from when he started, when, not coincidentally we guessed, the first installment of a 700,000 restricted stock grant vested. But we digress.)

Faced with a lame duck chief of field operations between now and September, Juniper did the only thing it seems company’s feel they can do to motivate executives to do their jobs, especially ones who have told you they’re gonna quit: promise them more stuff.

Minshull, who was given a “retention equity award” just 16 months ago, was told that he
could keep that portion of the restricted stock award that would not have vested before
January 2009 if he “achieves certain targets related to the Company’s operating metrics,” by the time he leaves, targets which of course are not spelled out in the filing.

He would also be allowed to keep that part of his regular “incentive” restricted stock
awards that wouldn’t vest before Feb. 2009, as well as four more months worth of vesting of his option awards.

No mention was made of when Minshull would have to exercise his options, but note that future “part-time” employment, which would extend that time, was not ruled out in the filing Wednesday.

Minshull, along with four other Juniper insiders, doesn’t currently own any shares of the
company, according to its most recent proxy statement, but that’s OK at Juniper which doesn’t require any of its executives to actually own and hold shares of its stock.

Now, it should be mentioned that Minshull was not given a raise for 2008 “because his salary was above the median percentile of the competitive market data,” according to the compensation committee’s report, which “noted that this was primarily due to the fact that Mr. Minshull is paid in British Pounds and exchange rates have impacted his compensation relative to the other named executive officers” (who had the misfortune of being paid in U.S. dollars.)