Benson will report to president and chief executive Richard Reidy who was appointed in March. Prior to his new role Benson was CIO of media and entertainment company News Corp. Before that he was at GE.

Reidy said: "We anticipate that his depth of experience as a senior level IT executive for a number of leading organizations will lend itself well to the direction that Progress Software is headed. David will be responsible for all IT decisions and will ensure we have the critical IT functionality to support our initiatives."

In March the company reported a 71.6% decline in net income to $3.65m for the first quarter 2009 on revenue down marginally at $120.8m.

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