30 Notable IT Executive Moves: February 2014

Start It Off

February may be a short month, but it was packed with high-profile executive moves as Microsoft named a new CEO and chairman, among other changes, and Tech Data rolled out a number of new executive appointments. Let's take a look.

Satya Nadella

Microsoft has a new CEO. After several months of searching for Steve Ballmer's replacement, the software giant settled on Satya Nadella, a 22-year Microsoft veteran. Nadella most recently served as executive vice president of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group. During his career, he was also president of Microsoft's Server and Tools division, where he was credited with bringing enterprise products to the cloud, as well as senior vice president of research and development for the company's Online Services division. Nadella was also named to Microsoft's board of directors.

Bill Gates

As part of Satya Nadella's appointment as Microsoft's CEO, Bill Gates stepped down as chairman of the company. Microsoft's iconic founder, who officially retired from his day-to-day duties at the company in 2008, will remain on the board of directors. Gates also took on a new role as Technology Advisor, in which he will devote more time to Microsoft and help Nadella mold the company's technology and product direction. Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 and served as CEO until 2000, turning over the position to Steve Ballmer. After that, he served as chief software architect for several years before retiring.

John Thompson

Replacing Bill Gates as Microsoft's chairman of the board of directors is John Thompson, who previously served as the lead independent director on the board. Thompson, who joined Microsoft's board in 2012, is best known as the former chairman and CEO of Symantec; he served as chief executive for 10 years and helped take Symantec from a niche antivirus company to full-fledged enterprise software player in security, data protection and storage before stepping down in 2009. Prior to Symantec, Thompson spent several years at IBM in a variety of sales, marketing and product development roles, including general manager of IBM Americas.

Scott Guthrie

Replacing Satya Nadella as head of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group is Scott Guthrie, who currently serves as corporate vice president of the Windows Azure Application Platform. Guthrie is taking Nadella's old position on an interim basis but is reportedly expected to be named permanent head of the Cloud and Enterprise group. In addition to heading Azure's Application Platform team, he served as corporate vice president of Microsoft's .Net platform and corporate vice president of the Server and Tools business, reporting to Nadella. He joined Microsoft in 1997.

Julie Larson-Green

Following Satya Nadella's appointment as CEO, Microsoft moved Julie Larson-Green to a new role as Chief Experience Officer just seven months after she was appointed as executive vice president of Microsoft's Devices and Studios business. Larson-Green, a 20-year Microsoft veteran, was promoted last summer as part of the software giant's massive corporate restructuring. She previously served as head of Windows hardware and software engineering, taking over for Steven Sinofsky who left Microsoft in the fall of 2013.

Simone Brunozzi

One of Amazon's top cloud executives has jumped ship to VMware. Simon Bruzzoni, formerly senior technology evangelist at Amazon Web Services, was named as vice president and chief technologist for hybrid cloud at VMware. Bruzzoni will help lead the charge for VMware's hybrid cloud play, an increasingly crucial business for the virtualization software maker. He joined Amazon as a technology evangelist for AWS in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2008. Before that, he was founder and project leader of UbuntuSemplice.

Jamie Lerner

Seagate named Cisco executive Jamie Lerner as president of cloud systems and solutions. Lerner previously spent five years at Cisco where he most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of the networking company's Cloud and Systems Management Technology Group. Prior to Cisco, Lerner was president and CEO of software maker Cittio for more than eight years and also served as chairman and CTO of Web hosting company Xuma.

Chris Riley

EMC added a familiar face to its executive team in Chris Riley, who departed Hewlett-Packard and rejoined EMC in a vice president role. Riley, who most recently served as vice president and general manager of HP Storage for the Americas, spent more than 10 years at EMC during the late 1980s and 1990s. He left his post as regional vice president at EMC in 1999 and went on to hold senior executive roles at Comdisco, McData and others before joining HP in 2008 as vice president of enterprise storage for the Americas.

Rod Millar

It was a busy month for IT distributor Tech Data, starting with a big move around its mobility business. The company named Rod Millar as senior vice president of Tech Data Mobile Solutions, a new business worldwide business dedicated to mobile devices, software and services. Millar most recently served as president of Tech Data Mobile in Europe, joining the distributor in 2007. Before that, he spent several years at the Caudwell Group, a U.K.-based telecommunications firm.

Brian Davis

Tech Data also made executive appointments for its core products and value-added solutions business. First, the company named Brian Davis as senior vice president of marketing, where he will lead the company's core product marketing efforts and TDAgency, the distributor's own marketing services arm for vendors and resellers. Davis most recently served as senior vice president of product marketing at Insight, where he spent three years. Before that he spent a decade at Tech Data in a variety of roles, including vice president of product marketing and vice president of sales for consumer technology and supply chain services.

Chuck Bartlett

Along with adding Brian Davis, Tech Data promoted Chuck Bartlett to senior vice president of the distributor's Advanced Infrastructure Solutions business, where he will lead the company's push in enterprise product categories such as servers, storage, networking and converged infrastructure. Bartlett joined Tech Data in 2006 as vice president of marketing for the company's networking division and most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of the Advanced Infrastructure Solutions business. Before that, he held vice president roles at Molex and Phillips Semiconductor.

Jean-Paul Durand

Tech Data also hired Jean-Paul Durand to fill a newly created role of vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer. Durand will oversee Tech Data's worldwide ethics and compliance program following the completion of the distributor's accounting fraud investigation. Durand, a 14-year veteran of Tech Data, will report to David Vetter, the senior vice president and general counsel. Prior to this role, Durand served as vice president and assistant general counsel since 2011.

Charles Dannewitz

Rounding out Tech Data's executive moves for the month are three appointments for the company's financial positions, starting with the promotion of Charles Dannewitz to the position of senior vice president and chief financial officer for the Americas. Dannewitz has spent nearly 20 years with Tech Data, joining in 1995 and serving as senior vice president and treasurer for the past 10 years. Before that he spent more than a decade at Pricewaterhouse. In his new role, Dannewitz is responsible for Tech Data's finance, accounting and credit departments in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.

Alain Amsellem

Tech Data also appointed Alain Amsellem to the role of senior vice president and CFO, Europe, where he will manage the distributor's finance, accounting and credit operations for the region. A 20-year Tech Data veteran, Amsellem first joined the company in 1994. Previously, he served as a finance director at Softmart International, which was acquired by Tech Data. He served in a number of finance roles at the distributor before being named as senior vice president of finance and operations for Tech Data Europe in 2005.

Scott Walker

Lastly, Tech Data named Scott Walker as its new vice president and treasurer, where he is responsible for the distributor's worldwide treasury operations and reports to Jeffery Howells, Tech Data's executive vice president and chief financial officer. Walker had previously served as vice president and assistant treasurer after joining Tech Data in 2010. Before that, he worked at Jabil Circuit for several years and most recently served as senior director of corporate finance and treasury for the company.

Kevin Murai

The Global Technology Distribution Council named Synnex President and CEO Kevin Murai as its new vice chairman, replacing former Westcon Group President and CEO Dean Douglas. Murai will help set the strategic direction for the GTDC, the world's largest industry consortium for IT distribution. Murai has served as Synnex's CEO since 2008. Before that he served as president and COO at Ingram Micro, where he spent nearly two decades.

Kevin DeNuccio

Violin Memory found a full-time chief executive. The company named Kevin DeNuccio as president and CEO, succeeding Howard Bain, chairman of Violin Memory, who had served as interim CEO. DeNuccio, a 25-year veteran of the IT industry, most recently served at Wild West Capital, an angel investing and technology consulting firm he founded in 2012. Before that he served as CEO of Metaswitch Networks for two years and also spent a number of years at Redback Networks, where he served as president and CEO. He also held executive positions at Bell Atlantic, Cisco and Unisys.

Robert Boles

Hosting provider Hostway named veteran IT executive Robert Boles as its new CEO, replacing John Martis. Boles comes to Hostway from Congizant Technology Solutions, where he spent seven years and most recently served as senior vice president of IT infrastructure services. Before that, he served as COO of Pegasus Solutions for several years and also served as president of AimNet Solutions.

John Martins

Hostway's former CEO John Martis was moved to the role of COO and will work with new chief executive Robert Boles to expand the hosting and cloud provider's business model. Martis first joined Hostway in 2006 and served as executive vice president of the company's North American operations before being named president and CEO. Before that, he served as COO of Web hosting company Aplus.net and also founded America Digital Network, an early Internet service provider where he also served as president.

Joe Palazola

Juniper Networks executive Joe Palazola has left the company to take a new position with Big Switch Networks as vice president of operations and customer support. Palazola most recently served as vice president of operations and customer escalations at Juniper, where he spent nearly five years. Before joining Juniper in 2009, he worked at Extreme Networks as director of business operations and also served as a business analyst at Sun Microsystems.

Prashant Ranade

Syntel President and CEO Prashant Ranade will step down next month and take over as the board of director's executive vice chairman. Replacing Ranade as president and CEO will be Nitin Rakesh, formerly president of Syntel's business development and near shoring center for the Americas. Ranade spent four years at the helm of Syntel and has served as director since 2007. Before that, he was a principal at Indus Ventures and also served as president and CEO of Demantic. Renade worked at Siemens for more than 20 years, most recently serving as president and CEO of Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems.

Paul Phillips

Network security vendor ForeScout Technologies named three new vice presidents last month, starting with Paul Phillips, who was appointed as senior vice president of corporate and business development. Phillips most recently served as managing director at Citigroup Global Markets, where he spent four years. Before that he was managing director of Banc of America Securities and a managing director at Goldman Sachs.

Lauren Owen

ForeScout Technologies also named Laura Owen as vice president of human resources, where she is responsible for all employee communications, recruiting and HR systems. Owen most recently served as vice president of Spirent Communications, where she spent five years. Before that, she served as vice president of human resources and acting general counsel at Credence and senior vice president of human resources at Macrovision Corporation.

Darren Milliken

Lastly, ForeScout Technologies named Darren Milliken as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate compliance officer. Before joining ForeScout, he spent a decade at Accuray, a medical device manufacturer, as senior vice president and general counsel. He also served as senior corporate and intellectual property counsel at Sanmina and general counsel at Voyan Technology.

Jeffrey Shanahan

Payment technology vendor CardConnect promoted company President Jeffrey Shanahan to CEO, replacing founder and former CEO Brian Shanahan, who was named non-executive chairman of the board of directors. Jeffrey Shanahan joined the company in 2006 and previously served as COO before being promoted to president. Before CardConnect, he served as an associate consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and Capgemini.

Mike Staiger

Big data analytics vendor Guavus has tapped veteran technology executive Mike Staiger as its new chief financial officer. Staiger will manage the company's financial operations and report to Guavus CEO Manish Goel. Staiger most recently served as CFO of Tabula, a programmable logic solutions provider. He also served as executive vice president and CFO at Copper Mountain Networks.

Paul Turner

Cloud storage vendor Cloudian tapped storage industry veteran Paul Turner as chief marketing officer, where he'll be responsible for leading the company's marketing efforts. Turner comes to Cloudian from NetApp, where he led the vendor's Product Strategy Office. He also served as NetApp's general manager of the OnCommand Insight Business. Before joining NetApp in 2004, he worked at Oracle for more than 10 years in a variety of senior and management roles.

John Carvalho

Device Cloud Networks added John Carvalho to its executive team as chief technology officer. Carvalho will lead the company's technical operations and machine-to-machine technology strategy. He most recently served as vice president of Wi-Fi architecture at Stoke and spent three years as vice president of wireless technology at Comcast. Before that, he served as executive director of core network strategic planning at Pacific Bell Wireless.

Nicholas Scallan

Pinnacle Technology Group named Nicholas Scallan as its newest CEO, replacing former chief executive Alan Bonner. Before joining Pinnacle, Scallan served as director of customer solutions at Virgin Media Business. Before joining Virgin Media in 2006, he served as head of NTL's business broadband services and spent several years at Energis in a variety of management roles for broadband product development and strategy.

Jeff Denworth

Cloud storage provider Ctera made two new executive hires, starting with tapping Jeff Denworth as senior vice president of marketing. Denworth will be responsible for Ctera's worldwide marketing strategy. He most recently served as vice president of marketing at DataDirect Networks. Before joining DataDirect in 2006, Denworth served as director of sales at Cluster File Systems and business development manager at Dataram.

Bob Doherty

Ctera also appointed Bob Doherty as vice president of North American sales, where he will lead the company's sales push for Ctera's Cloud Storage Services Platform in the region. An 20-year veteran of the technology industry, Doherty most recently held vice president roles at Interactions Corporation and Paradigm4. Before that, he spent several years as vice president of sales for Northeast U.S. and Canada at Compellent, which was acquired by Dell in 2011. He also served as director of global sales and channels at Virtual Iron Software.