30 Internet Of Things Executives Whose Names You Should Know

The Top Execs In IoT

Both solution providers and vendors alike are looking to learn more about the revenue and sales opportunities behind the Internet of Things. As IoT continues to mature, more executives have come forward with their engineering and sales expertise to offer their insights on how to best monetize the market.

CRN has compiled a list of the top executives making a mark in IoT – whether they are top executives charged with leading vendors' overarching IoT strategies, solution provider executives at the front of the IoT sales charge, or thought leaders who are closely watching long-term trends in the IoT market.

Here are 30 IoT executives that you should know.

Alicia Asín

Company: Libelium

Title: CEO and Co-Founder

Alicia Asin is leading the charge behind IoT at Libelium, which provides the tools that solution providers need to connect sensors on industrial IoT-enabled devices to the cloud, for applications like factory automation and automotive use cases. Asin has helped Libelium build out its Meshlium product – which connects sensor networks to the cloud – and has worked to focus in on smart city solutions.

Bill Ruh

Company: GE Digital

Title: CEO

Bill Ruh has played an instrumental role in GE's digital business by creating a strategy around the industrial Internet of Things that includes a channel go-to market sales plan. Ruh has overseen the launch and subsequent upgrades of GE's IoT Predix platform. Under Ruh's guidance, GE Digital has also worked to build up its channel program over the past year with new partners and resources around IoT.

Brad Walters

Company: Monnit

Title: CEO

Brad Walters has led sensor manufacturer Monnit as it launched new enterprise-grade Alta wireless sensors for the Internet of Things over the past few years. The CEO this year has focused more closely on Monnit's channel efforts. In June, the company announced its premiere IoT partner program, IoTvantage, to help partners fast track connecting their customers to IoT solutions.

Ed Abrams

Company: Samsung Business

Title: Samsung Vice President of IoT Enterprise

Ed Abrams is charged with helping Samsung partners look beyond their traditional mobile solutions and instead find opportunities in the growing IoT space through leveraging Samsung's IoT Artik platform. The executive wants to help channel partners focus on the "business problem side" of IoT through doubling down on vertical market specialties – like retail, healthcare, and insurance – as opposed to getting caught up in the technology.

Eddie Habibi

Company: PAS

Title: CEO

Eddie Habibi has led startup PAS as the company develops security solutions for industrial control systems. Habibi told CRN in the coming year he hopes to increase research and development for its flagship software product, Cyber Integrity, which protects critical infrastructure from security risks associated with industrial IoT applications. The executive has also led PAS through a $40 million funding round as the company looks to expand its channel program for operational technology security.

Hans Thalbauer

Company: SAP

Title: Senior Vice President of IoT and Extended Supply Chain

Under Hans Thalbauer's leadership, SAP has funneled more investments into IoT – for example, in September 2016 the company promised to invest $2.2 billion in the next five years to accelerate development of its IoT solution portfolio, increase sales and marketing, and grow its ecosystem of partners and startups in the IoT market. More recently, Thalbauer has followed up on that pledge with the announcement of SAP Leonardo, a new product portfolio that combines adaptive applications, big data management and connectivity in packaged solutions for various lines of business.

Harriet Green

Company: IBM

Title: General Manager of IBM Watson Internet of Things, Commerce and Education

Harriet Green played a pivotal role in developing IBM's Watson Internet of Things platform since 2015 when she was appointed to lead the company's IoT business unit. The executive will spend the next year continuing to drive growth around IBM's IoT platform in vertical markets.

Jason Shepherd

Company: Dell

Title: Director of IoT Strategy and Partnerships

Jason Shepherd has set a lofty goal for Dell over the past year – to double the company's IoT channel partners from 50 to 100. Shepherd has also worked with partners to release new resources around IoT, including a matchmaking system that helps pair up customers with partners offering the right solution. Shepherd has also led Dell's efforts in releasing a new gateway this year and forming the EdgeX Foundry consortium.

Jim Heppelmanm

Company: PTC

Title: CEO

A large segment of Jim Heppelmann's five years as CEO of PTC has been invested in IoT – and how the company can go to market with partners for its IoT solutions. Under Heppelmann's leadership, PTC has built out its ThingWorx IoT platform for the industrial space, and pulled in new features – like augmented reality – to help partners build out their IoT solutions and offerings for end users.

Joseph Biron

Company: PTC

Title: CTO of IoT

Joseph Biron leads the charge as CTO of PTC's IoT business, but the executive has had an impressive history in IoT, previously serving as PTC's SVP of IoT technology and Schneider Electric's CTO of IoT. Biron leads a team guiding the technical architecture between the ThingWorx IoT platform and ThingWorx Ready partners. Biron has also led engineering teams focused on edge technology as well as cloud services, and has been deeply involved in the solution architecture for many ThingWorx customers.

Luis Alvarez

Company: Alvarez Technology Group

Title: CEO

Luis Alvarez, president and CEO of Alvarez Technology Group, a Salinas, Calif.-based solution provider, is a channel leader who is generating revenue from IoT. Alvarez is working with clients in the agriculture vertical to implement connected sensors, helping them monitor crops and water utilization. The executive also serves as a channel advocate, and IoT thought leader for other channel partners who want to get into IoT.

Luis Morinigo

Company: New Signature

Title: Practice Lead and Business Development Director for the Internet of Things and Advanced Analytics Group

Luis Morinigo has helped spearhead New Signature's IoT business through leveraging Microsoft's Azure IoT platform and has led solutions for major corporations in vertical markets. Morinigo told CRN he has worked to build up a team that could pinpoint business issues, as opposed to merely having technical skills.

Marc Harrison

Company: Silicon East

Title: CEO

Marc Harrison, CEO of Silicon East, is an advocate of how the channel can help secure IoT devices. Silicon East provides external support for different components of building automation devices. But Harrison also looks to educate other channel players about IoT security issues and opportunities – and the critical role solution providers play in this space.

Marco Argenti

Company: AWS

Title: Vice President, IoT, Mobile and Serverless Compute

Marco Argenti joined AWS after jumping ship from Nokia in 2013 – and the executive now plays a big part in worldwide sales of IoT solutions and services. Argenti has overseen the launch of AWS' IoT platform in 2015 and the subsequent build up of the services surrounding AWS IoT, including Lambda and, more recently, Greengrass.

Murthy Renduchintala

Company: Intel

Title: President of the Client and Internet of Things Businesses and Systems Architecture

Former Qualcomm executive Murthy Renduchintala is leading Intel's IoT business and responsible for speeding strategy execution across its core areas of growth. Renduchintala has spearheaded Intel's shift in strategy from a PC-focused company to a connected device, cloud and data center company with a tighter emphasis on the Internet of Things.

Paul Glynn

Company: Davra Networks

Title: CEO

Paul Glynn leads Dublin, Ireland-based Davra Networks, which touts an IoT platform built with the networking channel in mind. Glynn has been instrumental in building out the company's cloud-based platform, RuBAN, which manages data from various internet-connected devices. Glynn hopes that solution providers can utilize RuBAN to help customers understand and seamlessly visualize the data being generated from their IoT devices.

Peter Martin

Company: Schneider Electric

Title: Vice President of Business Innovation and Marketing at Schneider Electric

Peter Martin, who has spent years at Schneider Electric focused on automation and control, has helped spearhead the company's IoT strategy in the industrial market. Martin has worked with partners to build out a "profit engine" for partners – called Smart Control – to help customers optimize every asset of a plant – enabling partners to make a strong case for how IoT will not just help industrial efficiency and safety, but also profitability.

Riccardo di Blasio

Company: Globetouch

Title: CEO

Since joining Globetouch in April, Riccardo di Blasio has pushed key partnerships to help bring the company's cloud connected edge computing devices and applications to market. In July for example, Globetouch announced it would collaborate with General Motors to improve the connectivity and network solutions around GM's OnStar service. In the coming year, the executive told CRN he would focus on scaling Globetouch's business out and reaching new key customers in the Internet of Things market.

Richard Newberry

Company: KMC Controls

Title: CEO

Richard Newberry has worked to build up KMC Controls' channel strategy around the company's Commander IoT platform, which helps bridge the gap between traditional building automation and the world of IoT. In the coming months, Newberry hopes to continue to bridge the gap between KMC Controls' existing OT partners and new IT channel relationships.

Ron Victor

Company: IoTium

Title: CEO

Ron Victor leads Industrial Internet of Things startup IoTium, which secures network infrastructure for manufacturing floors. The CEO has helped IoTium secure $8.4 million in Series A financing in the past year and develop its network-as-a-service, which secures the connection of legacy on-site systems to cloud-based applications. In the coming year, Victor told CRN he hopes to use the capital to expand the company's channel footprint in an array of vertical markets, including smart buildings, the oil and gas markets, transportation and smart cities.

Rowan Trollope

Company: Cisco

Title: Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's IoT and Applications businesses

Trollope has worked over the past year to help Cisco polish its IoT offerings in an array of vertical markets – including the manufacturing, transportation and energy sectors. One of Trollope's bigger goals this year has been to find new partners with operational technology expertise – in addition to Cisco's classic IT partners – to help the company double down in the industrial IoT market.

Ryan Brichant

Company: Forescout

Title: Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Global Critical Infrastructure

Ryan Brichant recently joined Forescout to develop its industrial control system (ICS) and operational technology security business. Brichant, formerly vice president and chief technology officer of IoT and critical infrastructure protection at FireEye, will help build up a strategic partnership ecosystem around its industrial control system (ICS) business. Brichant, who has also worked as chief cybersecurity officer at Siemens, will also drive market education around the company's ICS capabilities, said ForeScout.

Saar Yoskovitz

Company: Augury

Title: CEO

Saar Yoskovitz has led the helm for IoT startup Augury, which offers predictive maintenance technology for industrial companies. Under Yoskovitz's direction, the company closed $17 million in a Series B funding round this past year. In the coming months, the CEO hopes to develop strategic partnerships and strengthen its existing OEM relationships.

Sanjit Biswas

Company: Samsara

Title: CEO

Sanjit Biswas, who also founded Cisco's Meraki business along with Samsara CTO John Bicket, has led IoT startup Samsara to secure $40 million in Series C funding in 2017. Samsara in 2015 released its Internet-connected sensor solution, which includes wireless gateways that transmit data to software in the cloud for industrial customers. Moving forward, Biswas hopes to double down on its channel strategy, as well as accelerate growth and research and development investments.

Stephen Lurie

Company: Zones

Title: Vice President of IoT Solutions

Stephen Lurie has played a pivotal part in building up Zones' IoT service portfolio and business around smart connected buildings and smart grid solutions. Lurie has also built up Zones' IoT strategy in hiring a team with a deep understanding of connected manufacturing and critical infrastructure.

Steven Walchek

Company: AWS

Title: Global IoT Strategy Lead at AWS

Steven Walchek works with AWS customers and partners to develop the company's IoT services and define AWS' long-term go to market strategy. As part of his efforts around IoT, Walchek has created "Project Flywheel," which is an engagement model for the channel to accelerate the IoT adoption cycle through deploying vertical-specific architectures with industry leaders.

Tom Bradicich

Company: HPE

Title: VP and General Manager Servers, Converged Edge and IoT

Tom Bradicich has led the IoT conversation at HPE around its Edgeline Services Platform, which helps manufacturers manage and control industrial connected systems and networks at the edge. Bradicich has helped HPE "pioneer the convergence of OT and IT" as the company seeks to deploy its EdgeLine systems into the industrial vertical and focus more heavily on the connectivity, control and compute opportunities behind the Internet of Things.

Tom Lantzsch

Company: Intel

Title: Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's IoT Group

In 2016, Intel hired Tom Lantzsch, the former executive vice president of strategy at rival chip company ARM. He is leading the strategy behind Intel architecture computing solutions across the IoT market segments, including manufacturing, industrial, retail, transportation, smart buildings and homes. Under Lantzsch's leadership, Intel has chopped its IoT development boards – including Galileo, Edison and Joule- and instead focused its efforts around niche IoT opportunities like surveillance cameras and retail solutions.

Tony Shakib

Company: Microsoft

Title: General Manager of IoT

Once the VP in charge of Cisco's IoT business, Tony Shakib in January jumped ship to become general manager for Microsoft's IoT efforts. Shakib has taken charge in overseeing Microsoft's IoT go to market strategy with global and regional system integrators, as well as defining IoT use cases in prioritized vertical markets, and how they can fit in with Microsoft's Cortana, cognitive learning and machine learning technologies.

Zach Supalla

Company: Particle

Title: CEO

Zach Supalla has led IoT startup Particle to help developers rapidly build secure IoT software and manage devices. Under the CEO's tenure, Particle has secured $10.4 million in funding and build out its main product – Particle Cloud, an enterprise platform that helps companies build and ship IoT products in as little as six months. Supalla said in the next 18 months he hopes to invest deeper in the company's channel program, which is currently made up of system integrator partners.