NetApp Grabs Commvault CRO As New Top Sales Exec

Riccardo Di Blasio brings a long history of executive roles at other storage vendors including EMC, Cohesity and Commvault to his new role at NetApp, which is building a data storage and cloud-focused powerhouse.

Storage and cloud technology developer NetApp Thursday said it has hired Riccardo Di Blasio, who for the last nearly five years has served as CRO at Commvault, as the company’s new senior vice president of North America sales.

NetApp as of press time did not respond to a request for more information on Di Blasio’s appointment other than what was included in a press release dated Thursday and to say that he will officially start his new role on Jan. 26.

The release did not say who Di Blasio is replacing at NetApp.

A NetApp spokesperson confirmed with CRN that Di Blasio is taking over the role previously held by Maxwell Long, who last July was promoted to chief commercial officer at San Jose, Calif.-based NetApp. Prior to that promotion, Long served as NetApp’s senior vice president, North America.

Di Blasio will report to NetApp President Cesar Cernuda and will be responsible for leading direct and indirect sales and demand generation for North America.

Cernuda, in a prepared statement, said Di Blasio is joining NetApp at a time when business transformation is accelerating at a rapid pace.

“Riccardo’s deep expertise in AI and ML, his background in the storage market and his proven track record in driving sales make him the ideal leader to empower our customers, no matter where they are in their cloud journey,” Cernuda said.

A spokesperson for Tinton Falls, N.J.-based data protection technology developer Commvault responded to a CRN request via an emailed statement that the company is currently looking for someone to take over for Di Blasio.

“After nearly five years leading our go-to-market teams, Riccardo Di Blasio has decided to leave Commvault to pursue his next opportunity. We would like to thank Riccardo for his leadership and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors. Commvault has already started an executive search for a new leader. We look forward to bringing on an executive that will continue to accelerate our growth as Commvault changes the game in how IT and security teams can radically improve cyber resilience in an era of nonstop ransomware and malicious cyberattacks,” the statement read.

Long History In Storage

Di Blasio has a long history in the storage industry. He started his career in early 2001 as an account manager at EMC in the Rome, Italy, region, and worked his way up to senior vice president of sales and alliances for cloud service providers by late 2012, after which he spent three years as senior vice president of sales and marketing for VMware’s vCloud business.

Di Blasio then moved to Cohesity where he spent a year between 2015 and 2016 as the chief operating officer at the data protection technology developer. He followed that with a year as CEO of Globetouch before joining Commvault as chief revenue officer in March 2019.

Di Blasio is an excellent choice to run NetApp’s sales organization, said John Woodall, vice president of solutions architecture West at General Datatech, a Dallas-based solution provider and longtime NetApp channel partner.

Di Blasio brings a wealth of experience and a large Rolodex of contacts in the storage industry to NetApp, Woodall told CRN.

“He has worked with NetApp competitors and partners and has had a focus on AI and data protection,” he said. “Those are two areas NetApp wants to capitalize on. The growth of cyber resiliency is a big trend, and AI is a big part of that. And Riccardo brings NetApp a good background in AI and machine learning.”

For a company like NetApp, which has a great read of the market, it is important to continually translate that read to its sales teams and to its use cases, Woodall said.

“And Riccardo’s background shows he is a good fit to do that, both from his experience and his connections,” he said. “Relationships are the first priority to make this work.”

Di Blasio’s relationships with NetApp will also serve him well as he steps into his new role, Woodall said.

“Riccardo has been an executive leader in a number of organizations,” he said. “I would expect him to come into NetApp and be constructively disruptive. He will have a great team there to work with. And with his previous experience at Cohesity and Commvault, he already knows many people at NetApp. Everything fits into an ecosystem. And being able to sell not just your solutions but your partners’ solutions is important.”