30 Notable IT Executive Moves: November 2011

November Rain

The year has had its fair share of major IT executive departures, defections and shakeups, and November continued that trend, with big changes in the works for HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Polycom and a number of the channel's most visible vendors, as well as some of its best-known VARs and managed services providers. Here's a look at 30 of the most notable moves during or just before the month of November.

John Hinshaw / Craig Flower

With a new regime in place at Hewlett Packard, it's inevitable that several members of HP's executive suite would also change. The first major executive appointment of the Meg Whitman era at HP is John Hinshaw, the former senior vice president and CIO of Verizon Wireless, and now HP's executive vice president of Global Technology and Business Processes. It's a newly created position at HP, and Hinshaw reports directly to Whitman, having also joined the company's executive council in mid-November. Hinshaw was most recently vice president and general manager of Boeing Information Solutions.

Hinshaw also has a new lieutenant: Craig Flower, who became HP's senior vice president and CIO. Flower has been an HP employee since 1984.

Phil McKinney

Among newly announced executive departures from HP is Phil McKinney, chief technology officer for HP's embattled Personal Systems Group. HP at the end of October confirmed McKinney will retire at the end of the year, and will be replaced on an interim basis by Carlos Montalvo, vice president of HP's Innovation Program Office.

McKinney was at HP since 2003, and as PSG's CTO, he ran technical strategy and R&D for PSG as well as served as the general manager for PSG's gaming business unit.

Rebecca Jacoby

More big changes at Cisco, which has seen a year of major executive moves amid its ongoing corporate restructuring. New to Cisco as of November is its Cloud & Systems Management Technology Group (CSMTG), headed by Rebecca Jacoby, Cisco's CIO and now also a senior vice president. CSMTG consolidates several Cisco engineering and services organizations, including the the Network Management Technology Group, the Intelligent Automation Services Business Unit and the Service Delivery Platform business. Along with Jacoby's change in responsibility, the move coincides with new assignments for other Cisco executives such as Jamie Lerner, now vice president and general manager of the Network Management Technology Group, and Jesper Andersen, now senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Video Technology Group.

Manny Rivelo

F5 Networks reeled in a big one with Manny Rivelo, a 19-year Cisco veteran who was most recently Cisco's senior vice president, engineering operations and systems, but takes over as F5's senior vice president, security and strategic solutions. Rivelo's marquee hire is all part of an ongoing push into security by F5 Networks, which this year passed the $1 billion annual revenue mark as it continues to win mindshare from data center-focused solution providers.

Tudor Brown

An expected move, but a milestone all the same: Tudor Brown, president and co-founder of chipmaker ARM Holdings, will retire in May 2012. Brown, who'd served ARM for 21 years, won't seek re-election to ARM's board and will leave the U.K.-based company on May 3. Brown's tenure -- he became a board member in 2001 and president of ARM in 2008 -- coincided with an expanding profile for the chipmaker, whose products appear in a range of mobile devices, including Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Tom Gillis

Big ol' shakeup in Cisco's security business: Tom Gillis, vice president of Cisco's security technologies business unit, confirmed at the beginning of November that he would leave the company for an as-yet-unconfirmed startup…

Chris Young

…while Chris Young, a veteran RSA and VMware security executive, was appointed senior vice president, security technologies business unit. Young's appointment marks the first time that Cisco has had an SVP-level chief for its security business, and Young reports directly to Padmasree Warrior, senior vice president and chief technology officer.

Paul Perez

Paul Perez, a 26-year HP employee whose last role at the company was chief technologist of HP StorageWorks, has had a bumpy ride leaving HP for Cisco, where he is said to have accepted a job as as CTO of Cisco's Server Access Virtualization Technology Group. HP sued Perez, claiming violation of non-compete agreements Perez is said to have signed, and Cisco in turn created headlines by publicly lambasting HP for attempting to block Perez's move -- and those of two other former HP-ers to Cisco -- as part of what Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler described as HP's "desperate moves to lock up human capital."

Mike Fouts

Citrix's new Americas channel chief is Mike Fouts, who at the end of November became senior director of Americas channels and field operations. Fouts, a 10-year Citrix veteran, was most recently director of sales and services for the Southeastern U.S. region, and in his new role succeeds Craig Stillwell, who becomes vice president of sales for that same region.

Patrick Moorhead

As a longtime executive at Advanced Micro Devices, Patrick Moorhead saw the company through good times and bad. But AMD's most recent bout of executive upheaval means Moorhead is headed for the exits -- his departure as corporate vice president of strategy was confirmed early in November. Moorhead, who was also an AMD Corporate Fellow, will be launching what was described to All ThingsD as a "consumer-focused technology analyst and consulting firm." Of note: Moorhead was the last remaining VP at AMD who'd been an original hire of Jerry Sanders, AMD's founder and former CEO.

George Hu

In early November came a big promotion at Salesforce.com, where George Hu is now chief operating officer. Hu, who continues to report to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, was most recently executive vice president of platform, marketing and operations, and in his new role, he'll have greater oversight of Salesforce's day-to-day operations.

Eugene Buyakin/Roger Wilson

Some big changes afoot at Kaspersky Lab, whose Chief Operating Officer, Eugene Buyakin (left), and Chief Marketing Officer, Roger Wilson, are both planning to leave the company by the end of the year. According to Kaspersky Lab, Buyakin's job will go to two people, with Andrey Tikhonov, Kaspersky CIO, becoming COO, and Garry Kondakov, managing director of emerging markets, becoming CSMO. The moves are expected to change the reporting structure for many of Kaspersky's best-known executives, including Stephen Orenberg, Kaspersky's channel chief, who will now report to Kondakov.

Gavin Kim

Recent executive move roundups have focused on major executives departing from Microsoft's Windows Phone unit, but in November, Microsoft made a big hire: Gavin Kim, who now leads Microsoft's Windows Phone product team. Kim comes to Microsoft from Samsung, where he was vice president of consumer and enterprise services, and worked closely on Samsung's Galaxy-branded mobile devices.

Joe Langner

The ongoing reorganization of Sage North America's CRM applications sales management team included the early November appointment of Joe Langner as executive vice president of midmarket and CRM solutions. Langner, who reports to Sage North America President and CEO Pascal Houillon, now runs Sage's midmarket business strategy around ERP and CRM applications. He came to Sage from Ellie Mae, a software developer focused on mortgage lenders and brokers, where he was COO and chief sales officer.

Dan Sibille

A ship-jump in the videoconferencing channel: Dan Sibille, most recently director of Americas channels for LifeSize Communications, moved on to Polycom, becoming vice president of North America channels. Sibille's move is the latest in a series of major executive changes at Polycom. He reports to David Ruggiero, Polycom theater president of North America, and himself a recent Polycom hire.

Sandra Hill

With Dan Sibille exiting LifeSize, the scrappy videoconferencing and infrastructure provider had an opening for a channel chief, and the job went to Sandra Hill, now LifeSize's director of channel programs for the Americas. Hill was most recently LifeSize's director of channel development.

Patrick Scannell

GlassHouse Technologies, the longtime data center solution provider, has a new CEO: Patrick Scannell. Scannell replaces Mark Shirman, who was asked by the GlassHouse board to step down after more than 10 years at its helm. Scannell was most recently senior vice president and CFO of Netezza, and is also a board member of Kiva Systems and of Xtalic Corp.

Ralph Whitworth

HP's board of directors is one of the most closely watched in the industry, in part for its influence over the world's largest technology company, and more recently for its role in the drama surrounding ousted CEOs Mark Hurd and Leo Apotheker. HP in mid-November confirmed it had added Ralph Whitworth, often described as an activist shareholder, to its board. Whitworth's Relational Investors LLC held about 17.5 million shares of HP stock as of the beginning of October, and he'll sit on the HP board's compensation committee and its finance and investment committee.

John Theriault

Was the departure of John Theriault, Apple's vice president of global security, directly related to the lost iPhone 4S that caused Apple a mighty public relations headache earlier this year? Apple, as is typical, isn't saying. Either way, Theriault is out, according to a story first reported by 9to5Mac in early November. Before Apple, Theriault worked at Pfizer for 10 years, including as chief security officer and a vice president. He joined Apple in 2007.

Cody Jenkins

Cody Jenkins took over in mid-November as the new director of agent sales at GLOBALINX, replacing outgoing channel chief Ron Ireland. Jenkins' more than 14 years' experience in telecom includes executive stints at Frontier Communications and a number of channel-facing positions at Global Crossing, including as vice president of small business channel management.

Mike Shove

Integrator giant CSC named Mike Shove the chief operating officer of its Managed Services Sector (MSS), a role in which Shove will be in charge of CSC's global MSS leadership and profitability. Shove reports to Peter Allen, who became acting president of the troubled CSC unit following the ouster of Russ Owen, now president, strategic account development at CSC.

Rosemary Ranker

New moves aplenty at McAfee, including Rosemary Ranker, who was named McAfee's new vice president of mobile operations several weeks ago. Her move there follows a stint as director and general manager of software product development at Dell.

Mark Crall/Steve Luby

Two Autotask veterans, Mark Crall and Steve Luby, were named to channel-facing rolls at healthcare-focused software specialist gloStream. Both Crall and Luby, who will be co-directors of gloStream's partner program, report to Brenda Hodge, gloStream's executive vice president of partners and practices.

Michael Swade/Deb Alexander

Leading video and managed services solution provider York Telecom recently rebranded itself as Yorktel, and is continuing to make additions to its executive team. In early November, Yorktel confirmed Michael Swade as its new executive vice president of sales, reporting to President and COO David Phillips. Swade's resume includes stints at Lucent Technologies, Avaya and Polycom. Around the same time, Yorktel confirmed Deb Alexander's promotion to the role of vice president of customer experience, a newly created position focused on customer satisfaction. Alexander has been at Yorktel six years, following her move from Briston-Myers Squibb in 2005.

Paul Cantwell

Every year, at least a few well-known vendor channel executives make the leap over the fence and go work for VARs. That's the path followed by Paul Cantwell, who exited his position as LifeSize Communications' vice president, federal government business, to become senior vice president of worldwide sales at Optivor Technologies, an Avaya Platinum partner and one of the country's top Avaya data networking resellers. Before LifeSize, Cantwell was a channel chief at Tandberg, a vice president at Northrop Grumman, the small business sales chief at Avaya, and a service provider channels director at Cisco, among other appointments.

James Parker/Daniel Patton

Savvis in mid-November adding to the ranks of its cloud computing executives with new hires from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. First was James Parker, Savvis' new senior vice president of Americas sales, who was previously a senior sales manager at Microsoft, but at Savvis, will run Americas sales channels. Second was Daniel Patton, Savvis' new vice president and general manager of cloud services, following a successful stint by Patton running Americas sales for Amazon Web Services.

Dee Zepf

Zenith RMM, the remote monitoring and management solutions business of the Zenith companies, appointed Dee Zepf its new vice president of product management and technical services. It's a newly created position that will find Zepf running all aspects of Zenith RMM's managed services platform, from product roadmap to services attach. Zepf was most recently senior director of product at Care.com and her resume includes stints at IBM, Bowstreet, Idealab and Lotus.

XIO Shakeup

Storage vendor XIO, which until this year was known as Xiotech, shook up its executive ranks in mid-November. John Beletic is now president and CEO of XIO following 10 years with investment company Oak Investment Partners. He replaces Alan Atkinson, who was appointed chairman of XIO's board. XIO also has two new senior vice presidents: Shawn Kinnear, now vice president of sales for the Western U.S., and Dave Ornstein, now vice president of sales for the Eastern U.S.

Deb Forney

Value-added distributor Jenne has been adding plenty of resources behind its thriving Avaya practice, and in November, named an executive to specifically oversee recruitment of SMB-focused Avaya VARs. That's Deb Forney, Jenne's Avaya Onboarding Specialist, who will be tasked with cultivating Jenne's SMB reseller base and guiding Jenne's broader Avaya community. Not surprisingly, Forney is herself an Avaya veteran, having most recently been a demo specialist there. Previously, she worked for both Tandberg and for an Avaya VAR, Altura Communication Solutions.

Tom Gibson

Tom Gibson is now managing director, cloud practice at ACS, a Xerox Company. Part of a series of moves being made throughout ACS and the broader Xerox organization, Gibson came over from ACS' Infrastructure Outsourcing Practice, and has been at ACS for six years.