30 Notable IT Executive Moves: August 2013

Start It Off

CRN's monthly roundup of notable IT executive moves continues with a torrid August that saw big news and executive departures at Microsoft, from Steve Ballmer's retirement announcement to a new channel chief.

Steve Ballmer

It's the end of an era for Microsoft. The software giant recently announced that CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within the next 12 months, depending on when Microsoft finds his replacement. Ballmer, a Microsoft lifer, joined the company in 1980 and was named as its second CEO in 2000, succeeding Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles International, which helped bring Lou Gerstner to IBM in 1993, is considering both external and internal candidates for the job.

Jon Roskill

Steve Ballmer's retirement wasn't the only big news for Microsoft. Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group, stepped down from his post. Before succeeding former Microsoft channel chief Allison Watson in 2010, he served as corporate vice president of Microsoft's Business and Marketing organization as well as general manager of Microsoft's Server and Developer Tools division. Roskill's new role at Microsoft has not been announced.

Phil Sorgen

Replacing Roskill as Microsoft's new worldwide channel chief is 17-year Microsoft veteran Phil Sorgen. Previously, Sorgen was corporate vice president of Microsoft's U.S. Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners Group. Before that he spent more than three years as president of Microsoft Canada and served as general manager of national sales for Microsoft's Enterprise Partner Group.

Geoff Nyheim

Geoff Nyheim, a 22-year Microsoft veteran, resigned from his position as vice president of worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partner Group corporate accounts and partner sales. Nyheim joined Microsoft in 1991 and has held a variety of executive roles at the company, including vice president of Office 365 sales and general manager of Global Partners and Alliances.

Jennifer Heard

Succeeding Nyheim is Jennifer Heard, who most recently served as vice president of Microsoft's Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partner Group, Europe, Middle East and Africa unit. She joined Microsoft in 1995 and has held numerous executive and management positions with the company, including general manager of Microsoft's U.S. Enterprise Partner Group in the south central district and U.S. vice president, central region, of Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partner sales.

Barbara Gordon

More big executive change hit Microsoft in August as CRN learned that Barbara Gordon is departing the company after nearly 10 years. Gordon, who served as vice president of Worldwide Customer Support, joined the company in 2003 after working at Sun Microsystems, where she served as vice president of worldwide software sales. Gordon will be replaced by Kirsten Kliphouse, vice president of Microsoft's U.S. East Region Enterprise and Partner Group.

Bill Veghte

HP COO Bill Veghte has a new role. Veghte was tapped by HP CEO Meg Whitman to take over the company's enterprise business, replacing Dave Donatelli as executive vice president and general manager of HP's Enterprise Group. Veghte joined HP in 2010 as executive vice president of HP Software after a long career with Microsoft, where he served in a variety of executive roles, including senior vice president of the Windows group. At HP Veghte was later promoted to chief strategy officer and then COO.

Dave Donatelli

HP reassigned Donatelli from his former role as executive vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Group to a new role within HP, though the company hasn't specified what the role is. Donatelli previously served as head of HP's Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking Division. Before HP, he spent several years at EMC, most notably serving as president of the company's storage division.

Henry Gomez

HP also promoted another executive by tapping Henry Gomez as chief marketing officer. Gomez, formerly chief communications officer, will now run the combined marketing and communications group within HP. Gomez joined HP in 2011; before that he spent many years at eBay, working in a variety of executive roles including vice president of corporate communications. Gomez also worked on Whitman's gubernatorial campaign in 2010.

Marty Homlish

HP's former chief marketing officer, Marty Homlish, meanwhile, was named chief customer experience officer for the company. Homlish joined HP in 2010 as executive vice president and CMO after spending more than 10 years at SAP, where he most recently served as the software maker's global CMO as well as president and CEO of SAP Global Marketing. Before that, Homlish spent more than a decade at Sony.

Steven Sinofsky

Steven Sinofsky, former head of Microsoft's Windows division, joined venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as a partner. Sinofsky left his post as president of the Windows and Windows Live Division last fall just shortly after the launch of Windows 8. He spent 22 years at Microsoft and served in various executive and management roles, overseeing the development and marketing of many top Microsoft products from Office to Outlook.

Chuck Hollis

EMC veteran Chuck Hollis joined VMware as chief strategist. A 22-year EMC veteran, Hollis most recently served as CTO of the storage company. He also served as head of EMC's technology alliances and vice president of strategic marketing. For his new role at VMware, Hollis will focus on building VMware's presence in software-defined storage, cloud applications and big data.

Sanjay Poonen

VMware added another big name to its ranks with the hiring of Sanjay Poonen as executive vice president and general manager of VMware’s End-User Computing business unit. Poonen comes to VMware from SAP where he spent seven years, most recently as president and corporate officer of Platform Solutions and the Mobile Division at SAP. Before SAP Poonen worked at several top technology companies including Symantec, Veritas, Informatica, Microsoft and Apple.

Don Joos

ShoreTel named Don Joos as its new CEO. Joos replaces outgoing President and CEO Peter Blackmore, who announced in May that he planned to retire. Joos previously served as ShoreTel's senior vice president of business operations after joining the company in 2011 as vice president of global services. He worked at Avaya for nine years in various executive and management roles.

John Keenan

Sophos tapped former SonicWall executive John Keenan as vice president of sales for North America. Keenan most recently was vice president of North American sales at SonicWall, where he spent 10 years in several roles including vice president of distribution and DMR for North America and EMEA. Prior to SonicWall, Keenan spent time at Phobos, Marketlink Technologies and Micro Plus.

Gary Quinn

FalconStor named new CEO Gary Quinn to its board of directors. Quinn took over as CEO in July after former CEO and president Jim McNiel abruptly resigned. Quinn, who formerly served as executive vice president and COO, initially was named interim CEO before being named permanent CEO soon after. He joined FalconStor in 2012 as vice president of North America sales and marketing and previously served as CIO of Suffolk County, New York, and executive vice president of worldwide partners at CA Technologies.

Shawn Pearson

Websense named RSA and EMC veteran Shawn Pearson as vice president of worldwide channel sales. Pearson spent 17 years at EMC with both the storage company and its RSA division. Most recently he served as senior director of Americas inside sales and channels at RSA. Pearson spent several years at EMC, helping the storage leader develop its Velocity partner program in 2000, before moving to RSA in 2010.

Eric Baldeschwieler

Eric Baldeschwieler, the first CEO of Hortonworks, resigned from his post as CTO of the Hadoop developer. Baldeschwieler led Yahoo's Hadoop development before the Web company spun off its engineering and development operations as Hortonworks in 2011. He was named CEO and later moved to the CTO position after current Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden took over.

Thomas Gillman

Former Symantec executive Thomas Gillman joined Blue Coat Systems as senior director of North American channels. Gillman previously served as senior director of public sector channels at Symantec, where he spent nearly five years. Prior to Symantec, he served as director of channel sales at Crossbeam Systems and director of channel operations at Juniper Networks.

Murray Wright

Zones tapped former Tech Data executive Murray Wright as its new president and CEO. Wright most recently served as Tech Data's president of the Americas. He joined the distributor in 2006 as senior vice president of U.S. sales. Before Tech Data, Wright spent time at Lenovo as head of the company's Canada business and spent several years at Ingram Micro in various executive roles.

Ray Smets

A10 Networks named Ray Smets its first-ever vice president of worldwide sales. Smets will be charged with overseeing global sales and business development for the company's international expansion. He most recently served as vice president of field operations, sales and international development for Metaswitch Networks. Smets previously served as vice president and general manager of Cisco's mobility and wireless business and worked at Netopia and McAfee.

Matthew Hutchinson

MegaPath Networks has a new channel chief. The company named Matthew Hutchinson as its new vice president of channel sales. He most recently served as director of sales and channel marketing at 8x8. Hutchinson also spent time in various channel management roles at Logitech, HP and other companies.

Jim Lippie

Cloud provider IndependenceIT made some big changes to its executive team, naming Jim Lippie as its new CEO. Lippie most recently served as IIT's executive vice president of business development; he joined the company this year after serving as president and CEO of Thrive Networks, a managed service provider that was acquired by Staples in 2007.

Seth Bostock

IndependenceIT also named Seth Bostock as its new president and COO. Bostock joined IIT in 2011 and most recently served as executive vice president of corporate development at the cloud provider. Prior to IIT, he spent more than a decade as an independent business consultant. Bostock is credited with the product development of IIT's Cloud Workspace Suite as well as the company's partnerships with EarthLink and TeamLogic IT.

Michael Torto

Cloud management software maker Embotics named Michael Torto as its new CEO. Torto most recently served as CEO of cloud company rPath for four years. Before that he served as president and CEO of both Centive and InCert Software. Torto also led desktop management company SWAN International for many years.

John Ross

In addition to a new CEO, Embotics also named a new CTO. Former GreenPages executive John Ross joined the company to head up its technology strategy and product road map. Ross most recently served as the CTO and CIO for GreenPages Technology Solutions, where he spent six years. He also served as vice president of services at Alternative Technology.

Barry Crist

IT automation firm Opscode tapped Barry Crist as its new CEO and chairman of the board of directors. Crist replaces former CEO Mitch Hill, who stepped down for health reasons but will remain on the board. Crist most recently served as vice president of Opscode's enterprise business. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Likewise.

Jeff Johnson

Davenport Group named Jeff Johnson as its new COO. Johnson will be responsible for the solution provider's financial and operational functions He previously served as treasurer and vice president of investor relations at Deluxe Corp., where he spent eight years. Johnson also held executive roles at ABS Global and International Resource Group.

David Shepard

David Shepard is taking on two executive roles. Shepard, currently senior vice president at IO, is joining data center services firm Fortrust as senior vice president of sales and marketing. Fortrust and IO, a software-defined data center company, partnered last year and will continue to go to market with their respective products under Shepard's leadership.

Matt Wrabley

Automated performance monitoring company EG Innovations appointed Matt Wrabley as vice president of business development. Before joining EG Innovations, Wrabley served as vice president of business development at Stratus Technologies and vice president of Americas sales and business development at Marathon Technologies. He also held vice president roles at Virtual Iron Software and Neoware.