30 Notable IT Executive Moves: September 2013

Start It Off

CRN's monthly roundup of notable IT executive moves continues with some big name executives departing their companies. Ingram Micro also had a new president join the company, and there's been some channel leadership changes at Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, among others.

Stephen DeWitt

Stephen DeWitt is leaving Hewlett-Packard after five years. DeWitt most recently served as senior vice president of enterprise marketing at HP. He also served as senior vice president and general manager of the WebOS business unit and senior vice president and general manager of the Americas for the former Personal Systems Group within HP. Prior to HP, DeWitt served as president, CEO and chairman of Azul Systems and also held executive roles at Sun Microsystems and Cisco, among others.

Sue Barsamian

Longtime HP executive Sue Barsamian was promoted to a new channel role. Barsamian was named senior vice president of worldwide indirect sales for HP's Enterprise Group where she'll be responsible for increasing the company's focus on enterprise channel sales. She most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of global sales and operations for HP's Enterprise Group. Barsamian held several high-level executive roles within HP and also served in marketing roles at Critical Path and Verity.

Eric Martorano

Eric Martorano has a new role at Microsoft as general manager of U.S. channel sales. Formerly senior director of U.S. SMB channel sales, Martorano joined Microsoft in 2008 and has worked with channel partners closely over that period. In his new role, he'll be responsible for sales relationships with systems integrators and large account resellers (LARs) in the U.S. Prior to Microsoft, Martorano held marketing positions at Sage Software and Ingram Micro, among others.

Paul Read

Ingram Micro named board member Paul Read as its new president and COO. Read joined Ingram Micro's board of directors last year. Prior to joining the world's largest IT distributor, he spent nearly two decades at Flextronics, where he most recently served as executive vice president and chief financial officer and also served in other top executive roles. Before joining Flextronics in 1995, he spent time in management roles with Allied Steel and Wire and STI Communications.

Bill Lipsin

Brocade has a new channel chief. The networking company named Bill Lipsin as its new vice president of worldwide channels and global systems integrator sales. Lipsin will be in charge of the strategy, development and operations of Brocade's channel organization. Prior to Brocade, he served as global vice president of channels and alliance at Arbor Networks and also led global channel operations at CA Technologies.

Eric Duffaut

SAP's head of global channels has departed the company. Eric Duffaut, who served as president of SAP's global ecosystem and channels, joined the enterprise software maker in 2005 as senior vice president of small and midsize enterprises (SME) and channels in the EMEA region. He was later promoted to head of global SME and indirect channels before taking over as president of SAP's global ecosystem and channels in 2011. Prior to SAP, he spent 15 years at Oracle in a variety of sales and channel roles.

Simon Aldous

Simon Aldous has stepped down from his post as Microsoft's director of hosting service providers in the U.K. Aldous, who in 2009 gained notoriety when he said Windows 7 was designed to emulate the look and feel of Apple's Mac OS X, previously served as a partner group manager for the software giant. He has reportedly joined Polycom as director of channels for the U.K. and Ireland. He previously worked at Toshiba Information Systems.

Barbara Gordon

Former Microsoft executive Barbara Gordon has a new home at EMC. Gordon, who left her position as vice president of worldwide customer support at Microsoft last month, was named COO of EMC's new Isilon business unit. Gordon joined Microsoft in 2003 as vice president of global accounts. Before Microsoft, she spent nearly 20 years at Sun Microsystems in a variety of sales and executive management roles.

Phil Bullinger

Ex-Oracle executive Phil Bullinger has also joined EMC's Isilon business. Bullinger, who most recently served as senior vice president of storage, was named as senior vice president of engineering and operations at Isilon. Before joining Oracle, he served as executive vice president and general manager at Engenio Storage Group, a division of LSI Corporation.

Chirantan 'CJ' Desai

EMC made another big move last month with the addition of veteran technology executive Chirantan "CJ" Desai, who was named president of EMC's new Emerging Technology Products Division. Desai will be responsible for the new division, which will focus on flash storage, software-defined storage and cloud computing, among other areas. He previously spent nine years at Symantec, most recently as executive vice president of information management, and also worked at Oracle.

Jeff Sandquist

Microsoft veteran Jeff Sandquist has left the company after 16 years to join Twitter. Sandquist, who most recently served as senior director of developer relations for Microsoft, was named director of platform partnerships at Twitter. During his career at Microsoft, Sandquist also founded Microsoft's Channel 9 Developer Community and the Channel 9 blog. Sandquist replaces Ryan Sarver, Twitter's former director of platform partnerships who left the company in June.

Jason Hoffman

Joyent's co-founder and chief technology officer is leaving the company. Jason Hoffman, who helped start the San Francisco-based cloud vendor in 2004, has stepped down from his position to "pursue new ideas and projects," according to his personal blog. He has reportedly joined enterprise IT platform company Apcera as an advisor. Prior to Joyent, Hoffman served as a cancer pathologist.

Anthony Fernicola

Salesforce.com has nabbed another Oracle veteran. Anthony Fernicola has joined Salesforce as president of global enterprise sales. He spent 17 years at Oracle in a variety of roles and most recently served as senior vice president of North America Technology Organization (NATO). Fernicola will report to Keith Block, another Oracle veteran who joined Salesforce.com in July as president and vice chairman in charge of global sales.

Steve Pataky

Another big name has left Juniper Networks. Steve Pataky, former vice president of worldwide partner development at Juniper, has joined network security vendor FireEye, which recently went public. Pataky will serve as vice president of worldwide channels and alliances. Before joining Juniper in 2004, Pataky served as vice president of channel sales & development at Vertical Networks and also as senior director of global partner development at 3Com.

Manish Goel

NetApp saw two significant executive departures last month. The first was Manish Goel, who resigned from his post as executive vice president of product operations. Goel's duties were assumed by George Kurian, senior vice president of NetApp's Data OnTap Group. Goel joined NetApp in 2002 and held several executive positions with the company over that time. Prior to NetApp, he worked at Technology Crossover Ventures, Copper Mountain Networks and McKinsey.

Vaughn Stewart

NetApp also saw the departure of Vaughn Stewart, NetApp's director of technical marketing and cloud evangelist. Stewart left the company to take a new position at Pure Storage, an all-flash storage vendor, as chief evangelist for virtualization. He joined NetApp in 2000 and held a variety of engineering and management positions with the storage vendor over his career. Stewart is also a notable blogger and book author on virtualization and cloud.

Jason Matlof

A10 Networks has appointed networking veteran Jason Matlof as its new vice president of worldwide marketing. Matlof was previously head of marketing at SDN startup Big Switch Networks. Prior to Big Switch, he was a partner at Battery Ventures and also served as vice president of marketing and business development at Neoteris, which was later acquired by NetScreen. He started his career with Cisco.

Anthony D'Angelo

Net Optics has named IT industry veteran Anthony D'Angelo as its first channel chief. D'Angelo most recently served as vice president of worldwide channel sales and distribution at HP's Enterprise Security business. Prior to joining HP in 2009, he spent several years at RSA and served as director of channel sales for North America. He also spent time at Nokia as a channel manager.

John DeRocker

John DeRocker, a longtime solution provider executive and former head of Nexus Information Systems, retired from his position at Stratos to spend more time with his family. DeRocker most recently served as senior vice president of worldwide channels at Stratos, which acquired Nexus last year. DeRocker became a partner and vice president of sales at Nexus when he joined the company in 1999 and helped grow Nexus into one of the top solution providers in the channel.

Marc Scibelli

Enterprise software maker Infor has promoted Marc Scibelli to the newly created position of chief creative officer. Scibelli previously served as vice president of creative for Infor, where he managed the company's creative design agency, Hook & Loop. Before joining Infor in 2012, he worked at several ad agencies including Story Worldwide and VirtualAdAgency.com, which he co-founded.

Brad Boston

Routing solutions firm NetNumber has a new chief executive. The company appointed Brad Boston as its new president and CEO. Boston has served on NetNumber's board of directors since 2002. A longtime veteran of the IT industry, Boston previously worked at Cisco for over a decade, serving as senior vice president and CIO, among other roles.

Michel Maeso

Cloud platform company Ayla Networks named Michel Maeso as vice president of worldwide sales. Maseo most recently served as a consultant with Maesound Consulting, and prior to that he worked at July Systems as chief revenue officer and vice president of sales and field operations at Cotendo. Maseo will oversee Ayla's global sales force and strategy and report to Ayla CEO David Friedman.

Brian Crowley

Bsquare President and CEO Brian Crowley has stepped down and resigned from the board of directors. The embedded solution firm will search for a new full-time CEO while Bsquare board member Jerry Chase serves as interim CEO. Crowley served as president and CEO since 2003. He joined the company in 2002 as vice president of product development. Prior to Bsquare Crowley worked at Consortio, Sequel Technology and Applied Microsystems.

Michael J. Rockenbach

Emulex announced Michael J. Rockenbach, executive vice president, corporate secretary and CFO, will step down at the end of the year. The networking company said it has begun an internal and external search for a new CFO. Rockenbach joined Emulex in 1991 and has served as CFO since 1997. He previously worked at Western Digital in various financial planning positions.

Joe Kernan

SAP announced that Vice Admiral Joe Kernan, U.S. Navy, Retired, has joined the company's executive team. Kernan will serve as vice president of business development for SAP's National Security Services. He spent 36 years on active duty in the Armed Forces, starting his career as an engineering officer and later becoming the commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command in 2007.

Jim Darragh

Application performance company Ipanema named former Riverbed executive Jim Darragh as its new chief executive officer. Darragh most recently served as senior vice president at Riverbed and CEO of Zeus Technology, which was acquired by Riverbed. Prior to joining Zeus in 2011, Darragh worked at a number of software companies in senior management roles, including BMC Software, SAP and CA Technologies.

Jeffrey Cosman

Software-as-a-service firm F3 Technologies named Jeffrey Cosman its new CEO and secretary and also elected him to its board of directors. Cosman replaces former CEO and board member Frank Connor. Prior to joining F3, Cosman founded software developer Covi Point and served as managing partner of the company before it was acquired by F3 last month. Cosman also spent time in financial roles at Republic Services.

David Engel

Computer Media Technologies (CMT) named former NetApp executive David Engel as its new senior vice president of sales. Engle previously served as global enterprise manager for NetApp. Prior to NetApp, he worked for Alcatel and Oracle in various sales roles. Engel will be responsible for expanding CMT's cloud solution sales in the enterprise market.

David Lee

RingCentral has added technology veteran David Lee to its executive team. Lee joins the cloud communications company as vice president of product management. He most recently served as vice president of product management at Box and also held product design and management positions at Yahoo and WebEx.

John Higgs

Violin Memory appointed John Higgs as senior vice president and general manager of the APAC region. Higgs most recently served as senior vice president of APAC for Riverbed Technologies and has spent more than 25 years working exclusively in Asia. He also worked in sales for Cisco in South Asia and helped establish Cray Communications in Japan.