30 Notable IT Executive Moves: August 2014

Start It Off

From Oracle to Red Hat, Juniper, Microsoft and more, a lot of big tech companies were shuffling around their executives as the month of August wound down. On top of that, many solution providers named new CEOs who are bringing a renewed focus to their companies. Let's take a look back and see which executives were in and which ones were out for the month of August.

Matthew Mills

After 21 years with the company, Matthew Mills, Oracle's senior vice president of North America sales, resigned in August. Mills has overseen the technology, hardware and public sector markets in the region for Oracle since 2012. Sources CRN spoke with didn't know the exact reason for Mills' departure, and both Mills and Oracle were not available to comment at the time. Partners said there has been a lot of turnover in the company recently, so they weren't surprised by the move. They also said they respected Mills as someone who understood how to work with partners.

David Helfer

David Helfer, head of worldwide channels and commercial at Juniper Networks, will be leaving the company in September after more than 14 years. Helfer is taking a role at mobile security provider Lookout, where sources told CRN he will be charged with building a channel strategy. Helfer took the global channel chief role at Juniper when Emilio Umeoka left in October. Prior to his long tenure at Juniper in multiple roles, Helfer also has held positions at Uunet and CompuServe Network Services.

Steve Ballmer

After final approval for his $2 billion Los Angeles Clippers bid, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in August that he would be stepping down from the company's board of directors. That would give him more time to focus on his new ownership role at the basketball team as well as teaching and civic work. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella accepted his resignation, saying he would miss the "insight and leadership" that Ballmer brought to the board.

Luanne Tierney

After leaving Juniper in April to co-author a book on best practices and strategies for women in the workplace, Luanne Tierney has returned to the channel. Fortinet hired the channel marketing veteran to lead its corporate communications strategy, including digital and social media. In addition to her work at Juniper, Tierney has held roles at ContentMX, Cisco Systems and 3Com.

John Eldh

After overseeing many changes to the company's channel program, Symantec channel chief John Eldh left the company to pursue a new endeavor. Rick Kramer, Symantec vice president of sales, national solution providers and global integrators for North America, will take over his role in the interim. Eldh spent nearly a decade at Symantec, most recently as the company's vice president of Americas channel and distribution sales. Prior to that, Eldh held roles as vice president of inside sales for Veritas and vice president at Gartner.

Bethany Mayer

Network monitoring player Ixia named Bethany Mayer, who had been with Hewlett-Packard since 2010, as its new president, CEO and member of its board of directors. Mayer joined the network monitoring company just six months after she was chosen to lead HP's Network Functions Virtualization group. Antonio Neri, senior vice president and general manager of HP's server business, has taken over Mayer's responsibilities.

Todd Palmer

Alongside unveiling changes to its NextWave Partner Program, Palo Alto Networks named a new Americas channel chief in Todd Palmer. Palmer brings extensive experience to his new role as vice president of Americas channels from five years leading NetApp's Americas channel program and in sales executive roles at CA Technologies. What drew him to the role, Palmer said, is the company's partner value proposition.

’I have never seen a partner value proposition so compelling until I saw what Palo Alto Networks had to offer,’ Palmer told CRN.

Tyler Beecher

Tyler Beecher assumed the lead role at solution provider Trace3 at the end of August. Beecher steps into his role at a time of massive growth for the solution provider, which has seen revenue soar from $325 million to $425 million in a year. Beecher previously served as executive vice president of sales at Trace3, with previous experience in sales at NetApp, EMC, Cisco and 3Com.

Stacy Nethercoat

In tandem with a move to bring new resources to TDCloud, Tech Data said it had appointed Stacy Nethercoat to oversee the platform. Nethercoat has extensive experience at Tech Data, having been with the distributor for more than 19 years in various roles, most recently as vice president of product market, software and cloud services. In her new role, Nethercoat will be responsible for the strategic direction, operations and go-to-market of TDCloud.

Paul Mountford

Riverbed Technology added Paul Mountford to lead the company's sales as senior vice president and chief sales officer. Mountford is best known for spending more than 16 years at Cisco, including a role as the networking giant's global channel chief. Most recently, Mountford was CEO of Web intelligence startup Sentillian. In his new role, Mountford will be responsible for driving both direct and indirect sales for Riverbed.

Marcelo Claure

Just days after the company dropped a bid to acquire T-Mobile, Sprint named Marcelo Claure its president and CEO. Claure wasn't a stranger to Sprint, as he has been a member of the company's board of directors since January. Prior to taking the new role, Claure was CEO and founder of Brightstar, a subsidiary of SoftBank. He replaces Dan Hesse, who had been Sprint CEO since 2007.

John Corley

In August, Xerox named a new channel chief in longtime company executive John Corley. With more than 20 years at the company, Corley will now be president of channel partner operations as of Sept. 1. Corley succeeds Douraid Zaghouani, who has been in the position since January 2012. In his new role Corley will be responsible for accelerating SMB business for partners as well as supporting the company's enterprise desktop printer and enterprise printing businesses.

Peggy Johnson

Microsoft kicked off the month by adding 24-year Qualcomm veteran Peggy Johnson to the team. She will fill the company's newly created role of executive vice president of global business development, reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella. In her new role, Johnson will be charged with strategic deals and partnerships with partners, OEMs, accounts and more. Johnson's Qualcomm experience includes running global marketing and strategic relationships, as well as Qualcomm Labs.

Noah Wasmer

After a two-year absence, Noah Wasmer returned to VMware in August as vice president of end-user computer product strategy. He left VMware in 2012 to become vice president of product management at MobileIron before jumping to Apple as worldwide product marketing manager for the iPad.

"I look forward to working with the VMware team to continue providing the very best enterprise solutions that both modernize access to existing apps and processes while seamlessly embracing cloud services and mobility," Wasmer said in a statement.

Peter Evans

In the midst of a server vision executive shuffle, HP turned to a former Dell executive for its server marketing efforts. After leaving Dell last year, Peter Evans will take over as vice president of global marketing for HP servers. He replaces Jim Ganthier, who was in the position as recently as mid-July, and will now be running HP's global program to migrate customers off Windows Server 2003. Most recently, Evans served as chief marketing officer for enterprise solutions at Dell.

Mike Greaney

Solution provider Force 3 appointed Mike Greaney as CEO Aug. 7. Greaney previously served as president of Force 3 Federal. In an interview with CRN, Greaney said he planned to help the longtime federal VAR establish itself as a specialized player in the industry around networking and security. Prior to various executive roles at Force 3, Greaney held positions at Abraxsis Technologies, All American Semiconductor and Unique Technologies, among others.

Brian Marshall

Hortonworks named Brian Marshall as the big data startup's vice president of corporate development. With more than 15 years of experience as a technology analyst, Marshall most recently served as an analyst for researcher firm ISI. Prior to that, he held analyst positions at Gleacher and Jeffries. In his new role, Marshall will be helping build up the business around Hadoop and other core capabilities.

Ralph de la Vega

Alongside an announcement that it was merging its Mobility and Business Solutions divisions into one, AT&T said it chose Ralph de la Vega to lead the charge of the newly combined divisions. De la Vega's new title is CEO of AT&T's Mobile and Business Solutions Group. He previously was CEO of AT&T's Mobility Group. As part of the shuffle, Glenn Laurie, former president of AT&T Mobility's Emerging Enterprise and Partnerships business, will assume the role of CEO of AT&T Mobility and Andrew Geisse, former AT&T Business Solutions CEO, will retire.

Heather Murray

Tech Data appointed Heather Murray as vice president of product marketing for the HP Solutions Group. Murray is a longtime veteran of Tech Data with more than 15 years at the company, most recently as vice president of Tech Data Mobile Solutions. In her new role, Murray will be in charge of sales, marketing, technical and supply chain for the distributor's U.S. HP solutions portfolio.

Brian Cohen

Brian Cohen was appointed CEO of StrataCloud, a unified infrastructure management solution company. The announcement was made in tandem with a $2 million investment from Hallett Capital and BLH Venture Partners. Cohen was most recently vice president of sales operations at HP, holding positions prior to that as president and CEO of SPI Dynamics, which HP acquired in 2007.

Matt Wilson

Cologix, which bills itself as a "network-neutral interconnection and data center company," said it was making a push into the channel with the appointment of Matt Wilson to lead the charge. Wilson's title will be vice president of channel sales, and he will be responsible for building a channel program for the company that will help extend its reach in the industry. Wilson is no stranger to the channel, serving most recently as senior director of partner channel management at Comcast.

Carl Eschenbach

As part of a round of organizational changes, VMware revealed a couple of executive shifts. One of those was Carl Eschenbach, who will be expanding his current role as president and COO to include Corporate Strategy and Business Development. While he will have added responsibilities, Eschenbach will continue to lead sales, marketing, services, global customer operations, partners and more. Eschenbach first joined VMware in 2002, with experience prior to that at Inktomi, 3Com, EMC and Lucent Technologies.

Jonathan Chadwick

Since joining VMware in 2012 as the company's CFO and executive vice president, Jonathan Chadwick's role has expanded. This month, Chadwick was named CFO and COO of VMware, working alongside President and COO Carl Eschenbach. Chadwick will be responsible for HR, finance, legal, IT and operations. Prior to VMware, Chadwick served as CFO of Skype as well as holding executive roles at Microsoft, McAfee and Cisco.

David Bangs

Tegile Systems hired David Bangs as senior vice president of worldwide sales for the database and virtualized environment flash array company. Bangs was brought on as the company's sales continue to skyrocket, and he will lead the sales teams going forward. Bangs most recently was vice president of global partner programs and vice president of ioControl sales at Fusion-io. Prior to that, Bangs held positions at NexGen Storage, HP, LeftHand Networks and Quantum.

Jitendra Gupta

Juniper veteran Jitendra Gupta has moved to Avaya as sales head of networking in India and SAARC. At Juniper, Gupta most recently served as director of channel alliances for India and South Asia. Prior to Avaya and Juniper, Gupta held roles at Extreme Networks. In his new role, he will be responsible for the networking business and expanding the business in the region.

Stephen Banbury

Former Symantec executive Stephen Banbury has a new role at cloud service marketplace and management company AppDirect. Banbury's new title at AppDirect will be vice president of worldwide marketing. Banbury brings extensive experience to the role, with more than 20 years of experience at companies such as Symantec, McAfee and more. Most recently, Banbury served as vice president of global commercial segment marketing at Symantec.

Mark Beebe

In another move for AppDirect, the cloud service marketplace and management company hired Mark Beebe as vice president of customer operations. Beebe brings more than 15 years of experience to his new role, with particular experience building and running client operations such as services, management, support and more. Most recently, Beebe ran client services for digital marketing and analytics company RichRelevance.

Scott Smith

Cloud-based voice and data networking company NetFortris brought on Scott Smith to lead the company's sales. Smith's title at the company will be executive vice president of sales. To his new role, Smith brings a long history of experience in the Software-as-a-Service and infrastructure industries, most recently as vice president of sales at Crown Peak Technology. He also has held executive roles at Ooyala and Qumu.

Brian Stevens

Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens announced his resignation after more than 13 years with the company. In addition to the CTO role, Stevens was vice president of engineering as well as the company's most senior technical executive. Prior to his role at Red Hat, Stevens was CTO at Mission Critical Unix. In the interim before a new CTO is named, Stevens' role will be filled by Paul Cormier, Red Hat president of products and technologies.

Todd Park

Todd Park, as CTO of the U.S., resigned. Park held an important role in shaping the federal government's technology use and had been in the role since 2009. Park said he resigned to spend more time with his family and raising his kids in the Bay Area, from where he will continue to work with the government in other roles. Park was recognized for his role in working to overhaul the way the government uses technology and helping hire top IT talent for the federal workforce.