30 Notable IT Executive Moves: November 2014
Start If Off
Channel companies weren't slowed down by a post-Thanksgiving food coma when it comes to executive hiring. November brought in a new round of key executives to vendor and solution provider lineups, including a new CEO for Juniper and leadership for the upcoming HP split. Take a look at the channel's executive moves for last month.
Shaygan Kheradpir
In yet another executive departure from Juniper, Shaygan Kheradpir resigned as CEO in November after joining the networking giant in January. His resignation came after a review by the Juniper board into his conduct "in connection with a particular negotiation with a customer," the company said. Partners said that Kheradpir's resignation, alongside the many executive departures over the past month, has only increased their confusion about the company's direction. Kheradpir will be replaced by Rami Rahim, executive vice president and general manager, Juniper Development and Innovation.
Bill Veghte
Although not new to the company, Executive Vice President Bill Veghte is changing roles at HP. Sources told CRN that Veghte will be moving into the separation management office for the enterprise business as the company splits into two $57 billion companies. Antonio Neri, SVP and general manager of HP Servers and Networking Business Units, will replace Veghte. Veghte has served in a variety of roles at HP, including COO, Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of HP Software.
Stephen Gillett
As the company looks to split, Symantec is eliminating the role of Chief Operating Officer, currently held by Stephen Gillett. To help facilitate the transition, Gillett will remain on in a non-executive role for a period of time. Gillett has been COO since Dec. 2012. Prior to that he was an EVP at Best Buy, vice president at Digital Ventures and CIO at Starbucks. Symantec announced in October that it will be splitting in two, a transition the company expects will take a year. Gillett had stayed with the company through periods of turmoil, most recently with the firing of CEO Steve Bennett in March.
Jay Miley
As PCM looks to make bigger investments in networking, security and the cloud, the solution provider brought on former Ingram Micro executive Jay Miley as President. Miley took over as head of the solution provider, No. 27 on CRN's 2014 Solution Provider 500 list, as of Dec. 1. He replaces PCM founder, Chairman and CEO Frank Khulusi. As President, Miley will be responsible for operations, strategy, managing costs and growing sales and profits.
"Jay is very well equipped with his recent experience in advanced technology at Ingram," Khulusi told CRN in an interview. "This is one plus one equals much more than two."
Janet Haugen, Paul Weaver
As Unisys' CEO search continues, the solution provider, No. 17 on CRN's 2014 Solution Provider 500 list, has appointed an interim CEO and interim Chairman of the Board. Effective Dec. 2, CFO Janet Haugen is serving as interim CEO and Paul Weaver, lead independent director of the Unisys board, will serve as interim Chairman. The appointments come as current CEO Ed Coleman left the company on Dec. 1 after more than six years as CEO.
Ryan Snell
Cisco Invicta Sales Chief Ryan Snell left the networking giant in early November after the company continued to grapple with performance issues with the product. Snell joined Cisco after the company's $415 million acquisition of Whiptail last year. Later in November, Snell landed at enterprise mobile messaging startup Lua as vice president of sales for the Americas. In his new role, Snell will be responsible for selling the enterprise mobile messaging technology as the company expands its channel strategy.
Rich Geraffo
Oracle is on the hunt for a new channel chief after Rich Geraffo moved to head up the company's North American technology sales operations. Geraffo will report directly to new CEO Mark Hurd as senior vice president, North America technology, hardware, and public sector sales. Geraffo replaces 21-year Oracle veteran Matthew Mills, who left for unknown reasons in August. He had been in the channel chief role for about a year after replacing Judson Althoff, who left for a job at Microsoft.
Randy Harris
Randy Harris has been tapped by CDW-G to lead the company's federal program, according to Washington Technology. He is replacing Kevin Adams, who will be retiring at the beginning of next year. Harris comes to CDW from Merlin International, a Vienna, Va.-based federal solution provider. He's also held roles at SAIC, General Dynamics, Pearson Government Solutions and more. Harris will now be vice president, Federal program management, capture and services.
Richard Napolitano, Tim Lieto
SDN startup Plexxi has landed former EMC executive Richard Napolitano as CEO. Napolitano (pictured) left EMC in April, where he was president of the company's Unified Storage Division. Napolitano isn't Plexxi's only executive win this month, as it also picked up Tim Lieto to be senior vice president of sales and customer service. Lieto is the former Oracle vice president of Americas sales. Plexxi partners said the executive additions gave the SDN startup, which came out of beta in June, maturity and momentum in the market.
Michael Leiter
Leidos, a $5.7 billion federal solution provider based in Reston, Va., added a top government counterterrorism official to its executive lineup this month. Michael Leiter is the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) under both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, and will now be executive vice president for business development and strategy at Leidos. In his new role, Leiter will be responsible for developing and executing business strategies and accelerating company growth.
Lou Addeo
Lou Addeo, who was leading solution provider ManTech's acquisition push, will be retiring effective Dec. 31, the company announced this month. Addeo was executive vice president for corporate development and strategic acquisitions for ManTech, No. 21 on CRN's 2014 Solution Provider 500 list, since Feb. 2013. Prior to that, Addeo was head of the solution provider's technical services group. The company appointed Addeo to lead an acquisition push around healthcare information technology, including the company's 7Delta acquisition, in May.
Lisa Brummel
Microsoft Executive Vice President of Human Resources Lisa Brummel will be retiring at the end of the year, the company announced on Nov. 10. Brummel has been with Microsoft for more than 25 years, leading the company's human resources operations since 2005. She will be replaced by Kathleen Hogan, who joined the senior leadership team on Nov. 28 and reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella. Hogan isn't new to Microsoft, having served in a variety of technical, sales and marketing roles over 11 years at the company. She most recently led the Microsoft Services division.
Martin Jetter
IBM kicked off the month on Nov. 3 with the appointment of Martin Jetter as senior vice president and head of the company's Global Technology Services unit, Reuters reported. CEO Ginny Rometty praised Jetter's transformation of IBM Japan, IBM Germany and GBS in Europe in an internal memo. He will now report to current head of global services Erich Clemanti and will officially assume the role on Jan. 1. Clemanti will remain with IBM in another senior executive role not disclosed in the memo, Reuters said.
Kelly Haggerty
Cybersecurity intelligence company IID landed a former McAfee executive as its first Chief Product Officer, the company announced this month. Kelly Haggerty was vice president of product at McAfee and will now be responsible for product strategy, development, and go-to-market at IID. Haggerty spent more than a decade at McAfee but also brings prior experience from Actiance and SurfControl.
Paul Lunden
Allentown, Pa.-based solution provider Trifecta Technologies has added Paul Lunden as vice president and general manager. Lunden will be responsible for growing the company and nurturing the company culture. Lunden has extensive experience in the telecommunications industry, including his most recent position as Executive Director of Solution Management at Ericsson. He has also held executive roles at CSG International, Comverse and Telcordia.
Joe Mardini
After its fourth consecutive ranking on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, with 141 percent growth since 2009, cloud services provider SherWeb announced the appointment of Joe Mardini as Chief Operating Officer. Mardini has more than 30 years of experience in the IT and telecom industries, including positions at Bell Canada and IBM.
’We are thrilled to have someone of Joe’s caliber on board,’ says Peter Cassar, SherWeb’s founder and CEO, in a statement. ’Joe will play an integral role in ensuring our operational excellence so that we can continue to remain profitable as the cloud market matures while simultaneously pursuing our aggressive channel growth strategy.’
Patrick Ferdig
Patrick Ferdig has joined Deerfield, IL-based CloudCraze as Director of Alliances and Channels. CloudCraze is a provider of Customer Engagement Commerce on the Salesforce1 Platform. As channel chief, Ferdig will use his background with the channel to help grow the platform's reach with global systems integrators. Ferdig most recently served as Director of Global ISV Partnerships for Munich-based Hybris Software. Prior to that he worked for Endeca and Comergent.
Devi Jaspal
MegaPath announced a new channel chief this month with the promotion of Devi Jaspal to Vice President of Channel Sales and Operations. With more than 15 years of experience in telecom and managed services, Jaspal will be able to use her background to build the strategic direction and management of the company's North American channel sales. Jaspal most recently served as Vice President of Customer Operations for MegaPath Wholesale.
Darren Raiguel
This month, ePlus promoted Darren Raiguel to EVP of Technology Sales for the solution provider, No. 36 on CRN's 2014 Solution Provider 500 list. Raiguel has been with ePlus for more than 17 years, most recently as Senior Vice President responsible for business divisions in the Northeast region. In his new role, Raiguel will be responsible for driving growth in IT products, services and consulting. He will also be responsible for go-to-market strategies and maintaining customer satisfaction. The position is a new addition for the ePlus management team.
Stacy Sakellariou
Stacy Sakellariou has joined Meridian Knowledge Solutions, a Herndon, Va.-based enterprise and web-learning management software company. Sakellariou will be Vice President of Marketing at Meridian. She brings more than 20 years of experience to the role. She most recently served as Vice President of Worldwide Field Marketing for SumTotal Systems and has also held roles at Plateau Systems, now an SAP Company. Sakellariou will be responsible for developing a marketing strategy, including brand awareness, communications, demand generation and more.
Jarrett Miller
As part of a rapid expansion of the leadership team this month, data-powered cloud application security company Elastica appointed Jarrett Miller as its new channel chief. As Vice President of Channels, Miller will be responsible for developing channel programs to expand Elastica's reach to enterprises and industries. Miller most recently served as channel chief at Bromium and brings extensive industry sales experience from other positions at Cisco, Verizon, eSoft, AT&T and NTT Group Security Company Solutionary.
Peter Brown
After being with the company since 2001, Peter Brown is retiring from Arrow Electronics. Brown served as Senior Vice President, General Council and Secretary. Brown came to Arrow from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Gregory Tarpinian will be replacing Brown.
"Peter has served as a trusted advisor to me, the Board of Directors, and the company. His thorough, yet common-sense approach helped drive growth while minimizing risk. He has been a valuable member of our leadership team," said Arrow CEO Michael J. Long in a statement. "We wish him all the best in his retirement."
Lance Smith
Data virtualization startup Primary Data picked up Lance Smith as the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company's new CEO. Primary Data co-founder David Flynn worked with Smith when he helped co-found Fusion-io, where Smith was COO and President. Flynn will now be CTO as Smith becomes CEO. Smith most recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the ioMemory Solutions division of SanDisk Corporation.
Kevin Shatzkamer
Early in November, Brocade hired Kevin Schatzkamer as Distinguished Engineer and CTO Mobile Networking. Shatzkamer is a mobile, cloud and digital media expert with previous experience as a Distinguished Engineer at Cisco. In his new role, Shatzkamer will be responsible for developing new operational models to drive revenues for emerging technology such as software defined networking and network functions virtualization.
Russ Mann, Josh Waldo
Workflow automation company Nintex made dual executive additions this month with Russ Mann and Josh Waldo. Mann will become CMO and be responsible for strategic marketing, brand and demand initiatives. Mann brings experience from Rio SEO, Peregrine Systems and FICO. Waldo will be vice president of channels and strategy for the Seattle, Wa.-based Nintex. Waldo, an eight-year veteran at Microsoft, most recently served as senior director of cloud partner strategy in the software company's Worldwide Partner Group.
Tom Shea, Jim Donovan
In another executive move double-take for the month, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based storage company Panasas added Tom Shea as COO and Jim Donovan as CMO to its executive lineup. Shea will be responsible for leading the company's technical organizations including engineering, operations, service and IT. Donovan will be responsible for developing the company's marketing operations including products, brands, demand and sales.
"I am thrilled that Tom and Jim decided to join Panasas," said Faye Pairman, Panasas CEO, in a statement. "With the relevant industry experience and new perspective these two talented leaders bring to the organization, we’re poised to better serve our customers, develop key new markets and accelerate growth."
Shyam Sundar
Former Hewlett-Packard executive Shyam Sundar joined VoltDB, a data solutions company specializing in streaming data applications, in November. As vice president, Sundar will lead the Asia-Pacific region for VoltDB, a strategic expansion region for the company. Sundar brings a wealth of experience, most recently as Regional Director of Asia Pacific and Japan for HP. He has also held management roles at Greenplum.
Enzo Signore
Cloud-based unified communications and virtual contact center company 8x8 has added Enzo Signore as SVP and CMO. In his new role, Signore will be responsible for marketing strategy and execution. Signore most recently served as Vice President of Worldwide Enterprise Solutions and Field Marketing at Avaya. He has also held positions at JDSU, Cisco, ISOCOR and Retix.
Sri Hosakote
Seagate Technology announced in November that former Cisco executive Sri Hosakote had joined the company. Hosakote is now Executive Vice President of Systems for the company's Cloud Systems and Solutions (CSS) group. In his new role, Hosakote will be responsible for helping extend Seagate's market position in the storage industry. Hosakote spent more than 19 years at Cisco prior to joining Seagate, most recently as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's switching and wireless platform group. He has also held roles at Sprint Communications and Retix.
Tony Zingale
After almost five years as CEO of Jive Software, Tony Zingale is retiring. He will remain on the Board of Directors as Executive Chairman. Elisa Steele, currently Executive Vice President of Marketing and Products, will be promoted to President and a CEO search is underway, the company said.
"I'm so proud of what we've achieved over the past five years, in which Jive has cemented its leadership position in the competitive and growing enterprise collaboration market," Zingale said in a statement. "I especially want to thank our dedicated employees and customers around the world. I look forward to continuing on this journey with you, and helping to guide the company as Executive Chairman."