30 Notable IT Executive Moves: February 2015

Starting It Off

Although it was a short month, February was full of executive moves. Solution providers, in particular, were bringing new executives into their C-suites. However, vendors weren't far behind, boosting their channel teams and adding new leadership. Even the White House was making moves this month, hiring a new chief information officer to lead the country's technology agenda.

Take a look at who was in and who was out this month.

Sanjit Biswas, John Bicket, Hans Robertson

Two years after Cisco Systems bought cloud-based networking provider Meraki for $1.2 billion, its three founders, Sanjit Biswas, John Bicket and Hans Robertson, have all left the company, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The transition comes as Cisco looks to remake SMB-network-focused Meraki into an enterprise-grade product, and partners questioned whether the executive departures would remove the "driving force" behind the technology. In the executives' stead, Cisco Senior Vice President Rob Soderbery, who leads the company's enterprise segment, will continue to lead the Meraki group.

Tony Scott

When the White House needed a new CIO and administrator this month, it turned to former VMware CIO Tony Scott. Filling a role vacant since former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel stepped down in September, Scott will now be U.S. CIO and administrator of the White House Office of Budget Management and Budget's Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology. Scott will be responsible for delivering on the Obama Administration's "Smarter IT Delivery Agenda," which looks to recruit top-notch IT professionals and processes into the government. VMware told CRN at the time that it is actively looking for a new CIO.

Mark Rogers

Logicalis Group, No. 26 on CRN's SP500 list, has appointed Mark Rogers as CEO, after a year without an official executive in the role. Rogers replaces Ian Cook, who stepped down last March but remained with the company as executive chairman. Rogers first joined Logicalis in 2003 and had most recently been serving as its president and COO. Logicalis U.S. CEO Vince DeLuca said Rogers had a "track record of growth" and a strong history of execution, operations and finance that would benefit the solution provider.

Rob Evans

In its second major executive move of the month, Logicalis appointed Rob Evans as COO. His appointment fills the vacancy left as Mark Rogers, former COO, takes the reins of the company as CEO. Evans has been with the solution provider, No. 26 on the SP500 list, since 2012, serving as a nonexecutive director. Prior to that, he held a variety of roles with the company's parent company Datatec. He will start his new role on March 1.

David Kleidermacher

As BlackBerry looks to drive forward its mobile security business, the smartphone company hired a new chief security officer to lead the charge. David Kleidermacher will bring more than 20 years of strategy and product engineering expertise to his new role, where he will be charged with overseeing several key initiatives for BlackBerry, including security-specific research and product development. He replaces Scott Totze, who left the company in June to join Huawei Technologies. Kleidermacher comes to BlackBerry from operating systems builder Green Hills Software, where he was CTO.

David Scott, Peter Slocum

After joining Hewlett-Packard with its acquisition of 3PAR, senior executives David Scott and Peter Slocum announced internally they would be leaving the company on Feb. 28 and March 6, respectively, according to a memo obtained by CRN this month. The news comes as HP's 3PAR business sees double-digit channel growth rates, but HP's overall storage business has seen revenue decline 18 percent over the last three fiscal years. Scott was CEO of 3PAR prior to joining HP as HP Storage senior vice president. Slocum was HP's vice president of engineering for 3PAR. Bill Philbin, vice president of storage engineering for the Virtual Development Unit, will lead the company's storage business while a replacement is found for Scott. Philip Tamer, vice president of engineering for HP Converged Systems, will replace Slocum.

Kurt Mills, Steve Tchejeyan

Blue Coat Systems turned to two former Intel Security channel executives this month as it looks to boost its sales strategy, hiring Kurt Mills as vice president for Americas, Sales and Field Operations, and Steve Tchejeyen as senior vice president for Americas, Sales and Field Operations. Mills had been at Blue Coat Systems when it first started in the mid-1990s, but had most recently been at Aerohive Networks as vice president of channel sales. He will be responsible for field and channel-partner-facing business operations and strategy. Tchejeyan joins Blue Coat from McAfee and will be responsible for the company's North American and Latin America sales and field operation teams.

Tim Acker

This month, Tim Acker jumped between distributors, leaving Ingram Micro to join Synnex as vice president of mobility and connected devices. Acker previously served as general manager and senior director of Ingram Micro Mobility, where he helped establish the company's wearables and accessories businesses. At Synnex, Acker will be responsible for working with carriers and OEMs to drive the distributor's business around mobile devices, accessories and the MobilitySolv platform. Prior to joining Ingram, Acker also held roles at Cisco Systems, Evolve Partners and Digital River.

Eric Herzog

In what appears to be a flash storage array push, IBM hired away Eric Herzog this month from competitor Violin Memory. Herzog previously served as chief marketing officer and senior vice president of business development at Violin Memory, but will now serve as vice president of marketing for IBM storage systems. Herzog comes to IBM at a key time for the company, as it sees falling sales for its storage business overall but a big uptick in sales of flash storage. After the Herzog appointment, IBM laid out a new storage strategy that centers around software-defined storage and all-flash arrays, and announced a $1 billion investment in its storage software portfolio over the next five years.

Don Doctor, Dan Stone

In its third CEO change in the past two years, CompuCom, No. 23 on the CRN SP500 list, has named Don Doctor as its new chief executive, taking over for interim CEO Jim Dixon. Doctor joined CompuCom's Board of Directors in May 2013 and was appointed executive chairman last August. Prior to that, Doctor was CEO of data center maintenance company SMS.

In addition to Doctor, CompuCom named former President and General Manager of Lenovo Latin America Dan Stone as senior vice president and president of end-user enablement.

Alan Marc Smith

In tandem with its announcement that it had been acquired by private equity firm Millstein & Co., DLT Solutions announced Alan Marc Smith would be replacing Rick Marcotte as CEO. Smith is an operating partner of Millstein & Co. and is well known in the channel as the former CEO of Westcon Group. Marcotte, who was CEO for more than 10 years, will remain with the solution provider as vice chairman of the board and consultant.

"Under the leadership of [CEO] Rick Marcotte and his management team, DLT Solutions has grown into a leading value-added reseller to the public sector. We look forward to working with Rick and Alan Smith to continue the legacy and further enhance the company’s vendor and customer service capabilities," Michael Duran, partner of Millstein & Co., said in a statement at the time.

Tom Ducatelli

After more than eight years with Zones, Executive Vice President of Sales and Business Development Tom Ducatelli has left the company to pursue other opportunities. Ducatelli told CRN that he left the company amicably in January. Ducatelli said he had helped transform Zones from a national reseller to a global IT solution provider, a transition he said puts Zones in a better position today. He said he hoped to continue to pursue his "passion to innovate and build" in his next role.

Bob Gentzler

Heartland Technology Solutions, a Harlan, Iowa-based solution provider, named longtime IBM executive Bob Gentzler as CEO this month. Gentzler spent more than 24 years at IBM, most recently as senior state executive in Nebraska. In his new role, Gentzler will be responsible for growing the business across multiple regions, as well as overseeing the business processes. He replaces HTS veteran Connie Arentson, who has been president since 2009. She will remain with the company as vice president of service and operations.

Kim Seok-pil

Samsung lost a key executive at an unfortunate time as the smartphone company approaches the expected launch of its next line of smartphone and faces slipping market share. Kim Seok-pil, the company's mobile marketing chief, left the company unexpectedly in February due to health reasons, according to a Reuters report. The report said he would be returning to the company, but did not say when. In the meantime, Lee Sang-chul will be filling the role after leading the company's Russian operations.

Jon Allen, Todd Leeson

Zones, No. 31 on the CRN SP500 list, announced a double executive appointment this month to help define the strategies for its growing cloud and software divisions. Jon Allen joined the solution provider as vice president of cloud, and Todd Leeson came in as vice president of software in the company's partner and product marketing divisions. Allen, originally from Carbonite, will now be responsible for setting the strategy for the company's cloud division. Leeson, who joined Zones from Absolute Software, will be responsible for driving software revenue growth.

Richard Vaughn

At the beginning of the month, Toshiba appointed Richard Vaughn as the company's newest director of channel sales for the company's Business Solutions Division. Vaughn is a longtime Toshiba veteran, most recently leading the company's channel sales for its Digital Products Division. In his new role, Vaughn will be responsible for expanding Toshiba's reseller channel, growing revenue opportunities for partners and support for end users.

"The channel has always been immensely important to our business for nearly two decades, but for the past several years we’ve focused on a select group of resellers," said Mark Simons, president and CEO, Toshiba America Information Systems, in a statement. "With the creation of BSD and with Richard in place as Channel Chief, we are primed to expand our reseller base and deliver even more value to our channel partners and their end users."

Davis Johnson

Riverbed Technology has a new public sector leader this month in Davis Johnson. In his new role as senior director of Public Sector Sales and Business Development, Johnson is responsible for setting the strategy and meeting performance needs for the application performance infrastructure company's public-sector clients. Johnson comes to Riverbed from Oracle, where he was group vice president for the company's public-sector business. He also has held positions at NetApp, Sun Microsystems and Data Business Systems.

Nadahl Shocair

After a change in shareholder control at the German VoIP telephone company, Snom Technology AG has a new CEO in Nadahl Shocair. The appointment, and investment from Heildeberg Capital Private Equity Fund II, are designed to drive the long-term expansion of the company. The company will use the new funding, under new leader Shocair, to grow technology development, expand its presence in the market and its global footprint. Shocair has more than 25 years of experience, including positions at Deutsche Telephonwerke AG & Co. KG, Boomtel Networks, Centile, Commquest Semiconductor and more.

Craig Calle

SHI, No. 15 on the CRN SP500 list, promoted Craig Calle this month to help support company growth, partner management, sales and delivery. As chief strategy officer, Calle has led the solution provider's software licensing, hardware, enterprise solutions, professional services and IT asset management teams. In his new role, he will also take on additional responsibilities as Head of Partner Management and Technology Asset Optimization (TAO). Calle has held executive positions at Amazon Digital Media and Books segments, Gateway and Crown Cork & Seal.

"As the new year begins, we’re developing better ways to support our customers and partners in several crucial areas of technology solutions and services," said Thai Lee, president and CEO of SHI, in a statement. "Craig's extensive financial experience adds new perspective on the importance of TAO, and his proven leadership experience will allow us to position resources to help sales teams, partners and customers realize their fullest potential in their partnership with SHI."

Venkatapathi 'PV' Puvvada

After serving as acting president of Unisys Federal Systems since July 2014, Venkatapathi "PV" Puvvada has been officially named to the role. Puvvada is responsible for driving the solution provider's federal business and leading the innovation of solutions around cloud, big data, UC, mobile, security and more. Puvvada has been with the company since 1992 in a variety of federal roles.

"This new role will give me a greater opportunity to work with the entire Unisys Federal Systems organization to provide solutions to help federal government clients meet the growing challenges they face," Puvvada said in a statement at the time. "From taking advantage of the efficiencies of the cloud to protecting critical data, Unisys has a stellar track record for delivering mission-critical solutions to federal agencies. I look forward to working with our talented team to continue our tradition of superior customer service and growth in the federal market."

Matt Brickey

ISG Technologies, a Salina, Kan.-based data center and infrastructure company, has a new vice president of data center services this month. Matt Brickey joined ISG from CenturyLink Technology Solutions, bringing 15 years of cloud, security and telecom experience with him. Brickey also has held executive-level positions at CSC, Mobile Armor and Arthur Andersen. In his new role, Brickey will be responsible for helping the company stay ahead of the curve when it comes to data center services.

Yochai Rozenblat

As CTERA Networks, a cloud storage services platform company, looks to launch into a period of "intense expansion," the company has hired Yochai Rozenblat as chief revenue officer to help lead the charge. Rozenblat comes to CTERA from NICE Systems, where he spent 10 years overseeing a period of growth at the company. In his new role, Rozenblat will be responsible for managing the company's go-to-market and oversee a growing company headcount.

"Adding Yochai to the leadership team is an essential part of our strategy as we look to capitalize on the clear and present market demand from security-minded enterprises and service providers globally," CTERA CEO Liran Eshel said in a statement.

Jonathan Huberman

NewNet Communication Technologies, a global provider of telecom solutions, has brought Jonathan Huberman on board as CEO to drive the company's long-term growth strategy, the company said this month. Huberman comes to NetNet from Tiburan, a service provider for the public safety industry, where he was president and CEO. Prior to that, Huberman held positions at the Gores Group, EMC, Iomega and DARPA.

"I am excited to join NewNet Communication Technologies. We have an excellent team, strong products and a wide array of opportunities to pursue across the globe," Huberman said in a statement. "I look forward to working with the team to build an even more robust company."

Eric Wyner

Integrated Media Technologies has landed longtime industry executive Eric Wyner as senior vice president and general manager. Wyner brings more than 25 years of sales experience from NetApp, CA Technologies, EMC and IBM. Wyner said that he hopes to help take IMT to the "next level" with his sales experience. IMT has already been on a recent growth tear, ranking No. 25 on the Inc. Magazine's fastest-growing IT services companies.

"At this critical juncture in IMT’s growth, Eric is an incredible complement to the senior management team," Bruce Lyon, president and CEO, said in a statement. "He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to help us grow our business. His proven sales leadership will have an immediate impact on the organization as we expand geographically throughout the country."

Sam Ibrahim

Former Microsoft executive Sam Ibrahim has joined Gridstore, a hyper-converged all-flash infrastructure company, as vice president of North American Sales. Ibrahim spent more than nine years at Microsoft, most recently as New York area solution sales director. Prior to that, he held positions at EMC, Compaq and more over the past 25 years.

"I am pleased to welcome Sam to the executive team as we execute on the next phase of rapid growth and product innovation," said George Symons, CEO of Gridstore, in a statement at the time. "Sam brings Gridstore a rare blend of sales, technical and management expertise as well as deep knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem."

Mark Langanki

ConvergeOne, a solution provider based in Eagan, Minn. that focuses on communications, collaboration and services, named Mark Langanki as CTO this month. The position is a new one for the company, and Langanki will be filling the role, in addition to his previous position with the company as vice president, operations. Langanki brings with him more than 15 years of history developing both collaboration and contact center solutions as well as managed services. In his new role, Langanki will be putting that experience to use, leading the company's technology strategy in line with the business strategy.

Mark Prestipino, Michael Walsh, Scott Markley

As independenceIT sees growing demand for its Cloud Workspace Suite, it has added to its cloud executive team Mark Prestipino as COO; Michael Walsh as executive vice president of products and engineering; and Scott Markley as senior vice president of sales. CEO Seth Bostock said the group of new executives would help drive operations, engineering and sales as the company continues to grow.

"These exceptional executives with proven leadership records span a range of technology solutions geared toward the enterprise," Bostock said in a statement. "With their experience leading and managing fast-growing businesses, they will enhance our team as the company expands both domestically and abroad."

S teve Rotter, Ken Delaney

Content optimization software company Acrolinx had a dual executive appointment this month, with the addition of Steve Rotter as CMO and Ken Delaney as senior vice president of North American sales. Rotter comes to Acrolinx from Brightcove, where he was vice president of worldwide marketing. Rotter will now be responsible for developing the company's global marketing, communication and demand generation. Delaney comes to Acrolinx from Oracle, where he was a regional vice president of sales. He will now be responsible for sales, channels and business development.

Chris Lynch

Just a few weeks after naming a new CEO and announcing the company's purchase by private equity, DLT Solutions named venture capitalist and entrepreneur Chris Lynch to its board of directors. Lynch is a partner at venture capital firm FKA and former CEO of Vertica Systems. CEO Alan Marc Smith said Lynch will bring valuable emerging technology knowledge, especially analytics and security, as well as federal expertise.