15 Notable Executive Moves: December

The IT Executive Door Keeps Revolving

From C-suite shifts to channel chief changes and some eyebrow-raising new moves, here's a roundup of major IT executive comings and goings relevant to the IT channel for the month of December 2010.

Blackmore Takes Over ShoreTel

Back in July, ShoreTel confirmed that John W. Combs, who had been its CEO since 2004, would step down, and that a search would begin for his replacement. That search at last ended in December, with the appointment of Peter Blackmore as ShoreTel's new president and CEO. Blackmore (pictured) was most recently president, CEO and a director at UTStarcom, and previously held executive positions at Unisys and HP. He comes to ShoreTel at a most interesting time -- one of substantial growth for the company, a game-changing acquisition it recently made of Agito Networks, and renewed interest from solution providers disillusioned with Avaya, Cisco and other UC rivals.

N-able's New Man

J.P. Jauvin joined N-able in June as chief operating officer, and in December, he added president to his title, now responsible for N-able's worldwide strategy, sales and operations.

Changes At Autotask

Big changes for Autotask: in mid-December, the managed services platform vendor confirmed that CEO Bob Godgart would step down to take a new position as Chief Visionary Officer, and that Mark Cattini, a former executive at Lotus, MapInfo and Awareness, would assume the CEO role. According to Autotask, the moves allow Godgart (pictured) to focus on the company's strategic vision while Cattini runs the business.

Where To, Mr. McBain?

Lenovo and IBM veteran Jay McBain in late December confirmed his departure from Lenovo, where he was director of small and medium business, and a popular figure in the channel. McBain wrote about the move in a post to his personal blog -- "After 16 years, 5 locations, and about 12 different jobs, I bid farewell to Lenovo and IBM," he said -- but as of press time, hadn't yet confirmed where he was headed next.

Humke's New Home: Ingram

Mike Humke, former HP public sector channel chief, left HP in early November, following 12 years at the tech giant and impressive gains in its public sector and health-care channel businesses. At the time, the rumor was that Humke would take a position with one of HP's many distributors, and the rumor proved true: Humke landed at Ingram Micro with the title of senior director of business development for health care and vertical markets. At Ingram, he'll be responsible for building out the distributor's health-care practice and broader vertical market strategy -- something that should feel right at home for Humke, given his more than 30 years of public sector experience.

Another Big Exit At Sage

Sage in late December confirmed that Paul Johnson (pictured), executive vice president of sales, left Sage to join another as-yet-unidentified company. It was only the latest in a series of executive changes at the vendor, including the approaching retirement of CEO Sue Swenson, and the October departures of Jodi Uecker-Rust, former head of Sage Business Solutions. Johnson is credited with rejuvenating Sage North America's channel operations and building its channel management team. Tom Miller, vice president of channel management, will assume Johnson's position on an interim basis.

Asay Amscrays

Matt Asay, chief operating officer for Canonical and a well-known name in open-source circles, left Canonical in mid-December with plans to join a start-up, Strobe. The move happened not 10 months after Asay became COO, replacing Jane Silber, who had moved on to become CEO after herself replacing Mark Shuttleworth. Asay's departure was confirmed on the Canonical blog by Silber, who wrote, "We will recruit to replace Matt, hoping to find someone who carries on his love of Dilbert cartoons and The Smiths! We all wish Matt well in his new adventure."

A Veteran For Nexsan

Storage systems ace Nexsan added a veteran talent to its ranks in early December, naming Victoria Grey its new senior vice president of marketing. Grey, who reports directly to Nexsan Chief Commercial Officer Michael McGuire, has a long history in the storage business, with previous executive positions at Quantum, EMC and Legato Systems. She will be driving Nexsan's global corporate and channel marketing efforts, covering public relations, field marketing, promotions, social media, lead generation and all points in between.

Logicalis Adds DeLuca

System integrator powerhouse Logicalis has a new chief operating officer: Vince DeLuca, who was appointed to the role in early December. A channel veteran with more than 20 years in the strategic IT outsourcing field, DeLuca comes to Logicalis from Wipro Technologies, where he ran infrastructure practice service delivery and client engagements. Before Wipro, he was an executive at SMS and Marconi's Enterprise Division.

Yahoo Loses Siegel

Andrew Siegel, who ran mergers and acquisitions at Yahoo, departed the search and media company and landed at Advance Publications, the parent company of Conde Nast. There, he has the newly created position of senior vice president, strategy and corporate development. The appointment is effective January 3. Siegel had been vice president of corporate development at Yahoo since 2009.

GTSI's New Leader

GTSI, No. 82 on the 2010 VAR 500 list, named Sterling Phillips Jr. its new president and CEO following the forced resignation of Scott Friedlander in late October. Friedlander's departure followed the suspension -- and the subsequent lifting of that suspension -- of GTRI's federal contracting ability by the Small Business Administration. Phillips has been a partner at FirstMark Capital since 2007, and before that was CEO and chairman of Analex for six years.

Tech Data's Logistics Boss

Tech Data in early December promoted Darryl Branch to the role of senior vice president, logistics and integration services, where he'll be responsible for the operations and performance of Tech Data's six U.S.-based logistics centers. That includes 2.2 million square feet of warehouse space, Tech Data's ISO 9001:2008 certified technology integration centers, transportation, quality assurance and engineering teams. Branch joined Tech Data in 2007 as vice president of logistics and integration services, and boasts some 25 years of logistics experience.

Avnet Adds to HP, IBM Practices

Avnet Technology Solutions has been making quite a few moves lately in service of its many vendor-specific practices, and in late November, it bolstered its IBM and HP practices with veteran talent. Gale Brown was appointed vice president of services for the IBM Solutions group, following her role as vice president of business partner sales, general business, at IBM itself. Phyllis McCullagh was named vice president of field sales for the HP solutions group. Also an industry veteran, McCullagh held senior executive positions with Compaq and Comptia among others, and was most recently vice president of distribution and sales operations at D-Link.

Google's Fiber Specialist

Google in mid-December hired Milo Medin, a legend among Silicon Valley engineers and Internet historians, as its vice president of access services, where he'll take over the task of managing Google's Fiber team and overseeing the build out of Google's own high-speed fiber network. Google earlier in 2010 said it would build an experimental fiber network capable of Internet speeds 100 times faster than what's presently deployed. According to a statement from Medin, Google will announce the communities its selected for the fiber trails early in 2011.

Zeacom Bulks Up

Zeacom, a major up-and-comer in the worlds of unified communications and contact center solutions, appointed Samuel Williams its new vice president for business development. Williams will lead the charge on executing Zeacom's international expansion strategy, targeting global opportunities and driving relationships all over the world, as well as growing Zeacom's channel business. He's a Zeacom veteran, having been managing director for Europe for the last few years.