30 Notable IT Executive Moves: October 2013

Start It Off

The weather may be cooling, but the executive moves are heating up again as we head toward the holiday season. October's executive changes were highlighted by several major departures, including the exit of a longtime Intel executive, as well as the channel chiefs at Juniper Networks and Panasonic, respectively.

David Perlmutter

After spending nearly 35 years with Intel, David "Dadi" Perlmutter is retiring from the world's largest chip maker. Perlmutter, who stepped down as executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Architecture Group, was credited with transforming the company's chip design and manufacturing business, and was widely viewed a potential CEO candidate following Paul Otellini's retirement. His duties will be assumed by CEO Brian Krzanich as well as by various managers of the PC, mobile devices and data center product departments.

Mark Potter

Hewlett-Packard promoted Mark Potter to the position of chief technology officer and senior vice president of infrastructure technology at HP's Enterprise Group. Potter most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of industry standard server and software for HP's Enterprise Group. He joined Compaq in 1989 and held senior business and R&D management positions with the computer maker before it was acquired by HP in 2001.

Sheila O'Neil

Longtime Panasonic channel chief Sheila O'Neil departed the company after 16 years. She first joined the company in 1997 as a channel sales manager in Panasonic's Toughbook division and worked in several indirect sales roles before becoming vice president of channel management for Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. Prior to joining Panasonic, O'Neil worked at MicroAge in vendor marketing roles.

Emilio Umeoka

Another Juniper Networks executive has left the building. Emilio Umeoka, senior vice president of worldwide partners, departed the company following Juniper's corporate reorganization, which combined the networking vendor's channel and commercial sales into one division. Prior to joining Juniper, Umeoka spent several years at Microsoft as both president of Brazil and president of Asia Pacific. He also led commercial channels in Latin America for Compaq.

Angela Ahrendts

Apple made a surprising hire last month with the addition of Angela Ahrendts, CEO of high-end fashion retailer Burberry. Ahrendts joins Apple as senior vice president of retail and online stores, where she will oversee the company's strategy and operations of Apple Stores. Before being named as Burberry's chief executive in 2006, she worked at Fifth & Pacific Companies in a number of executive management roles around merchandising and design, including executive vice president of the company's Liz Claiborne division.

Ari Bose

Brocade added a new name to its executive lineup in Ari Bose, who joined the networking company as chief information officer. Bose comes to Brocade from Polycom, where he served as senior vice president and CIO. Before joining Polycom, he also worked as senior vice president and CIO at UTStarcom and held several senior-level IT positions at 3Com, Bay Networks and Apple.

Eddie Schwartz

Former RSA executive Eddie Schwartz has joined Verizon. Schwartz, who previously served as vice president and chief information security officer at RSA Security, was named vice president of global security solutions at Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Prior to RSA, he co-founded and served as chief security officer at NetWitness and served as chief technology officer at ManTech.

James Beer

Symantec's chief financial officer has stepped down. James Beer, who served as CFO for the security company since 2006, joined drug distributor and health-care IT provider McKesson as executive vice president and CFO. He also was appointed to McKesson's executive committee. Prior to Symantec, Beer served as CFO of AMR Corp. and its chief subsidiary American Airlines, and spent 15 years with the airline.

Jeremy Nicholls

Arbor Networks promoted Jeremy Nicholls to the position of global vice president of channel sales and alliances. Nicholls, who previously served as head of channel sales and business development for Arbor's EMEA region, replaces outgoing channel chief Bill Lipsin, who recently joined Brocade. Before joining Arbor, he served as vice president of EMEA sales at Niksun.

Lori Cornmesser

Former Juniper Networks channel chief Lori Cornmesser has joined Ixia Communications. Cornmesser was named Ixia's vice president of global channel sales. She spent 11 years at Juniper, most recently serving as vice president of worldwide partner development at Juniper. She also was head of Juniper's global managed services and service provider alliances.

Sam Haffar

Veteran solution provider executive Sam Haffar has been named president and CEO of Computex Technology Solutions. Haffar was most recently president and CEO of Computex, which was acquired by Stratos Management Systems last year. Last month the company rebranded itself Computex Technology Solutions and named Haffar as president and CEO. Haffar founded Computex Inc. with his brother Jason nearly 30 years ago.

Rich Geraffo

Oracle has added another HP executive to its ranks. The enterprise software giant named Rich Geraffo as senior vice president of worldwide alliances and channels. Geraffo formerly served as senior vice president and managing director of HP's enterprise business for the Americas. Prior to joining HP, he served as vice president and general manager of the Americas at VMware and also held various senior-level positions at BEA Systems and IBM.

Eric Schmidt

Microsoft last month lost two more veteran members of its Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) team. First was Eric Schmidt, senior director of consumer application evangelism, who left the software giant after 15 years. According to his LinkedIn page, he joined Google as a cloud solutions architect.

Scott Kerfoot

The second member of Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) team to exit the company is Scott Kerfoot, who spent 12 years with the company. He most recently served as senior director of technology evangelism within DPE. Prior to joining Microsoft, Kerfoot founded and ran his own software and consulting business ApparelSoftware.

Kate Hutchison

Riverbed Technology appointed Kate Hutchison as its new chief marketing officer. Hutchison most recently served as executive vice president and CMO at Polycom and also served as vice president of marketing and CMO at VMware. Before that, she spent five years at Citrix in various management roles and also worked at BEA Systems as head of marketing for several years.

Dave Mosley

Seagate promoted veteran executive Dave Mosley to the new position of president of operations and technology, overseeing all product development and research. Mosley most recently served as executive vice president of operations and research & development. He first joined the storage company in 1996 after serving as a research physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has held several senior-level positions in sales, marketing and operations.

Albert 'Rocky' Pimentel

Seagate also promoted Albert "Rocky" Pimentel to the role of president of global markets and customers, overseeing Seagate's global sales and marketing operations. He most recently served as executive vice president, and chief sales and marketing officer. Pimentel joined Seagate in 2011 after serving on the company's board of directors. He previously served as COO and CFO of McAfee, and senior vice president and CFO of LSI Logic.

Todd Meester

Co-location service provider ViaWest appointed Todd Meester as its new regional vice president and general manager of the Minnesota region. Meester will oversee the company's expansion in the area and the completion of ViaWest's new Minneapolis-based data center, set to open in 2014. Before ViaWest, Meester served as general manager and regional director of enterprise markets for Level 3 Communications, and also held management positions at XO Communications and McLeod USA.

Ita Brennan

Ita Brennan announced she will step down as Infinera's chief financial officer next February to pursue a new opportunity at a technology startup. She joined the semiconductor company in 2006 and worked in several different financial roles before being named CFO in 2010. Before joining Infinera, she worked at Maxtor and Informix Software.

Manish Goel

Former NetApp executive Manish Goel has joined data analytics company Guavus as CEO, succeeding company founder and former CEO Guavus Anukool Lakhina. Goel spent 11 years with NetApp, most recently serving as executive vice president of product operations. Before joining the storage company, he also held executive positions at Copper Mountain Networks, Cadence and McKinsey.

Jasmine Lombardi

Intronis named Jasmine Lombardi as its new vice president of Partner Success, coinciding with the introduction of the cloud backup company's new Partner Success organization. Lombardi will lead Intronis' unified partner and indirect sales operations. Before joining Intronis, she was in charge of product operations at Aspen Technology, and also held senior positions at Mzinga and Prospero Technologies, among others.

Kurt Van Wagenen

FirstLight Fiber, formerly known as Tech Valley Communications, named Kurt Van Wagenen as its new president and CEO, replacing longtime chief executive and co-founder Kevin O'Connor. Van Wagenen also was named to FirstLight's board of directors. He most recently served as president and CEO of Fiber Tower, and also served as president and CEO of Neon Communications and Globix.

Brian Douglas

Carousel Industries tapped Brian Douglas as director of business development for the solution provider's public sector business. Douglas will report to James Marsh, Carousel's senior vice president of sales. Before Carousel, Douglas served as national business development director at Polycom. He also served as group manager of product design for AMD Global Telemedicine.

Reginald P. Best

Networking company Lumeta named veteran IT executive Reginald P. Best as its new chief product officer. Best will oversee all product development, management and marketing for the company. Before joining Lumeta, he served as president and COO of ProtonMedia. Best also founded a number of technology companies, such as Telos Communications and Netilla Networks.

Keith Carpenter

Storage solutions firm Coraid has named Keith Carpenter as vice president of worldwide sales. Carpenter will oversee the global sales team and drive sales strategy for the Ethernet storage company. Prior to Coraid, he worked at Virident Systems as vice president of sales for the Americas before it was acquired by HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies). He also co-founded Cache IQ and served as vice president of sales before it was acquired by NetApp.

Jyoti Lynch

E-commerce solutions company Speed Commerce promoted veteran IT executive Jyoti Lynch to chief information officer. She most recently served as vice president of IT services with SpeedFC, which was acquired by Navarre last year to form Speed Commerce. Before joining Speed in 2011, she held vice president and director positions at a variety of companies, including Blockbuster and Vesta Broadband.

Janice Roberts

Venture capital veteran Janice Roberts has joined Zebra Technologies' board of directors. Roberts currently serves as a venture adviser at Mayfield Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. She also served as managing director at Mayfield for 12 years focusing on mobile, wireless, and communications technologies. Before that, she held executive positions at 3Com. Roberts also currently serves on the boards of ARM Holdings and RealNetworks.

Thomas T. Edman

TTM Technologies promoted Thomas T. Edman to the role of CEO effective Jan. 1. Edman, who previously served as president of the circuit board manufacturer, replaces former CEO Kenton Adler, who is retiring. Edman was named president of TTM earlier this year and has served on the company's board since 2004. Before TTM, he served as group vice president of Applied Materials, and president and CEO of Applied Films, which was later acquired by Applied Materials.

John Rizzo

IT management software maker SolarWinds has tapped John Rizzo as executive vice president, chief marketing officer and chief customer officer. In his new role, Rizzo will oversee SolarWinds' marketing operations and customer experience efforts. Prior to SolarWinds, he served as chief marketing officer at Jive Software, and also served as president and CEO of SaaS provider Informative.

Jim Lenox

Software-defined networking startup Midokura has appointed Jim Lenox as vice president of worldwide sales, where he will lead the global sales strategy and operations for the company. Before joining Midokura, Lenox spent 13 years at VMware, where he most recently served as senior director of cloud services sales. Prior to VMware, he held management positions at Phonic Ear and Nasam.