30 Notable IT Executive Moves: March 2015

Start If Off

Vendors and solution providers alike were busy this month building new executive lineups as they looked to grow their businesses. For some companies, that meant creating some channel conflict by grabbing key executives from their competitors and, for others, key internal promotions of longtime company executives into more prominent roles.

Take a look at who was in, and who was out, in March.

Paul Perez

This month, Cisco lost the driving force behind its Unified Computing System, as Paul Perez left the company. Sources told CRN at the time that Perez had landed at Dell as Enterprise CTO, an appointment that was later confirmed by the company. Dell channel partners praised the move, saying that Perez will bring a lot of channel "know-how" to his new position. Perez replaces outgoing Dell Enterprise CTO Sam Greenblatt, who left the company in February. Prior to his position as CTO of Cisco's Data Center Group, Perez was vice president and general manager of Cisco's Computing Systems after joining the networking vendor from Hewlett-Packard.

Rory Read

At the same time it announced its appointment of Paul Perez as Enterprise CTO, Dell also announced it had added Rory Read as chief operating officer and president of Worldwide Commercial Sales. In his new role, Read will oversee Dell's cross-business unit, run global systems integrator relationships, and grow the company's momentum in direct and channel sales. Read comes to Dell from AMD, where, as CEO, he was credited with helping the company expand beyond the PC microprocessor business. He left the position in October. Prior to AMD, Read was president and COO at Lenovo.

Raju Datla

In the second executive departure of the month for Cisco's Unified Computing System division, Vice President of the Computing Systems Product Group Raju Datla left the company this month. Datla has not yet announced a new position, writing only on his LinkedIn profile that he is "exploring the unknown and unseen." Prior to joining Cisco, Datla was founder and CEO of Cloupia, which Cisco acquired in November 2012.

Jay Parker, Gianfranco Lanci, Gerry Smith

This month, Lenovo announced a major shuffle to its top executive line. Effective April 1, former Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci will be corporate president. Jay Parker, former president of North America, will now be SVP of the company's enterprise business group. Finally, Gerry Smith was promoted to executive vice president and COO. Partners said the three executive moves were the right ones to "embrace the future of IT" and that they were necessary as the company looks to transform its business.

Dee Burger

Capgemini Consulting, the global strategy and consulting arm of $11.5 billion Capgemini Group, announced a new North American CEO this month in Dee Burger. The longtime company executive has been with Capgemini for more than 12 years, most recently as global sector lead for the company's telecom, media and entertainment practice. He replaces former CEO Ken Toombs. In his new role, Burger will be responsible for driving the company's vision around consulting and the digital transformation.

"Helping out clients to understand and act upon the opportunities and threats created by the escalating advancement of new technologies is critical to our mission," Burger said in a statement. "I'm excited to capitalize on Capgemini's capabilities to help our clients grow."

Sammy Kinlaw

CRN learned this month that Lenovo will get a new channel chief in rising star Sammy Kinlaw. The nine-year company veteran will assume the position April 1, giving him responsibility over the company's server, PC and storage channel businesses. The appointment comes at a crucial time for Lenovo, as the company works to integrate IBM's server business into the channel. Kinlaw most recently served as executive director of North America channel sales, a position he was promoted to in October of last year. His appointment fills the vacancy left by Chris Frey, who was recently promoted to vice president and general manager of Lenovo's North America commercial business.

Stephanie Dismore

Hewlett-Packard rising star Stephanie Dismore was named this month as the company's new vice president and general manager of U.S. channels for its printing and PC business, replacing Scott Dunsire. The 16-year HP veteran now will be responsible for overseeing Americas commercial channel sales and partner development. Her appointment is especially timely as HP readies to split in two, and Dismore will be positioned to drive the channel program for printing- and PC-focused HP Inc. Prior to taking the new role, Dismore served as vice president and general manager of US consumer sales at HP.

Gary Budzinski

After three years, CSC Executive Vice President of Global Infrastructure Services Gary Budzinski has left the company. He has been replaced by former Credit Suisse managing director and CIO Stephen Hilton. Since taking on the position in 2012, Budzinski has been critical in expanding the company's reach in global service operations and spearheading key relationships, such as VMware. He did not give a reason for his departure, but will remain on board until Hilton has transitioned into his new role.

Brian Pawlowski

After leaving NetApp earlier this month, storage guru Brian Pawlowski landed a new position at Pure Storage, a key competitor to NetApp and other legacy storage vendors. Pawlowski spent nearly three years at NetApp as senior vice president and technical staff member and was particularly recognized for his leadership in the FlashRay development project. At the time, partners at NetApp were concerned that Pawlowski's departure, in addition to other executive shake-ups, signaled an uncertain future for the FlashRay product.

Hans-Peter Klaey

Top Hewlett-Packard software sales executive Hans-Peter Klaey moved this month to network security resiliency software maker Ixia. In his new role as senior vice president of global sales, Klaey will help guide an aggressive security software channel strategy as the company looks to grow its channel footprint with enterprise security solution providers.

"We are doubling down on our partners," said Klaey in an interview with CRN at the time. "We have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us with the channel. We want to leverage the channel and the partners to create new and exciting opportunities for all of us. This is a great place for partners."

Tony Doye

After leaving CompuCom in August, former CEO Tony Doye landed a new position this month as interim CIO at the Girl Scouts of the USA. He replaces former CIO Maggie Miller, who left the scouting organization for a position as CIO of the New York State Office of Information Technology Services. Doye has more than 30 years of experience, most recently serving as CEO of CompuCom from November 2012 to August of last year. He also has held positions as CEO of Fujitsu Americas, SVP at Unisys and a variety of executive roles at CSC.

Dominic Camden

In its third recent executive move, Zones has promoted 15-year veteran Dominic Camden to senior vice president of enterprise sales from vice president of enterprise sales for the North Central area. He replaces Tom Ducatelli, who left the company at the end of January to pursue other opportunities. In his new role, Camden will be responsible for driving double-digit head-count growth and investing in the sales division.

"Our customers are asking for fewer partners, to do business with fewer solution providers," Camden told CRN at the time of his appointment. "The strength of Zones is that we can be that one partner as customers are looking to consolidate."

Chris Riley

After the expiration of his non-compete, former Hewlett-Packard exec Chris Riley quietly started a new role as senior vice president of global alliances at EMC on Feb. 9, replacing Terry Breen, who retired at the beginning of the year. Riley spent more than six years at HP, more recently serving as global services manager for next-generation solutions. With his latest move, Riley returns to EMC, where he was a regional vice president from 1987 to 1999. Solution providers praised the move by EMC, saying Riley knows storage and the channel very well.

Manish Goel

Former NetApp veteran Manish Goel joined Hewlett-Packard this month as senior vice president and general manager of HP storage. He replaces former 3PAR CEO David Scott, who retired this month. In an internal memo at the time, Antonio Neri called Goel "a strategic leader who will help all of you better map our innovations to customer outcomes, which will drive stronger business results." Goel left NetApp in September 2013, where he served as executive vice president of product operations. Partners said they hoped Goel's extensive experience in the storage space would help HP focus more on solutions over products, especially around converged infrastructure.

Tony Vottima

Early this month, Ingram Micro tapped longtime Avnet exec Tony Vottima to lead its vertical market, business intelligence and asset disposition expansion efforts. Vottima replaces Mike Humke, who left Ingram Micro in October to start his own consulting practice. As executive director and general manager of Ingram Micro's vertical market business, Vottima will be responsible, among other things, for rolling out an advisory council and in-depth education program for the distributor's health-care business. Vottima left Avnet in July after 26 years, most recently serving as senior vice president of solutions marketing and development for HP solutions and the company's services division.

Bryan Morris

Xamarin, a hot mobile app development startup that has close ties with Microsoft, made another key executive hire this month with the appointment of Bryan Morris as CFO. Morris' appointment will help the company continue to scale its growth and operations, which includes nearly doubling its developers to more than 900,000 and seeing even faster sales growth. Morris brings more than 20 years of experience to his new role, particularly around financial and operational leadership. He most recently served as CFO of LiveRamp, where he oversaw rapid head count and revenue growth until the company's acquisition last year.

Zulfikar Ramzan

Zulfikar Ramzan was named as RSA's new CTO this month, where he will be responsible for leading and bringing to market the company's security technology. That is especially important, the company said, as RSA looks to protect its customers against more advanced threats. He comes to RSA from Elastica, where he was also CTO. Prior to that, he held positions as chief scientist of Sourcefire and Immunet, as well as technical director of Symantec's Security Technology and Response division.

Gavin Struthers

McAfee, a division of Intel Security, lost its senior vice president of worldwide channels this month. Gavin Struthers left the company late in March to take a role as president of Asia Pacific for Intel Security, responsible for business operations across Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand. Partners said they have seen the company's channel business mature and grow dramatically under Struthers' guidance. In particular, over his three years in the channel chief role at McAfee, Struthers ramped up partner incentives and programs, as well as pushed partners to transition from a traditional reseller model to managed services.

Pete Peterson

In time with its earnings report this month, Tech Data also announced two new executive promotions. In one of those appointments, the Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor named longtime company executive Pete Peterson as senior vice president of business development, effective April 1. He will be responsible for driving and diversifying vendor partnerships. Peterson has been with the distributor since 1996, most recently serving as senior vice president of U.S. sales.

"We are fortunate to have these two experienced executives -- who have nearly 30 years of combined experience with Tech Data -- leading these important areas of our business," CEO Bob Dutkowsky said in a statement at the time. "Pete's extensive IT channel experience and network of relationships make him uniquely qualified for his new strategic position."

Marty Bauerlein

Tech Data also announced the appointment of Marty Bauerlein as senior vice president of U.S. sales, filling the vacancy left by Pete Peterson's appointment to senior vice president of business development. Bauerlein will be responsible for helping define the company's strategic direction for IT VARs in both traditional and new business models.

"Marty is a proven leader who is adept at building a high-performing sales culture and helping our partners grow. With the IT VAR market playing a key role in Tech Data's U.S. growth strategy, he is a natural fit to lead our U.S. Sales organization to the next level," CEO Bob Dutkowsky said in a statement at the time.

Pablo Zurzolo

Tech Data's full-cycle marketing agency, TDAgency, got a new leader this month in Pablo Zurzolo. As vice president of the program, Zurzolo will be responsible for leading the group's strategy for marketing for the distributor's vendor and reseller partners. Zurzolo worked for Tech Data's marketing services organization from 1996 to 2004, but most recently served as CMO for ToDL.com.

"We are excited to welcome Pablo to our team," said Brian Davis, senior vice president of U.S. marketing and purchasing, in a statement. "He brings his extensive channel knowledge and outstanding web and e-marketing experience back to Tech Data. Pablo and our award-winning TDAgency team will be focused on aligning our marketing strategies with those of our channel partners and creating market-leading e-commerce performance."

Justin Current

Lifeboat Distribution, a niche distributor focusing on virtualization, security, business continuity and more, has decided to step into professional services. This month, the Shrewsbury, N.J.-based company hired Justin Current to lead the charge as director of professional services. The longtime channel exec has helped multiple distributors and vendors launch professional and technical services programs, including Arrow, Avnet and Veeam Software.

"Justin Current has an outstanding record of building effective professional services teams for both distributors and vendors," said William R. Botti, excutive vice president, Lifeboat Distribution, in a statement. "We expect to move quickly to introduce the first in a cohesive set of Lifeboat engineering and technical education services designed to help our reseller customers expand their businesses with our key vendor lines."

Sonny Hashmi

As Box looks to make big strides in the federal government market, the company has hired former CIO of the General Services Administration Sonny Hashmi to lead the charge. As managing director for government, Hashmi will drive Box's federal strategy, including its pursuit of FedRAMP authorization. In his most recent role, Hashmi ran $540 million in annual IT investments and helped drive a transformation to the cloud for more than 17,000 employees. He also has held a position as Deputy CIO of Washington, D.C.

Matt Lawrence

SADA Systems, a Los Angeles-based national solution provider focusing on cloud computing and IT consulting, appointed Matt Lawrence as COO. The position is a new one for the company as it looks to better align sales and operations and continues to see strong year-over-year growth. Lawrence comes to SADA Systems from The Branstetter firm, a company he founded to provide executive oversight to early-stage companies, in addition to a consulting practice.

"During this time of massive growth and transformation, there is no better person to guide SADA's business processes evolution than Matt Lawrence," said Tony Safoian, CEO and president of SADA Systems, in a statement. "Matt is a proven business leader who has demonstrated the rare ability to bring together people, processes, and ideas to make our vision into reality and optimize our business processes in order to guide our customers into the next age of cloud technology."

Jim Cook

Last month, Logicalis named a new CEO and COO. This month, the global solution provider named Jim Cook as vice president of services sales for its U.S. division. The 33-year IBM veteran most recently served as consulting partner for IBM Global Services. In his new role at Logicalis, he will lead the company's services sales efforts, including developing sales teams in areas such as health care, ISV and midmarket. Logicalis U.S. CEO Vince DeLuca said Cook's appointment will help the solution provider capitalize on the opportunity for As-a-Service offerings, an area in which Cook has a strong "track record."

John Gray

Former Oracle exec John Gray has joined software analytics company New Relic as senior vice president of business development. New Relic has been on a recent growth tear, raising $115 million for an IPO last year and launching a new channel program, and has brought on Gray to continue building out its channel partner ecosystem. Gray comes to New Relic from LivePerson, where he led the company's channel programs. Prior to that, Gray spent nine years leading technology channels at Oracle.

"John holds a rare but essential combination of business development acumen and a keen understanding of enterprise technology and the analytics market," said Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, chief revenue officer at New Relic, in a statement. "We are fortunate to have him join the team and expand strategic partnerships with our fast-growing ecosystem to bring software analytics to the people who build modern software."

John Newsom

Disaster recovery vendor Quorum got a new CEO this month. John Newsom assumed the role March 12, replacing interim CEO Walter Angerer, who will now serve as executive chairman of the board of directors. Newsom brings more than 20 years of experience to his new role, most recently as vice president and general manager of the application management business unit at Quest. Newsom spent more than 18 years at Quest in a variety of roles before its 2012 acquisition by Dell for $2.4 billion.

"I am honored to join Quorum during this important time of tremendous growth and transformation. I look forward to working with our passionate team to deliver innovative cloud-based DR technologies that will help us broaden our reach into new markets and shape the future of our industry," Newsom said in a statement about his appointment.

Carol O'Kelley

Salesfusion, an integrated marketing automation platform company, announced Carol O'Kelley early this month as the company's new CEO. Investors cheered the news, extending $5 million in funding after the appointment, which will allow the company to ramp up product innovation and client services. O'Kelley has a strong background in marketing, software and growth. She joins Salesfusion from RedPrairie, where she was executive vice president and CMO. She also has held positions at Oracle and Manhattan Associates.

Scott Jackson

On March 19, business management application company Gravity Software announced Scott Jackson as its new vice president of sales. Jackson comes to Gravity Software with more than 20 years of sales and channel experience, including Microsoft Dynamics, primarily in small to midsize businesses.

"Scott's extensive sales and business operations experience with start-up companies made him a natural fit for this position," said John Silvani, president of Gravity Software, in a statement. "His understanding of creating, communicating and executing programs for revenue generation and sales effectiveness will help Gravity scale its sales programs in the coming years."

Cliff Bleustein

CTG, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based solution provider, announced a new President and CEO this month in former Dell executive Cliff Bleustein, effective April 6. Bleustein comes to CTG from Dell Services, where he was chief medical officer and global provider solutions leader, a knowledge base that will come in handy with the company's strong position in the health-care market. Prior to that, Bleustein held positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Bleustein said in a statement that he looks forward to building on CTG's longterm health-care focus and expanding the company's managed services division.