30 Notable IT Executive Moves: June 2015

Start It Off

June was arguably the biggest month so far for channel executive moves this year. Major companies such as Cisco and Microsoft rolled out massive reorganizations of their top-level executive lineups, and other companies followed suit with key additions and shocking executive departures of their own. The result was a month filled with executive turnover that will be sure to keep things interesting in the channel for months to come.

Take a look back at who was in, and who was out, last month.

Gary Moore

Incoming Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins was extremely busy last month, revealing a series of top-level executive moves and departures at the San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant as it looks to flatten its leadership structure. One of those departures was President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Moore, who will leave the company officially July 25, the same day that Robbins will succeed longtime CEO John Chambers. Moore is a 14-year company veteran who was one of the top contenders for the chief executive position. He led the company's services business for 12 years before being named COO in 2011. Before joining Cisco, Moore spent 26 years at solution provider Electronic Data Systems.

Rob Lloyd

In the same release as the news of Gary Moore's departure, Cisco also revealed the upcoming departure of President, Development and Sales Rob Lloyd, who will officially step down July 25 as new CEO Chuck Robbins takes the helm of the networking vendor. Like Moore, Lloyd was seen as a front runner for the CEO position, with experience overseeing sales, engineering and more recently the company's Internet of Everything business. A 21-year veteran of the company, Lloyd was a channel partner favorite and was praised in a blog post by Robbins for his "amazing ability to understand the market opportunities ahead" and "unwavering commitment to customers and our partners."

Cisco Executives

After heralding the departure of two top executives, incoming CEO Chuck Robbins then unveiled what he called the "next generation" Cisco leadership team, a move he said would help build a flatter, more efficient structure. The 10 executives were mostly current Cisco execs, with one company addition of Ruba Borno as chief of staff and vice president of growth initiatives. The rest of the executive lineup will be Rebecca Jacoby as senior vice president of operations, Hilton Romanski as chief technology and strategy officer, Mark Chandler as senior vice president and general counsel, Joe Cozzolino as senior vice president of services, Karen Walker as chief marketing officer, Fran Katsoudas as chief people officer, Chris Dedicoat as senior vice president of worldwide sales, Pankaj Patel as executive vice president and chief development officer, and Kelly Kramer as executive vice president and CFO.

Padmasree Warrior, Edzard Overbeek, Wim Elfrink

Incoming CEO Chuck Robbins continued to build his vision for a "next generation" Cisco leadership this past month, choosing a leadership team of nine current executives and one new addition. However, with that change came another wave of executive departures, including Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior (pictured), Executive Vice President for Industry Solutions and Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink and Edzard Overbeek, the company's top services executive. All three executives were on the purported short list of candidates to succeed current CEO John Chambers. Both Warrior and Overbeek will remain onboard for a year as strategic advisers, and Elfrink will retire July 25, the company said.

More recently, reports emerged that Warrior is being sought by one of India's largest IT service providers, Wipro.

Bill Veghte

At the end of the month, Hewlett-Packard said former Chief Operating Officer Bill Veghte would be leaving the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company later this summer to pursue new opportunities. Veghte most recently served as executive vice president and general manager of HP's Enterprise Group. Once seen as a potential successor to CEO Meg Whitman, Veghte is leaving as HP readies itself for a split into two Fortune 50 companies. Partners said they were sad to see Veghte go after five years with HP, but predicted he would land a high-level position at a top technology company. And those predictions were spot on, as he was named CEO of SurveyMonkey on Tuesday. Before joining HP, Veghte held positions at Microsoft and AppAssure Software and currently sits on the board of directors for VMTurbo and Xero.

Microsoft Shakeup

Cisco wasn't the only company last month making big changes to its executive lineup. On June 17, Microsoft raised the curtain on a major management reorganization, including the departure of Stephen Elop (pictured), executive vice president of Microsoft's Devices group; Kirill Tatarinov, head of Microsoft's Business Solutions Group; Eric Rudder, chief of advanced strategy; and Mark Penn, chief insights officer. Also part of the shift at the Redmond, Wash.-based company was an expanding role for COO Kevin Turner, who will now oversee Microsoft's Dynamics business, which will be moving under the company's cloud and enterprise division. The former head of channel operations for the Microsoft Dynamics applications business, Doug Kennedy, has moved to competitor NetSuite, CRN learned.

Tom Georgens

Storage vendor NetApp got a new CEO last month, ousting Tom Georgens and replacing him with George Kurian, who most recently served as executive vice president of product operations. The news at the beginning of the month comes on the heels of dropping revenues and a slowdown in the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's U.S. commercial and channel businesses. Partners praised the move at the time, saying it would breathe some new life into the company and hopefully set it on a better trajectory.

Dave Donatelli

As Oracle continues to push forward in its hardware and engineering services business, the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company landed a big executive addition in former HP top exec Dave Donatelli to head its infrastructure business. In his new role, Donatelli will be responsible for leading Oracle's server, storage, networking and tape businesses, as well as engineered systems, reporting directly to CEO Mark Hurd. In March, Donatelli left HP, where he was head of the company's enterprise hardware business.

Stephen DiFranco

In another top-level executive departure for HP in June, longtime executive Stephen DiFranco wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he had left the company for a role at Irvine, Calif.-based chipmaker Broadcom. The move comes in the midst of a pivotal moment of change for both companies, with HP approaching its split into two Fortune 50 companies and Broadcom navigating its recent acquisition by Avago Technologies. DiFranco will now be senior vice president of worldwide channels for the Internet of Things at Broadcom. He most recently served as vice president of Americas enterprise channels at HP.

Rob Greer

Campbell, Calif.-based ForeScout continued its series of blockbuster executive moves in June, adding former HP executive Rob Greer as chief marketing officer. According to his LinkedIn profile, Greer left his position as vice president and general manager of HP Software, Network Security, in May. He has also held executive positions at Symantec. In an email to CRN, ForeScout CEO Mike DeCesare, who just joined the company himself from Intel Security, said he was "very fired up" to bring Greer on board, calling him the "next generation of CMO."

Dave DeWalt

In another big addition for ForeScout last month, the network security company said it had added FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt to its board of directors, making this the first security company board that the executive has joined other than his own. In an interview with CRN, ForeScout CEO Mike DeCesare said DeWalt's experience will prove invaluable as the company looks to follow the same growth trajectory and future IPO that FireEye has already paved. DeWalt joins a board of directors that includes DeCesare, who is the former president of Intel Security, as well as former Symantec president and CEO Enrique Salem.

Brad Hedlund

Amazon Web Services had a big win for its technical lineup last month, nabbing well-known VMware sales engineer and advocate of NSX Brad Hedlund. According to Hedlund's LinkedIn profile, he is now a "member of the technical staff" at Seattle-based AWS and is helping to open a Chicago office for the company to handle enterprise customer support. Hedlund had been at VMware since 2012, before which he held positions at Cisco.

Frank Calderoni

After revealing his departure from Cisco in November, former Executive Vice President and CFO Frank Calderoni landed a new role in June at Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat. Calderoni will now be executive vice president, operations and CFO at the open-source software specialist, responsible for leading the company to its "next phase" of growth to exceed $10 billion in revenue, CEO and President Jim Whitehurst said. In addition to his decade of experience at Cisco, Calderoni brings an extensive background of experience from vendors such as IBM, SanDisk and QLogic.

Tetsuya Shoji

NTT Communications, sister company to solution provider giant Dimension Data, named longtime executive Tetsuya Shoji as CEO. A 38-year company veteran who most recently oversaw group sales and corporate management as a senior vice president, Shoji will replace former CEO Akira Arima at the Tokyo-based company.

"I pledge to keep NTT Communications closely attuned to the market environment and customer needs, aiming to act faster than ever before to provide reliable, innovative services," Shoji wrote in a message posted to the NTT Communications website.

NTT also named former Infosys leader Jeffrey Bannister as executive vice president of global enterprise services, responsible for growing the company's business with U.S.-based multinational corporations.

Sudhakar Ramakrishna

As Pulse Secure continues to build a business independent of Juniper, which it split off from in October, the mobile security company has named Sudhakar Ramakrishna as CEO to lead the charge. Ramakrishna comes to San Jose, Calif.-based Pulse Secure from Citrix, where he was senior vice president and general manager for the company's enterprise and service provider division. He has also held executive positions at Polycom, Motorola, Stoke and 3Com. In an interview with CRN at the time, Ramakrishna said he looks forward to the opportunity to build the company's strategic vision going forward as an independent company, positioning itself to take advantage of trends around mobile security and the Internet of Things.

Luanne Tierney

At the beginning of the month, Proofpoint poached rival Fortinet's vice president of marketing Luanne Tierney to serve as its senior vice president of marketing. Tierney confirmed the move to CRN at the time, saying she would officially start at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Proofpoint on June 15. At the time, there was no replacement named for her. Tierney joined Fortinet last August from Juniper Networks. She said that she had a "great experience" at the security vendor, but saw the move to Proofpoint as a "great opportunity" with a "great company."

James Lewandowski

FireMon continued its executive shuffle again in June, naming James Lewandowski as its new president and COO. Lewandowski joins the Overland Park, Kan.-based company from secure cloud and managed hosting company FireHost, where he was CEO. He has also held positions at Rackspace, McAfee, Yahoo, BMC Software and IBM. In an interview with CRN at the time, Lewandowski said he hopes to leverage his more than 30 years of experience in the channel to strengthen FireMon's channel strategy and vendor partnerships.

Jonathan Martin

Pure Storage had a big executive win last month, stealing away EMC former Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Martin and adding him as its new CMO. The position is a new one for the Mountain View, Calif.-based all-flash storage array vendor as the company looks to launch into its next stage of growth. Before spending four years at EMC, Martin held positions at Hewlett-Packard, Salesforce.com and Veritas Software. Partners praised the move, saying that it is an indication that the vendor is looking for new ways to grow its business and amplify its brand message under proven leadership.

Otto Berkes

In June, CA Technologies filled its chief technology officer post, a role that had been vacant since January. Otto Berkes, former HBO chief technology officer and Microsoft development executive, was named to the role early last month and officially stepped in June 15. Before joining HBO, Berkes spent 18 years at Microsoft in a variety of senior technology development roles, including helping found the Xbox line. The appointment comes as New York-based CA undergoes significant changes, including moves to bolster its product portfolio and rebuilding its channel strategy.

Christofer Hoff

Juniper Networks lost a key exec in June as the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based networking vendor looks to ramp up its security practice. Vice President and Security Chief Technology Officer Christofer Hoff left the company early last month, announcing his departure in a blog post. Hoff did not say where he was going, only that he will transition from "building fire extinguishers" to "fighting fires." Juniper declined to say if they had found a replacement for Hoff at the time, but partners said they hoped the vendor could find someone to step up and provide security direction at the vendor. They said they were not worried about their security practices with Juniper as long as the vendor steps up and finds a new "standard bearer" for its security business.

Tom Joyce

In another month of big executive wins for Dell from its competition, the Round Rock, Texas-based vendor added key Hewlett-Packard acquisition executive Tom Joyce to its Software Group, sources told CRN. As senior vice president of global corporate development, Joyce played a key role at HP, driving blockbuster acquisitions such as its recent $3 billion acquisition of Aruba Networks. Solution providers praised the move, saying it was yet another acquisition to the Dell enterprise "dream team" and hoped Joyce's acquisition and industry experience would help Dell grow its software business.

Kester Kyrie

As cloud-based wireless specialist AirTight Networks looks to make itself the "most channel-friendly Wi-Fi vendor in the market," the cloud-based wireless specialist has hired its first official channel chief to lead the charge. A 25-year veteran, Kester Kyrie will assume the role of vice president of worldwide sales and channels at Mountain View, Calif.-based AirTight, responsible for driving growth through its revamped channel strategy and EZ Street partner program. Kyrie joins the company from Aruba Networks, where he most recently served as head of sales for the company's western region. He has also held positions at Cyphort, IntruVert Networks, Alteon WebSystems and Shomiti Systems.

David Bankemper

In a second executive move for Juniper Networks last month, sources told CRN that key channel leader David Bankemper has left the company after seven years. He served as senior director of worldwide channel programs. Bamkemper was credited with helping develop the networking vendor's simple, consistent and improved channel program, and his departure is "definitely a loss for the company," partners said. While Benkemper didn't say where he was going, partners guessed it could be Dell or Avaya, where other Juniper execs have landed in recent months.

Liu Jun

Last month, Lenovo's head of its mobile business stepped down, less than a year after the vendor acquired Motorola Mobility from Google. Jun, who served as president of the company's Mobile Business Group, will be replaced by current ShenQi smartphone unit head Chen Xudong. The shift comes as Lenovo, which has headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, N.C., faces increasing pressure from companies such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Huawei and Apple. Jun will remain with the company as a special consulant to CEO Yang Yuanqing.

Veena Bricker

As Accuvant and FishNet Security continue their integration into Denver-based Optiv Security over the next few months, the company named its first-ever chief human resources officer in Veena Bricker, who will oversee the combined company culture and talent management in the transition and beyond. Reporting to CEO Dan Burns, Bricker brings more than 20 years of experience in human resources, particularly around leading M&A and integration transformations. She comes to the company from Denver-based solution provider CoreSite, where she was senior vice president and oversaw a doubling of the company size in three years. She has also held positions at Avaya, McData Corp., Quest Cybersolutions, Storagetek and more.

David Damato

Fresh off of landing $52 million in venture capital funding from Andreesen Horowitz, hot security startup Tanium continued to expand its executive lineup last month, naming former FireEye exec David Damato as chief security officer. At FireEye, Damato served as managing director at Mandiant, helping lead incident response investigations, including those around the recent megabreach of Anthem Health. He has also held positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Raytheon. In a statement at the time, Damato said he looked forwarding to bringing his extensive incident response background to the Emeryville, Calif.-based company and "helping drive the industry forward."

Shlomo Kramer

After a series of successful investments in Imperva, Palo Alto Networks, Trusteer and more, Check Point co-founder Shlomo Kramer made his next move in June, placing a personal equity investment in breach detection company LightCyber and joining the company's board of directors. CEO Gonen Fink told CRN that having someone like Kramer on the board of the company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Los Altos, Calif., is "critical" for the startup as it looks to grow and expand its channel program.

Daniel Sturman

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Cloudera made a big executive win last month, snagging one of Google's top cloud infrastructure engineers as its new vice president of engineering. Daniel Sturman was also vice president of engineering at Google, overseeing the infrastructure underlying the company's entire cloud platform. Partners said the move is a significant one for the data analytics software vendor, reportedly valued around $5 billion, as it puts it in a stronger position to bring its Hadoop analytics platform to market. In his new role, Sturman will be responsible for leading the company's efforts in that space and advancing its technology.

Timothy Howard

Exeter, R.I.-based Carousel Industries dove deeper into the health-care industry last month, naming Timothy Howard as director of Healthcare Solutions. The position is a new one for Carousel and will be used to help propel the company's health-care practice and solutions, including around its recent expansion into telehealth with its DistribuCare video-based solution. Howard said he was attracted to Carousel because of its solid reputation and broad footprint in the health-care space. Howard comes to Carousel from Unify, where he also led that company's health-care business. He has also held positions at Arrow Systems Integration, Xeta Technologies and Williams Communications.

Chris Crellin, Scott Graham

In a dual executive addition in June, backup and data protection company Intronis added both Chris Crellin and Scott Graham to its executive lineup, as vice president of product management and vice president of IT and operations, respectively. Crellin joins Chelmsford, Mass.-based Intronis from Datto and has also held positions at Backupify and RSA. Graham brings more than 25 years of experience in developing cloud-based solutions, most recently from First Marblehead Bank. Intronis CEO Rick Faulk said the additions will help "expand and enhance our road map, execute against our growth strategy and deliver an exceptional partner experience."