30 Notable IT Executive Moves: October 2016

Start It Off

The month of October was a stormy one in some parts of the country. And that description extends to a number of IT vendors and solution providers that underwent changes in their executive ranks during the month.

Some companies, including Unisys, StorageCraft and Syntel, named new chief financial officers while others, including Cybereason, VeriStor and Dell/EMC, appointed new marketing executives. Other companies reported executive departures – not all of them voluntary – with managers falling like leaves from the autumn trees.

Here's a look at the executives who were in during the month of October and who was out.

Chris Frey

Chris Frey, a 10-year veteran of China-based PC giant Lenovo, left the company last month, vacating his spot as the lead of the vendor's commercial sales operations just 18 months after taking an expanded role as vice president and general manager of commercial sales.

Frey had overseen all North America sales and as head of Lenovo's North American commercial channel was charged with significantly expanding Lenovo's footprint in large commercial accounts.

In the wake of Frey's departure, Emilio Ghilardi, president of Lenovo North America, added acting commercial PC general manager to his duties while the commercial data center team reports to Cliff Gumkowski, vice president, North America Data Center Group sales.

Zorawar Biri Singh

Last month Cisco saw the departure of Zorawar Biri Singh, CTO and senior vice president of the networking giant's Cloud Services and Platforms unit.

Singh leaves the company in the midst of a major reorganization of its engineering operations after holding the position for only 15 months. Singh replaced his predecessor, Padmasree Warrior, in July 2015 on the first day Chuck Robbins took the helm as CEO.

Singh's departure comes as Cisco continues restructuring its entire 25,000-member engineering team along, part of a broader realignment and restructuring to invest in priority areas such as security and Internet of Things. The restructuring, announced in August, included the elimination of up to 5,500 positions.

Craig Barratt

Craig Barratt stepped down as CEO of Google Access, the division that includes the company's once-ambitious Google Fiber operation tasked with providing high-speed Internet service. Barratt will stay on as an advisor to Larry Page, CEO of Google parent Alphabet.

Barratt's move, which came to light on Oct. 25, came as Google said it was halting Google Fiber deployments and cutting the operation's staff by about 9 percent.

Mary Catherine Wilson

Mary Catherine Wilson, Dell's North America channel marketing director, stepped into a new global marketing role last month under the new Dell EMC marketing reorganization.

Although the position does not have a title yet, Wilson will oversee Dell EMC's marketing enablement strategy and the rollout of marketing tools worldwide. She will report to Cheryl Cook, vice president of global channel marketing.

One of Wilson's first orders of business will be to roll out a unified partner portal for the new Dell EMC, she said.

Janet Haugen

Unisys Corp. CFO Janet Haugen retired at the end of October after a career of more than two decades at the Blue Bell, Pa.-based company, including 16 years as the company's CFO.

On the company's most recent quarterly earnings call last month, Unisys CEO Peter Altabef thanked Haugen for her "extraordinary service," with the company.

Inder Singh

Inder Singh was promoted to Unisys' CFO in October after seven months with Unisys as the company's chief strategy and marketing officer. Singh replaced Janet Haugen who retired effective Oct. 31.

Before joining Unisys Singh served as senior vice president for finance and strategy at Comcast Cable. Before that he held senior corporate finance leadership positions at Cisco Systems, AT&T and Prudential Financial.

Chris Hertz

New Signature founder Chris Hertz announced his departure from the company last month after growing the solution provider to become a significant force in the Microsoft channel, including snagging two Microsoft U.S. Partner of the Year awards. New Signature is often held up as a leading example of a next-generation solution provider, working with cloud systems and other emerging technologies.

Hertz served as the Washington D.C.-based company's CEO for 12 years before obtaining $35 million in funding from Columbia Capital in April 2015. Hertz shifted to the role of president as part of that deal while Jeff Tench joined as New Signature's new CEO.

Tony Sorrentino

Greenville, S.C.-based distributor ScanSource promoted two longtime-executives in October and shifted two others to new roles.

Tony Sorrentino and Paul Constantine were named co-presidents of the distributor's $2.38 billion barcode, networking and security segment. Buck Baker, who served as president of that business for three years, was named president of ScanSource's $1.16 billion communications and services segment.

Mike Ferney, who held the post Baker is moving to, was moved over to the newly-created role of innovation architect where he'll be responsible for developing the processes and structure behind ScanSource's innovation, according to the company.

All four executives report to ScanSource CEO Mike Baur.

John Thompson

Symantec's channel leadership saw more changes this month as the company announced the departure of channel chief John Thompson amid a company-wide restructuring initiative.

The restructuring, according to the company, takes Symantec from a globally-led partner structure to an enterprise leadership team comprised of global partner sales; global systems integrators; and service providers, MSPs and strategic partnerships.

As a result of the restructuring, Thompson, head of worldwide channels, will leave the company in mid-December, the company said. Thompson joined Symantec in 2014 from Cisco, where he was global vice president of strategic partners.

Torjus Gylstorff, Mieke Van Meensel and David Canellos

Following the acquisition of BlueCoat in August, Symantec appointed a number of BlueCoat executives to top management posts on Oct. 25, naming three executives to lead new enterprise leadership teams.

Symantec appointed Torjus Gylstorff, former Blue Coat vice president of emerging business, as the head of the company's new global partner sales organization.

Former Blue Coat global vice president of strategic alliances, Mieke Van Meensel, was tapped to lead Symantec's global systems integrator team. And former Blue Coat advanced technology group senior vice president David Canellos became head of Symantec's service provider, MSP and strategic partnership teams.

Jim Ritchings

Managed security services specialist Trustwave hired Jim Ritchings, former F5 Networks channel chief, to help cement the Chicago company's commitment to the channel. Ritchings is tasked with improving the company's indirect sales and revamping its partner programs around security services.

The channel push comes as Trustwave looks to increase its employee ranks by 20 percent, with 300 current job openings aimed at increasing its global staff to 1,500.

In an interview with CRN, Ritchings said Trustwave is doubling down on its channel initiatives and focusing on enabling partners with better resources, pointing to plans to revamp the Trustwave Channel Partner Program.

Joseph S. Driscoll

Joseph S. Driscoll stepped down as solution provider Connection's CFO, senior vice president and treasurer in October to take a job as CFO at Verscend Technologies, a Waltham, Mass.-based developer of healthcare data analytics technology.

News of Driscoll's departure from Merrimack, N.H.-based Connection, previously known as "PC Connection" and No. 21 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, was initially disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

William Schulze, Connection's corporate controller, assumed the duties of treasurer and chief financial officer on an interim basis while the company seeks a permanent replacement for Driscoll.

Damian DiPippa

Government solution provider ManTech International named Damian DiPippa as the Herndon, Va.-based company's senior vice president and general manager of mission and intelligence solutions for the company's Mission, Cyber & Intelligence Solutions (MCIS) Group.

In his new position, DiPippa will be responsible for augmenting ManTech's growing portfolio of managed services, multi-disciplined intelligence security services, and offerings in enterprise IT, cloud, space resilience, analytics and big data across federal law enforcement and intelligence community customers.

Previously DiPippa was vice president at Engility Corp. where he led engineering support for intelligence community and Department of Defense agencies.

Emil Sayegh

Managed cloud infrastructure company Hostway Services named Emil Sayegh its new president and CEO. Sayegh succeeded Robert Boles who remains in an advisory role to facilitate the transition.

Before joining Hostway, Sayegh served as president and CEO at hosting services company Codero for five years. Before that he was vice president of cloud services at Hewlett-Packard Co.

Prior to that Sayegh was vice president and general manager of the Cloud Computing Division at Rackspace where he led Rackspace's entry into the emerging public cloud market and rapidly grew the business to more than 100,000 clients.

Yogesh Gupta

Application development tool vendor Progress Software Corp., Bedford, Mass., named Yogesh Gupta, previously CEO of Kaseya, to be its new CEO.

Gupta is replacing Phil Pead, Progress' CEO since December 2012, who is retiring. Pead will continue to serve on Progress' board of directors.

Gupta was president and CEO of Kaseya, an IT management and monitoring software developer, from 2013 to 2015. Before that Gupta was CEO at FatWire and prior to that held several executive posts at Computer Associates.

William H. Miller

NetApp put William H. Miller at the helm of its IT organization last month, naming the former Broadcom chief information officer as its CIO.

Miller is charged with supporting NetApp's ongoing transformation and working with peer organizations within the company to advance business strategy and technology initiatives, according to the vendor.

As CIO, Miller will also direct the "NetApp on NetApp" and "Customer-1" programs, which help the company's engineering and field organizations use, improve and showcase the value of NetApp technology products to its customers.

Anil Agrawal

IT consulting and outsourcing services provider Syntel named Anil Agrawal the company's CFO and chief information security officer last month, nearly a year after he assumed the role of acting CFO at the company when then-CFO Arvind Goodbole vacated the post in November 2015.

Agrawal has been with Syntel, No. 38 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, for 15 years. He has held a number of Syntel positions including general manager of finance and head of finance for the company's India operations from 2007 through 2011, and head of corporate financial planning and analytics from January 2012 to November 2015.

Matthew Crumley

Matthew Crumley was named CFO at recovery and backup technology company StorageCraft Technology Corp. in October.

Crumley is responsible for the Draper, Utah-based company's finance organization, including its global financial planning, reporting and accounting operations. He also manages the company's relationships with lending institutions, shareholders and the financial community.

Before joining StorageCraft, Crumley spent six years at inContact where as vice president of finance he oversaw the cloud software company's financial operations, and reporting and accounting functions.

Steve Snyder

October seems to be the month for CFO appointments. Lawrenceville, Ga.-based Source Support Services, an IT support services provider, appointed Steve Snyder as its new CFO.

Snyder is responsible for overseeing the company's finances, positioning the company for success and steering the company through continued growth. Snyder joins Mike Stolz, named chief operating officer in January, among Source Support's new hires this year.

Snyder previously served as CFO at a number of public and private high-tech companies including Digi International, X-IO Technologies and Ancor Communications.

Ryan Kearny

Application delivery company F5 Networks promoted long-time executive Ryan Kearny to be chief technology officer and executive vice president of product development.

Kearny has been with F5 since 1998 for the last 18 years and served in a number of technology leadership positions, most recently senior vice president of product development. The company said Kearny has been a key contributor to the success of the company's flagship BIG-IP product line and development of the company's TMOS architecture.

In his new post Kearney is responsible for planning and executing F5's technology roadmap and is tasked with leading all product engineering personnel. He reports to F5 President and CEO John McAdam.

Niall Browne

Business intelligence and data visualization software startup Domo appointed former Workday executive Niall Browne to be the company's first Chief Information and Security Officer.

Browne brings more than 18 years of experience building and managing information security and risk management programs for financial, technology and cloud software companies including Bank of Ireland, Perot Systems, LiveOps, Yodlee and Workday.

In his new position at the American Forks, Utah-based Domo, Browne is charged with enhancing Domo's security and trust programs to help keep the company at the forefront of information management in the cloud while allowing customers to fully leverage their data.

Mick Hollison

Cloudera, a developer of big data management and analytics platform software, hired Mick Hollison last month as the company's chief marketing officer.

Hollison joins Cloudera from InsideSales.com, a provider of cloud sales acceleration applications, where he was CMO. His 25-year career also includes technology marketing, sales and product management experience with Citrix, Microsoft and IBM.

In the position Hollison is charged with leading Cloudera's global marketing strategy and helping the company, which describes itself as "a prospective public company," accelerate its growth.

Victoria Grey

After three years away from Nexsan Technologies, Victoria Grey, previously the company's senior vice president of marketing, returned to the company in October, taking on the job of chief marketing officer.

Grey left Nexsan in 2013 to take on the CMO post at file-sharing technology company Soonr in 2013 and then CMO at hyperconverged infrastructure company HyperGrid in 2014.

In her new position at Nexsan, Grey will be responsible for all worldwide marketing, awareness, demand generation, strategic positioning and channel enablement tasks at the data storage system provider.

Mike Volpe

Cybereason, a developer of real-time threat detection and response security systems, appointed Mike Volpe as the company's new chief marketing officer in October. He is charged with driving the company's marketing strategy, brand management, lead generation, and overall marketing planning and execution.

Volpe brings more than two decades of IT experience to the position, formerly working with companies including HubSpot, which he joined in 2007 as one of the first five employees and helping to grow it into a company with over 15,000 customers in more than 75 countries.

Prior to HubSpot, Volpe worked in marketing roles for other software companies including SolidWorks and Found Inc.

Marc Davis

After more than a decade in sales leadership, former Cylance and Intel Security executive Marc Davis is taking his skill set to data risk solution company Spirion as head of the company's channel sales organization.

In the position Davis will focus on transforming the company's go-to-market strategy and growing its revenue and profitability, according to a statement from Spirion.

Davis joins Spirion from security technology developer Cylance where he was director of channels between 2014 and 2016. Prior to working at Cylance, he was in charge of direct and indirect sales in the western U.S. for Stonesoft before Intel acquired it in 2013.

Joe Santamorena

Following a 17-year stint at NetApp, most recently as head of the company's Americas mid-market sales team, Joe Santamorena was hired to be the vice president of North America sales at cybersecurity software company Bay Dynamics.

Jessica Garrett

VeriStor Systems added Jessica Garrett to its executive ranks in October, appointing her vice president of marketing and placing her in charge of managing the Duluth, Ga.-based company's marketing programs to drive sales and expand market presence.

Solution provider VeriStor is No. 266 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 and was named a CRN Triple Crown Award winner this year.

Prior to joining VeriStor, Garrett was director of marketing, global brand and campaign strategy at telecommunications equipment maker Arris Group where, under her guidance, the company executed a comprehensive brand refresh, launched a multi-year NASCAR sponsorship, drove the content marketing program and helped develop the company's marketing automation and lead generation strategies.

Jennifer Mehall and Antoine Azar

CACI International, No. 17 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 and a leading channel company in the federal government services market, made two significant hires in October: Jennifer Mehall as senior vice president of CACI's background investigation services group, and Antoine "Tony" Azar, as senior vice president of health.

Mehall joined CACI from government services company Chenega Corp. where she was vice president of operations. In her new position she leads a team that provides background investigation support services to the federal government's Office of Personnel Management.

Azar comes to CACI from Harris Corp. where he was vice president of civilian and healthcare services. His 24 years of industry experience also includes serving as senior vice president of operations at SCI consulting and vice president of civilian solutions at General Dynamics. CACI said Azar's hire will help the company expand its business in healthcare with an increased focus on healthcare delivery systems, population health, military medical deployment missions and health data analytics.

Tony Vottima and Michael J. Lavigne

Healthcare IT solutions provider Accreon made two key appointments in October: Tony Vottima as senior vice president of sales, U.S.A., and Michael J. Lavigne as senior vice president and general manager, Canada.

Vottima will lead Accreon's sales and business growth in the U.S. market. Vottima joined Accreon from Ingram Micro where he was head of the distributor's vertical markets group. Before that he spent 26 years with distributor Avnet, serving in a number of posts including senior vice president and general manager for Avnet Services in the Americas.

Lavigne, who has been with Accreon since its launch nine years ago, had been serving as senior vice president, sales and marketing, before his new appointment as head of the company's business in Canada.