30 Notable IT Executive Moves: November 2016

Getting Ready

With only a few weeks remaining before 2016 comes to a close, many IT companies spent the month of November making some of their final executive adjustments - putting their respective houses in order before the start of the new year.

For a number of tech companies, last month shook up some of the highest rungs on the executive ladder. Top-level executives were on the move at companies including Syntel, SonicWALL, Datalink, Virtuoso and others. Channel companies including BlackBox, TechData, ManTech and others also saw a number of executive moves last month.

Read on to find out who was in, and who was out at the top level across the channel this November.

Sam Ramji

Sam Ramji, a former Microsoft exec with a broad range of professional expertise around open source technologies, said in November he was headed to Google.

Google wouldn't elaborate on the role Ramji was slated to fill at the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant. A representative told CRN only that he'd be taking a position at Google Cloud, the company's recently rebranded enterprise division.

After Ramji left Microsoft in 2009, he held various positions leading strategy around the development of open source projects, according to his LinkedIn profile, including his last position as CEO of the Cloud Foundry Foundation, which oversees development of the popular Platform-as-a-Service system initially built by Pivotal.

Tom Lantzsch

Intel in November looked to bolster its IoT Group by bringing former ARM executive Tom Lantzsch on board as the senior vice president and general manager of its IoT business. Lantzsch, who was previously the executive vice president of strategy at ARM, will start in his new role in January 2017 according to Intel. Lantzch will lead the strategy behind Intel architecture computing solutions across IoT market segments, including manufacturing, industrial, retail, transportation, smart buildings and homes.

In addition to ARM, the tech veteran's previous posts included operations and sales roles at StarCore, Motorola, and Texas Instruments.

Doug Davis

Intel in November announced that executive Doug Davis will lead the charge in the company's connected cars efforts by heading the newly-created Automated Driving Group.

Davis was formerly the general manager of Intel's IoT Group –earlier in the year, in April, he announced he would retire at the end of 2016. But now, Davis has announced he will jointly run the group with vice president Kathy Winter, who joined Intel earlier in the year from automotive components supplier Delphi Automotive.

The executive change comes as Intel continues to shift its strategy from a PC-focused company to a connected device, cloud and data center company with a tighter emphasis on the Internet of Things.

Bill Robbins

FireEye announced on Nov. 17 that it had named Bill Robbins as its new head of worldwide sales, filling a months-long vacancy at the security vendor. Robbins joins the company from Nuance Communications, where he was executive vice president of worldwide sales. Before that he was executive vice president of worldwide sales and services at Symantec, joining the company as part of its 2005 acquisition of Veritas. Robbins joins FireEye after months of drastic change at the security vendor, including layoffs and the appointment of a new CEO. In an interview with CRN at the time, Robbins said he saw the opportunity to join FireEye as a chance to join a company with a "unique set of capabilities and solutions" and a mission to protect customers from security threats. And he sees it as an opportunity to leverage his channel-centric background to bring that vision to customers through partners.

Bill Veghte

Former Hewlett-Packard executive Bill Veghte in November joined Turbonomic, an application performance management developer and Hewlett Packard Enterprise strategic technology partner, as its full-time executive chairman. He had previously been chairman of the Boston-based company's technical advisory board.

Turbonomic, which until August was known as VMTurbo, revealed the appointment along with the news that the privately held company had closed its 25th consecutive quarter of revenue growth.

Veghte served as COO of HP before the company's split into HPE and HP Inc., and at one time was considered a potential successor to HP CEO Meg Whitman.

Julie Parrish

After leaving Check Point Software Technologies in June after only seven months with the security vendor, Julie Parrish landed at security analytics company Red Seal in November. Parrish had served as chief marketing officer at Check Point and will hold the same position at Red Seal. Parrish will be the first CMO at Red Seal and has been charged with accelerating the company's sales and marketing push. In an interview with CRN at the time, Parrish said she wants to establish Red Seal as a thought leader around what she calls "digital resilience" as the foundation of security and helping educate customers on the importance of utilizing a cyber analytics platform to model their infrastructure. As it is a newer market in security, Parrish said education through marketing will be key. Before Check Point, Parrish served as chief marketing officer at NetApp, a position she held from November 2012 to October 2015. Before that, she held marketing leadership roles at Symantec, Veritas, Nokia and 3Com.

Brian Goldfarb

Splunk, the developer of operational and machine data management software, hired Salesforce.com marketing executive Brian Goldfarb to be the vendor's new chief marketing officer.

The fast-growing Splunk is approaching a $1 billion annual sales run-rate and has been expanding sales of its Splunk Cloud service – an effort that will benefit from Goldfarb's expertise in marketing cloud software.

Goldfarb worked as senior vice president of app cloud marketing at Salesforce since April 2015. Before that he served as head of cloud platform marketing at Google for three years and before that was product marketing director for Microsoft's Windows Azure.

Goldfarb replaced Steven Sommer, Splunk's CMO and senior vice president of worldwide marketing since 2008. Sommer retired, but is staying on in a consulting role at the San Francisco-based company for an undefined period.

Richard Campione

Splunk hired Richard Campione to fill the new position of chief product officer, overseeing product strategy and engineering across the San Francisco-based company's entire product portfolio of operational and machine data management software.

Many of Campione's duties were previously performed by Guido Schroeder, senior vice president of products, who left Splunk earlier this year.

Campione was previously president and CEO at Findly, a developer of Software-as-a-Service talent acquisition applications. Before that he was president of the cloud and business intelligence division at ServiceSource, an executive vice president at SAP, and a group president and general manager at CRM applications pioneer Siebel Systems.

Kevin Chapman

Avast Software hired former Symantec executive Kevin Chapman last month as its SMB channel chief, the latest executive move by the company as it integrates it blockbuster AVG acquisition. Chapman joins Avast as senior vice president and general manager of SMB, replacing Glenn Taylor. Taylor, who has been acting leader of the Avast SMB business for the past year, now serves as Avast chief of staff. Chapman joins Avast from the ECCO Safety Group where he was vice president of global marketing. Prior to that, he served in a variety of channel and sales executive roles at Symantec over 19 years at the security software vendor, most recently as vice president, head of strategy and enterprise marketing for the Latin America region.

Fred Gerritse

In a second executive move for Avast this month, as it integrates its blockbuster acquisition of AVG, the company confirmed that AVG General Manager Fred Gerritse has left the company. Gerritse had led AVG Business as GM and SVP since October 2015, joining the company at that time from Cisco where he was managing director of services, strategy and operations. He previously held top roles at Sencit, Copaco, and Compaq.

Paul Lidsky

Paul Lidsky will be leaving his position as CEO of data center solutions provider Datalink as part of Insight Enterprises' pending $258 million acquisition of the company.

Lidsky, who has served as CEO at Datalink since July 2009, will stay on with the company through the first quarter of 2017 to help the integration process between the two entities. He will receive a $200,000 cash bonus if he serves as a consultant for at least 60 days after the close of the deal, according to SEC filings.

Greg Barnum

Greg Barnum, CFO and VP of administration at Datalink, No. 45 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, will also be leaving the company as part of Insight Enterprises' acquisition of the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based solution provider.

Datalink EVP of human resources Patty Hamm will also be leaving the company following the close of the $258 million acquisition, which is expected in January of 2017.

According to the SEC filing, both Barnum and Hamm will support all efforts through the closing of the insight acquisition.

Nitin Rakesh

Nitin Rakesh announced his resignation from his position as President and CEO of Syntel after less than 3 years. He was replaced by the company's chief operating officer, Rakesh Khanna, on an interim basis.

While serving as the head of the Troy, Mich.-based company – No. 38 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500 – Rakesh was among the channel's most highly compensated solution provider CEOs, according to financial filings reviewed by CRN.

However, since issuing a $15 special dividend on Oct. 3, Syntel's stock has lost nearly 55 percent of its value and is now trading at its lowest price in more than six years.

According to a source familiar with the situation, Rakesh's resignation was a personal choice.

Thomas Seifert

In the latest in a series of executive moves at Symantec, the company announced in November that CFO Thomas Seifert would step down. Symantec had previously announced that Seifert would be staying on in his role as CFO as the company integrated its recently acquired Blue Coat. There was no comment on where Seifert will be headed next. The move is the latest by the company to put former Blue Coat executives into top leadership positions after Symantec's acquisition of the company earlier this year. Seifert has been replaced by former Blue Coat CFO Nick Noviello, effective December 1, Symantec said in announcement alongside its second quarter earnings. Seifert will remain with the company until March 2017 in an advisory capacity.

Bill Conner

SonicWall named security industry and channel veteran Bill Conner to be its new CEO as the network security technology company completed its spinout from Dell on Nov. 1 and was acquired by Francisco Partners and Elliott Management.

Conner replaces Curtis Hutcheson, who had been serving as SonicWall's general manager since May 2015. The new CEO said he plans to continue SonicWall's investments in expanding its technology portfolio and pursue a 100-percent channel sales model.

Conner joined San Jose-based SonicWall from Silent Circle where he was president and CEO. He has also held CEO posts at Entrust and Nortel Networks.

Kevin Phillips

Kevin Phillips was promoted to the role of president and chief operating officer of ManTech, giving him overall responsibility for the general management of the company's operations.

Since 2005, Phillips has served as chief financial officer of Fairfax, Va.-based ManTech, No. 29 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list, during which time the company has increased its revenue by $570 million, or 58 percent.

Prior to becoming CFO, Phillips served as corporate vice president, assistant to the chairman, and chief of staff, positions in which he played an active role in the integration of acquisitions and other strategic business issues.

ManTech's two group presidents – L. William Varner and Dan Keefe – will stay in their current roles and report directly to Phillips.

Judith Bjornaas

Judith Bjornaas will be promoted to chief financial officer (CFO) of ManTech after spending more than six years as a senior vice president and deputy CFO of the Fairfax, Va.-based company, No. 29 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list.

Bjornaas has more than 30 years of experience in defense contracting, serving as both treasurer and CFO of Reston Va.-based NCI Information Systems, No. 72 on the CRN SP 500, between 1995 and 2011.

Bjornaas said in a statement that she's excited to help ManTech grow its business through enhanced solutions and service delivery for both new and existing customers.

Brigitte Gwyn

Channel giant Accenture named Brigitte Gwyn to the position of managing director of government relations.

Gwyn, who started at her new position Nov. 7, was formerly the vice president for government relations at the Kellogg Company and is now in charge of Accenture's government relations activities in North America, as well as key growth areas including Latin America.

She brings 20 years of public policy, legislative and government relations experience with her to the Dublin-based company – No. 2 on CRN's Solution Provider 500 list – including a decade of experience at the Business Roundtable in Washington D.C.

Linda Rendleman

Linda Rendleman rejoined Tech Data, after more than seven years with Microsoft, and will be responsible for the strategic direction and go-to-market execution of the distributor's client and mobile solutions business in the U.S.

As vice president of product marketing, client and mobile solutions at the Clearwater, Fla.-based Tech Data, Rendleman will be responsible for developing growth strategies and program implementation. She will report to Brian Davis, Tech Data's senior vice president of U.S. Marketing and Purchasing.

Rendleman was a director and product team unit lead for Microsoft from August 2015 to November 2016, responsible for growing Microsoft's business with Tech Data in the United States.

Rendleman began her career at Tech Data in 1992 doing sales and customer services, rising up the ranks and holding multiple sales leadership positions prior to joining Microsoft in 2009.

Doug Oathout

Black Box nabbed Hewlett Packard marketing veteran Doug Oathout as its new vice president of strategic partner relations. Oathout is tasked with helping to develop and lead the company's partner strategy that leverages the best practices within Black Box and the industry as a whole.

He previously spent nearly a decade at HP holding various marketing roles around channel partners, converged infrastructure and OEMs. "Doug's industry knowledge will assist Black Box as we continue to evolve into being the trusted digital partner," said E.C. Sykes, President and CEO of Black Box, in a statement.

Anthony Massetti

Avaya lost a key financial leader in Anthony Massetti in November who jumped to Black Box as its new senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer. Massetti was previously CFO and senior vice president for Avaya where he improved its business model through expanding margins, driving working capital efficiency and effecting strategic investments, according to a statement.

"Anthony's depth and breadth will accelerate our path to improving our financial performance," said E.C. Sykes, President and CEO of Black Box, in a statement.

Massetti succeeds Timothy Huffmyer, who will remain with Black Box as vice president of Finance.

George Karidis

In November, George Karidis was named chief executive officer of Virtuozzo, which develops a portfolio of open source and commercial virtualization software products. He was previously president of cloud technology at CompuCom, a managed services provider, and chief strategy officer at SoftLayer before and after its IBM acquisition.

Karidis will focus on leading Virtuozzo's aggressive growth and expansion by innovating with new technology, driving new use cases for both service providers and enterprises, and leveraging new channels to market, according to the company.

Virtuozzo's products including production-ready containers, an optimized KVM hypervisor, and software-defined storage.

Ethan Treese

Nuix, developer of an advanced eDiscovery and electronic investigation platform, named former Dun & Bradstreet executive Ethan Treese to be chief executive officer – Americas. More than 60 percent of the Herndon, Va.-based company's revenue now comes from North America, and the company has growing sales in Central and South America.

Treese is taking over the post from long-time Nuix executive Jim Kent, who will focus on his role as global head of security and intelligence and grow that business worldwide. Kent will also lead the planned launch in 2017 of the Nuix Insight cybersecurity products.

Treese served in a number of executive and business development jobs at Dun & Bradstreet, including senior vice president and global head of customer solution sales, and SVP and GM of strategic vertical markets.

Jim Kowalski

MapR Technologies, provider of the Converged Data Platform system for a range of big data processing and analytics tasks, named Jim Kowalski as chief revenue officer with the task of leading the San Jose-based company's worldwide sales organization.

Kowalski joins MapR from marketing cloud application developer Marketo where he was senior vice president and general manager of the enterprise business unit. Before that he held a number of senior sales positions at Oracle and earlier served as chief marketing officer at SmartSignal, an early pioneer in the Internet of Things arena that's now owned by General Electric.

Pat Harper

A former top executive at OpenText and EasyLink Services, Pat Harper was appointed as PGi's new chief technology officer in November. Harper will lead PGi's global technology initiatives, which include product management, design and R&D. Harper started at PGi in 2015 as general manager of the company's Xpedite business unit.

"[Harper] is uniquely positioned to refine and drive our technology strategy," said Ted Schrafft, PGi CEO and President, in a statement. "He will be focused on extending the value of our global audio network and further enhancing our collaboration portfolio."

Harper replaced former CTO David Guthrie who will transition into his new advisory position on the PGi board.

Abby Kearns

In November Abby Kearns was appointed to the position of executive director of the Cloud Foundry Foundation. Kearns has previously served as production manager for Pivotal Cloud Foundry before becoming vice president of strategy for the Cloud Foundry Foundation in April.

In her 18-year career, Kearns has held product marketing, management and consulting roles at both enterprise companies and startups. Before joining Pivotal, the company that developed and then released the Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service to the Foundation, she worked at Verizon leading product management and marketing teams focused on cloud services.

Philip Rugani

AlgoSec hired former BlackStratus executive Philip Rugani as the company's senior vice president of worldwide sales. Rugani's appointment comes as AlgoSec has recorded 50 percent year-over-year growth in sales bookings for its network security policy management software.

In his new post at Ridgefield Park, N.J.-based Algosec, Rugani will be responsible for driving revenue growth, as well as building and leading the company's sales teams and its channel partner program

Rugani joined Algosec from BlackStratus where he was chief revenue officer. Through his career he's also held executive positions at Halogen Software, Factonomy, VMware, IBM and Oracle.

Jeffrey Starr

Algosec, a developer of network security policy management software, hired former Cellebrite executive Jeffrey Starr as the company's chief marketing officer. Starr will be responsible for setting AlgoSec's overall strategic direction and management of AlgoSec's global marketing initiatives.

Before joining AlgoSec, Starr was CMO at Cellebrite, an Israeli manufacturer of data extraction, transfer and analysis technology for mobile devices, for three years. He has also held management posts at 3E Company and Magic Software Enterprises. He was also a general partner with Mission Ventures.

Nayaki Nayyar

In a push to better enable its customers to transition into the digital age, BMC Software hired SAP executive Nayaki Nayyar as the company's new president of digital service management.

Nayyar was previously general manager and global head of SAP's Internet of Things go-to-market group. Before that she led the cloud initiatives for SAP's customer engagement product division, driving significant growth in the company's cloud, CRM, mobile, and integration business units, according to a company statement.

Robin Purohit, Group President of BMC's Enterprise Solutions Organization, said Nayyar's 20 years of leadership will be "critical" for the company's digital vision. "Nayaki built an impressive track record at SAP, helping enterprises enable digital transformation through harnessing the power of the Internet of Things and cloud services,’ Purohit said.

Krish Prabhu

Private equity firm Siris Capital Group scored a win with the hiring of Krish Prabhu as an executive partner. Prabhu was most recently AT&T's chief technology officer for more than five years, while also holding the title of president of A&T Labs.

"Krish is one of the foremost thought leaders and operational executives in the telecommunications sector and he will be an invaluable resource to us as we continue to drive value in a complex ecosystem," said Frank Baker, co-founder and managing partner of Siris, in a statement.

Prabhu will work to identify and validate potential investment opportunities for the firm, as well as assist in the oversight and operations of Siris' portfolio -- particularly as they relate to overall technology advancements and direction.

Greg VanDeWalker

Financial Services company Great America appointed Greg VanDeWalker as its new senior vice president of IT Channel and Services

The position - which is new to the company - will focus on strategy and continuity between the IT business unit and Collabrance LLC, GreatAmerica's channel-focused services provider.

Previously, VanDeWalker was the vice president and general manager of Great America's IT Group, a position he held for nearly five years.

Before working with Great America, VanDeWalker served as chair of the inaugural Managed Print Services Community at CompTIA and has assisted advisory boards in the IT, telephony and office equipment channels.

This year he was named one of CRN's 2016 Channel Chiefs.