Moving On: 10 Notable Juniper Executive Exits In 2013

Juniper's Revolving Door

There's no doubt about it: Juniper's executive team, especially when it comes to the channel, looks a whole lot different than it did at the start of 2013.

Throughout the past 12 months, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company saw a number of its top executives either retire, resign, or jump ship to competitors. Here's a look at 10 notable executives who left Juniper in 2013.

Kevin Johnson

CEO Kevin Johnson tops the list of Juniper executive departures in 2013.

Juniper CEO since 2008, Johnson in July unexpectedly announced plans to retire during Juniper's second-quarter earnings call with analysts. "After 32 years in a line operating role, with the past five years here at Juniper, my family and I decided it was time to take a break," Johnson said at the time.

Partners had mixed feelings about Johnson's exit; some told CRN they welcomed the idea of Juniper hitting the reset button, while others feared the change could disrupt the success of their own Juniper businesses.

Juniper in November named Shaygan Kheradpir, a former Barclays and Verizon executive, as Johnson's replacement. Kheradpir officially started as CEO on Jan. 1, 2014.

Frank Vitagliano

In a move partners dubbed a major loss for the Juniper channel organization, channel veteran and Juniper's vice president of Americas Partner Sales, Frank Vitagliano left the company in March for a channel executive role at Dell.

Vitagliano had been at Juniper seven years, and was widely credited with building Juniper's Americas channel strategy from the ground up. Partners said it was Vitagliano's channel DNA that really pushed Juniper -- which was still largely focused on the service provider market when Vitagliano joined -- to embrace the enterprise and channel models.

Vitagliano also pioneered Juniper Partner Advantage, the redesigned partner program Juniper rolled out in 2012.

Emilio Umeoka

Juniper partners lost sight of another familiar face this year with the departure of Emilio Umeoka, Juniper's senior vice president of Worldwide Partners.

Umeoka's plans to leave first came to light in October, but he remained "on board for a number of months," according to Juniper, to help with the transition of Juniper's new WW Channel Chief David Helfer. Umeoka's departure was a personal decision, Juniper said. He had headed up Juniper's global channel organization since December 2010.

Bob Muglia

Bob Muglia, executive vice president of Juniper's Software Solutions Division, followed in the footsteps of his boss and fellow Microsoft alum Kevin Johnson when he left Juniper on Dec. 10, 2013.

As head of Juniper's software division, Muglia had a heavy hand in the development of Juniper's burgeoning software-defined networking (SDN) strategy. He has been with Juniper since July 2011, and resigned just one month after Shaygan Kheradpir was named Juniper's new CEO.

Hojin Kim

Just one day after Muglia's resignation, CRN learned that Hojin Kim, vice president, Americas Partner Development and Operations, also was leaving Juniper.

Kim moved on to oversee worldwide channel operations for Hewlett-Packard's networking division. He had been with Juniper since July 2007.

Chris Jones

After Vice President of Americas Partner Sales Frank Vitagliano left Juniper in March, partners applauded the appointment of Chris Jones, vice president of Worldwide Commercial Sales, as Vitagliano's replacement.

Unfortunately, Jones' stint as Juniper's U.S. channel chief was short-lived. He left Juniper in November for Avaya, where he is now vice president of Worldwide Commercial and Distribution. Jones had been with Juniper since November 2010.

Lauren Flaherty

Juniper's Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Flaherty left the company in June to take on the CMO role at CA Technologies.

Flaherty joined Juniper in 2009 and, before that, was CMO at Nortel Networks. She also spent more than 25 years at IBM.

Juniper in July tapped Brad Brooks, corporate vice president of Marketing and Business Strategy, Software Solutions Division, as its new CMO.

Steve Pataky

In August, Juniper lost its Vice President of Worldwide Partner Development Steve Pataky, who left to head up worldwide channels and alliances at security vendor FireEye.

Pataky had been with Juniper for nine years, and was responsible for the day-to-day operation of Juniper's partner program. He also oversaw much of Juniper's partner recruitment and enablement efforts, and helped with the launch of Juniper's rearchitected Partner Program Advantage in 2012.

Donna Grothjan

Donna Grothjan, vice president of Worldwide Distribution at Juniper, left the company in December to take on the same role at Hewlett-Packard.

Grothjan had been overseeing global distribution for Juniper for three years and first joined the company in 2004. Before Juniper, she spent 15 years at distribution giant Ingram Micro. At HP, Grothjan is reporting to HP Senior Vice President, Worldwide Indirect Sales Sue Barsamian.

Lori Cornmesser

Lori Cornmesser, head of Worldwide Partner Development at Juniper, left in October to join network monitoring and testing specialist Ixia Communications. She is now Ixia's first-ever worldwide channel chief.

Cornmesser had an 11-year run at Juniper, where she most recently drove the company's partner enablement efforts. She also had gigs overseeing Juniper's service provider alliances and global managed services partnerships.

"I wasn't necessarily looking to make a move," Cornmesser told CRN when she left. "And I made a conscious decision that I didn't want to go out and compete with a company I helped build for 11 years. Ixia really fit all the things I was looking for in terms of my next move."