30 Notable IT Executive Moves: December 2023
New Relic, EchoStor, Calian, e360, Pure Storage and Extreme Networks were among the tech companies making key executive hires during December 2023.
New CEOs at New Relic and EchoStor. New presidents at Calian and e360. And new chief marketing officers at Pure Storage and Extreme Networks.
Ashan Willy, formerly with Proofpoint; Mike Johnson, with EchoStor for more than 18 years; Michael Tremblay, formerly with Invest Ottawa; Rob Schaeffer, formerly with CBT; Lynn Lucas, formerly with Cohesity; and Monica Kumar, formerly with Hitachi Vantara, are just some of the executives hired last month.
[RELATED: 30 Notable IT Executive Moves: November 2023]
December Tech Exec Moves
Oracle, Leidos and Microsoft were among the other tech giants to make executive hires during the month as companies invest in resources for sales, technology and partners.
Those executives were:
- Chris Boone, formerly with AbbVie
- Kathy Brown, formerly with the U.S. Army Program Executive Office (PEO) for Combat Support & Combat Service Support (CS&CSS)
- Dorothy Li, formerly with Convoy
All the hiring comes despite multiple tech giants cutting their employee rosters amid growing inflation, the possibility of a recession in the near future and tightening IT budgets after high demand for technology during the height of the pandemic.
Read on for more of the 30 notable IT executive moves from December 2023.
Monica Kumar
Monica Kumar came to Extreme Networks in December as its new executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Kumar joined the Morrisville, N.C.-based cloud networking vendor after about a year with Hitachi Vantara as CMO, according to her LinkedIn account.
Her resume includes more than three years with Nutanix. She left the vendor in 2022 with the title of senior vice president and cloud go-to-market (GTM).
Extreme has about 17,000 worldwide channel partners and about 5,000 in North America, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Rob Schaeffer
In December, Rob Schaeffer became president and chief revenue officer of e360.
Schaeffer joined e360 – No. 120 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after about four years with CBT, according to his LinkedIn account. He left CBT with the title of president and chief operating officer.
His resume includes more than six years with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett-Packard, according to his LinkedIn account. He left HPE in 2020 with the title of vice president of U.S. channel sales. Hewlett-Packard split in 2015 into HP and HPE.
Kathy Brown
In December, Kathy Brown joined Leidos, taking on the role of vice president for group contracts for the national security sector.
Brown came to the Reston, Va.-based company – No. 11on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after about two years with the U.S. Army Program Executive Office (PEO) for Combat Support & Combat Service Support (CS&CSS), according to her LinkedIn account. She left in 2022 with the title of executive project manager for the office for expeditionary energy and sustainment systems.
Her resume includes about two years with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment, according to her LinkedIn account. She left in 2020 with the title of director of international programs and colonel.
Michael Tremblay
In December, Michael Tremblay became president of IT and cyber solutions for Calian.
Tremblay came to the Ottawa, Ontario-based company – a member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500 – after about seven years with Invest Ottawa. He left the organization with the title of president and CEO, according to his LinkedIn account.
His resume includes about 10 years with Microsoft, leaving the vendor in 2017 with the title of vice president for public sector.
Lynn Lucas
Pure Storage hired Lynn Lucas in December as chief marketing officer.
Lucas joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based data storage vendor after about six years with Cohesity, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Cohesity with the title of adviser and served as its CMO for more than five years.
Her resume includes about two years with Veritas Technologies, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the company in 2017 with the title of CMO.
Chris Boone
Chris Boone joined Oracle in December as group vice president of research services for life sciences.
Boone came to the Austin, Texas-based database services and products vendor after about three years with AbbVie, according to his LinkedIn account. He left AbbVie with the title of vice president and global head of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR).
His resume includes about three years with Pfizer, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2020 with the title of vice president and head of global medical epidemiology and big data analysis.
Mike Johnson
Mike Johnson ascended to the CEO position of EchoStor in December.
Johnson has worked with the Hopkinton, Mass.-based company – No. 260 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – for more than 18 years, according to his LinkedIn account.
He previously served as the company’s chief revenue officer for about two years. He started at EchoStor in 2005 as an enterprise account manager.
Ashan Willy
New Relic hired industry veteran Ashan Willy as CEO in December. Willy succeeded Bill Staples, who had served as CEO starting mid-2021.
Willy came to the San Francisco-based observability platform vendor after about seven years with Proofpoint, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Proofpoint as CEO.
His resume includes about five years with Polycom, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2016 with the title of senior vice president of product management for alliances and worldwide systems engineering.
Dorothy Li
Dorothy Li joined Microsoft in December, taking on the title of corporate vice president within Microsoft Security. Part of her role includes making “the world safer at the scale Microsoft is operating: and “the potential to collaborate with partners and leap frog through AI,” according to a LinkedIn post.
Li came to the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant after more than two years with Convoy, according to her LinkedIn account. She departed Convoy – which shut down in October – with the title of chief technology officer.
Her resume includes about 23 years with Amazon and Amazon Web Services, according to her LinkedIn account. She left AWS in 2021 with the title of vice president and general manager of business intelligence and analytics services.
Microsoft has about 400,000 worldwide channel partners, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Christine McElduff
Zscaler hired Christine McElduff in December as its new vice president for Americas partner and alliances sales.
McElduff joined the San Jose, Calif.-based security vendor after about 11 years with rival Palo Alto Networks, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Palo Alto Networks with the title of senior director of the Americas channel organization.
Her resume includes more than three years with Riverbed Technology, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the company in 2012 with the title of senior manager for distribution and direct market reselling (DMR).
Zscaler has about 2,000 worldwide channel partners and 900 in North America, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Jake Katz
In December, Jake Katz returned to Cisco, taking on the role of vice president of product management for AI solutions.
Katz joined the San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant after about seven years with Facebook parent Meta, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Meta with the title of network infrastructure technical product manager (TPM) leader.
He previously left Cisco in 2006 after about six years with the vendor, according to his LinkedIn account. He left with the title of product line manager.
Shawn Wagner
Shawn Wagner returned to Hewlett Packard Enterprise last month, taking on the role of vice president of global events.
Wagner joined the Houston-based tech giant after about two years with Amazon Web Services, according to her LinkedIn account. She left AWS with the title of senior event content manager.
She previously worked at HPE and Hewlett-Packard for about 16 years, according to her LinkedIn account. Wagner left HPE in 2017 with the title of senior program manager. Hewlett-Packard split into HPE and HP in 2015.
Brett Shirk
CrowdStrike hired Brett Shirk in December as chief sales officer.
Shirk came to the Austin, Texas-based security vendor after about three years with Fastly, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Fastly with the title of chief revenue officer.
His resume includes about two years with Rubrik. He left the company in 2021 with the title of senior vice president and chief revenue officer.
Abhi Bhatnagar
Abhi Bhatnagar joined Palo Alto Networks in December, taking on the role of vice president of central operations.
Bhatnagar came to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based security vendor after more than 12 years with Google, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Google with the title of senior director of product strategy for operations and go-to-market (GTM) for commerce.
His resume includes more than four years with Hewlett-Packard, according to his LinkedIn account. He left in 2011 with the title of senior manager of enterprise services.
Palo Alto Networks has about 10,000 worldwide channel partners and 1,200 in North America, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Geoff Chretien
Geoff Chretien became senior vice president of channels at IntelePeer in December.
In this role, he “will oversee IntelePeer’s channel sales team, while facilitating further growth and development, fostering channel relationships, and expanding partnerships,” according to a company statement.
Chretien came to the Dania Beach, Fla.-based communications automation vendor after more than four years with Genesys, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Genesys with the title of vice president of partner sales North America.
His resume includes about nine years with Nice, according to his LinkedIn account. He left with the title of vice president of channel sales.
IntelePeer has about 1,500 North American channel partners, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Peter Bailis
Peter Bailis became vice president of engineering at Google in December, focusing on “the boundary of data experiences and analytics at scale,” according to a LinkedIn post.
Ballis came to the Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant after more than five years with Sisu Data, according to his LinkedIn account.
He founded Sisu in 2018 and led it as CEO, selling the startup in October to Snowflake.
Tony Gonnella
Tony Gonnella became chief financial officer of Hitachi Vantara last month.
Gonnella succeeded former CFO Inigo Mazquiaran, who transitioned within the Hitachi Group to become the CFO of the newly formed Hitachi Digital Services organization, according to a statement.
He joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based data storage vendor after more than three years with Palo Alto Networks, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Palo Alto Networks with the title of CFO of Cortex.
His resume includes more than 10 years with NetApp, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the vendor with the title of vice president.
About 80 percent of Hitachi Vantara’s revenue comes from solution providers, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Simon Le Comte
Last month, Veeam Software hired Simon Le Comte as vice president of sales engineering for the Americas.
He came to the Columbus, Ohio-based data protection and recovery vendor after about 10 years with VMware, according to his LinkedIn account. He left VMware with the title of worldwide senior director of end-user computing (EUC) global tech practice and sales engineering.
Veeam has about 7,800 channel partners in North America, according to CRN’s 2023 Channel Chiefs.
Manoj Swaminathan
In December, Manoj Swaminathan joined SAP as chief technology officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network.
Swaminathan came to the Germany-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor after about two years with Amazon, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Amazon with the title of director of retail services for eCommerce foundation and financials.
His resume includes more than seven years with Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the vendor in 2022 with the title of general manager of certain Dynamics 365 offerings.
Dee Hester
Ensono hired Dee Hester in December as vice president of mainframe application modernization services.
Hester came to the Downers Grove, Ill.-based company – a member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500 – after more than three years with Amazon Web Services, according to his LinkedIn account.
At AWS, he held a role that helped to “define a Mainframe Competency Partner Program and shape the Mainframe Modernization Service,” according to his LinkedIn account.
His resume includes more than six years with Microsoft. He left the vendor in 2012 with the title of director, where he focused “on Mainframe Migrations and Oracle Database Migrations.”
Al Chien
Al Chien became vice president of sales for Northern California at Trace3 last month.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company – a member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500 – after about 12 years with Dasher Technologies. He left Dasher in 2020 with the title of president, according to his LinkedIn account.
His resume includes about 20 years with Hewlett-Packard, leaving the company in 2008 with the title of U.S. director of sales for industry standard servers, according to his LinkedIn account.
Moulik Tank
Moulik Tank joined WinWire Technologies in December, taking on the role of vice president of sales.
Tank came to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company – No. 233 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after about 18 years with NTT Data Services and Intelligroup, according to his LinkedIn account. NTT bought Intelligroup in 2010.
He left NTT Data Services with the title of senior director of manufacturing sales, according to his LinkedIn.
Will Rodgers
Last month, Will Rodgers joined ITsavvy as vice president of corporate development.
Rodgers came to the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company – a member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500 – after more than two years with CDW, according to his LinkedIn account. He left with the title of director for strategy and corporate development.
His resume includes more than three years with Greenhill & Co., according to his LinkedIn account. He left the firm in 2020 with the title of principal.
Julie Balen
NWN Carousel hired Julie Balen in December as vice president of procurement.
Balen came to the Boston-based company – a member of CRN’s 2023 MSP 500 – after about 13 years with CDW, according to her LinkedIn account. She left CDW with the title of senior purchasing manager for data center.
She joined CDW in 2011 as an inventory, compliance and control supervisor.
Sean Baillie
In December, Sean Baillie became senior vice president of carrier, channel and hyperscale at Consolidated Communications.
Baillie joined the Mattoon, Ill.-based company – No. 42on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after more than four years with QTS Data Centers, according to his LinkedIn account. He left QTS with the title of executive vice president. QTS sold to Blackstone in 2021.
His resume includes about three years with Ciena, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2017 with the title of vice president of global commercial operations.
Fabio Mazzocchetti
EPAM hired a new chief technology officer for the Americas energy industry last month – Fabio Mazzocchetti.
Mazzocchetti joined the Newtown, Pa.-based company – No. 21 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after about four years with C3 AI, according to his LinkedIn account. He left C3 with the title of senior director of sales, leading the “commercialization of AI-enabled Enterprise Software.”
His resume includes about three years with Baker Hughes, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2020 with the title of senior director and digital product manager for industrial internet of things (IIoT), software analytics and asset performance.
Bob Busey Jr.
Last month, Bob Busey Jr. joined CACI as senior vice president of supply chain management and purchasing.
Busey came to the Reston, Va.-based company – No. 11on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after about two years with i-Link Solutions, according to his LinkedIn account. He left i-Link with the title of vice president of operations and federal services.
His resume includes about 25 years with Raytheon Technologies, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company with the title of director of space and command and control (C2) systems and unmanned and mission management solutions.
Nick Rowe
Simeio hired a new chief operating officer last month – Nick Rowe.
He “will be responsible for overseeing the company's global delivery operations and industry-leading product offerings,” according to a company statement.
Rowe joined the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company – No. 275 on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after about 24 years with NCC Group and iSec Partners, according to his LinkedIn account. NCC bought iSec in 2010.
He left NCC with the title of COO for North America.
Jatin Dalal
Cognizant brought on Jatin Dalal last month as chief financial officer.
In this role, he will “oversee, among other responsibilities, Cognizant's worldwide financial planning and analysis, accounting and controllership, tax, treasury and internal audit, corporate development, investor relations and enterprise risk management functions,” according to a company statement.
Dalal joined the Teaneck, N.J.-based company – No. 6on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after more than 21 years with Wipro, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Wipro with the title of president and CFO.
He joined Wipro in 2002 as a treasury manager, according to his LinkedIn account.
Doug Maulbetsch
In December, Capgemini hired Doug Maulbetsch as vice president of the relationship with SAP.
Maulbetsch came to the France-based company – No. 3on CRN’s 2023 Solution Provider 500 – after more than 10 years with DXC Technology and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), according to his LinkedIn account. DXC Technology formed in 2017 from a merger with the enterprise services line of business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
He left DXC with a role leading the company’s “transformation, Applications and Cloud business Unit for SAP,” according to his LinkedIn account. His resume includes about three years with Kayak Global Solutions, leaving in 2012 with the title of president.