30 Notable IT Executive Moves: January 2023

Cognizant, Iron Bow, WWT, ServiceNow, AMD and IBM were among the tech companies to make executive hires during January 2023.

A new Cognizant CEO, a new chief information security officer for Iron Bow Technologies and a new chief operating officer at World Wide Technology (WWT) are among the major IT executive hires for January 2023.

Ravi Kumar S, formerly of Infosys; Brad Giese, formerly of Boeing; and Steve Pelch, formerly of Radial Equity Partners, are just some executives to start the year with a new job.

[RELATED: The Biggest IT Executive Moves Of 2022]

IT Executives Hired In 2023

ServiceNow, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and IBM 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:

*Tony Colon, formerly of Cisco

*Rong Pan, formerly of Intel

*And Suja Viswesan, formerly of WarnerMedia

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 a tightening of IT budgets after high demand for technology during the height of the pandemic.

Zoom, Dell Technologies, Okta, Autodesk, Splunk, Secureworks and Cyren are among the tech vendors to announce layoffs in recent days.

Here are more of the 30 notable IT executive moves from January 2023.

Suja Viswesan

Suja Viswesan returned to IBM last month, taking on the role of vice president of security software development, according to her LinkedIn account.

Viswesan previously worked at the Armonk, N.Y.-based tech giant for more than 12 years, leaving in 2014 with the title of senior development manager, according to her LinkedIn account.

In this role, she worked on BigInsights, IBM’s enterprise Hadoop platform. She worked “across organizations to integrate BigInsights with other IBM products like Platform Symphony, DataClick, DB2, etc.” and managed “a global team spread across USA, Canada, China and India,” according to her LinkedIn account.

Before rejoining IBM, Viswesan worked at WarnerMedia for more than a year and at LinkedIn for more than six years, according to her LinkedIn account.

She left WarnerMedia in September with the title of senior vice president, according to her LinkedIn account. She led the company’s data strategy, which included data science, business intelligence, data governance and data privacy.

Viswesan left LinkedIn – bought by Microsoft in 2016 for about $26 billion – in 2021 with the title of director of engineering, according to her account on the social media network.

In this role, she headed the big data applications and platform organization responsible for LinkedIn’s metadata platform, data compliance and other units, according to her LinkedIn account.

Ravi Kumar S

Cognizant hired a new CEO, Ravi Kumar S, in January. Kumar replaced former CEO Brian Humphries.

Kumar came to the Teaneck, N.J.-based company – No. 7 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 list – after about 20 years with Infosys. He left Infosys in October with the title of president.

As president, Kumar was “global head of all Service lines & Specialized Digital Sales cutting across Consulting, Technology, Infrastructure, Engineering and Process with 220K+ employees and 12Bn$ annual revenues,” according to his LinkedIn account. He oversaw the consulting subsidiary and global alliances, partnerships and ecosystems, among other responsibilities.

During his time with Infosys, Kumar held other roles, including chief delivery officer and executive vice president and global head of the insurance, health care, cards and payments business unit, according to his LinkedIn account.

Kristina Behr

Kristina Behr joined Google’s Workspace unit last month as a vice president of product, according to her LinkedIn account.

Behr came to the Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant after about 17 years with Microsoft, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Microsoft with the title of vice president of product for frontline and workflows.

In this role, she’s worked to empower “frontline workers to achieve more with comms-first productivity and workflow solutions,” according to her LinkedIn account. She joined Microsoft in 2005 as a global marketing analyst.

Frankie Velez

Frankie Velez joined Peraton in January, taking on the title of vice president of strategy development, according to his LinkedIn account.

Before Velez came to the Herndon, Va.-based company – No. 20 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 – he worked for Praxis Engineering, a General Dynamics subsidiary, for more than two years.

General Dynamics acquired Praxis in 2018 as part of its $6.8 billion purchase of CSRA.

Prior to Praxis, Velez worked at Boeing for more than 10 years, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2020 with the title of vice president and chief operating officer.

Brad Giese

Iron Bow Technologies hired Brad Giese in January as its chief information security officer, according to his LinkedIn account.

In this role, he is “responsible for maintaining the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of all technology systems at Iron Bow,” according to his LinkedIn account.

Giese came to the Herndon, Va.-based company – a member of CRN’s 2022 Managed Service Provider (MSP ) 500 – after more than seven years on and off with Boeing, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Boeing with the title of senior manager of enterprise government cybersecurity.

In this role, he was a “regional Cybersecurity Manager leading a team of cyber professionals to build a unified service model that supports government classified programs within the SCI, SAP and NISP communities,” according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes more than a year with Raytheon, where he led “a 25-person merged security and system administration team responsible for security engineering and operations, security compliance, system engineering and administration in support of ongoing JPSS CGS operations and maintenance,” according to his LinkedIn account. Giese left Raytheon in 2016.

Giese also served in the United States Air Force for more than 11 years, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the Air Force as a flight chief and systems administrator.

Rong Pan

In January, Rong Pan joined Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as corporate vice president of network architecture, according to LinkedIn account.

Pan joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker after more than three years with Intel, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the AMD rival with the title of Intel fellow in the cloud networking group.

In this role, Pan was the “lead architect for Intel‘s next generation platform that transitions Intel Data Center Connectivity Group from focusing on independently targeted ingredients to coherent ingredients that work together to accelerate next generation datacenter networks,” according to her LinkedIn account.

Previously, Pan worked at Pensando Systems for about two years. She left the company in 2019 as a fellow. AMD bought Pensando last year for about $2 billion.

Her career includes more than 13 years with Cisco, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the company in 2017 with the title of distinguished engineer. At Cisco, Pan led an advanced “architecture and research group in: advanced data center switch architectures; Quality of Service (QoS) and Traffic” management algorithms and congestion control protocols.

Pan has also authored more than 40 research papers and holds more than 50 patents, according to her LinkedIn.

Steve Pelch

In January, Steve Pelch became chief operating officer of World Wide Technology (WWT).

Pelch joined the Maryland Heights, Mo.-based company – No. 10 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 – after more than a year with Radial Equity Partners.

During his time with Radial, he served as a strategic advisor to WWT with a focus on the company’s acquisition process and services capabilities.

Pelch was a veteran of nearly 34 years at Emerson, where he rose to the rank of chief operating officer and executive vice president before departing that company in early 2021.

Simon Yeo

In January, Simon Yeo joined WatchGuard Technologies as senior vice president of operations, according to a company statement.

In this role, he is responsible for “WatchGuard’s information technology systems and infrastructure, security, and cloud operations,” according to the statement.

Yeo came to the Seattle-based security vendor after more than five years with Barracuda, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company with the title of chief information officer.

In this role, he “was responsible for IT, Cloud Operations, Business Systems, PMO, and NPI systems,” according to his LinkedIn account. Some of his accomplishments in the role include the “migration of hundreds of PBs of data and tens of thousands of server instances from private datacenters to public cloud (AWS & Azure)” and “enabling 2000+ workforce to work from home within a month due to the pandemic.”

Yeo’s resume includes more than four years with Upwork, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2017 with the title of vice president of technical operations.

Tony Colon

Tony Colon joined ServiceNow in January, taking on the role of senior vice president of customer and partner excellence, according to his LinkedIn account.

In this role, he oversees the launch and scaling of ServiceNow Impact, “a value acceleration solution that is now, thanks to our customers, the fastest-growing product in ServiceNow history,” according to his LinkedIn account.

He also leads “the Inspire Value Excellence team that builds the value methodology for our customer and partners” and “the Leading Practices team that creates the content needed to drive our digital and value programs and products.”

Colon came to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based cloud and workflows management vendor after more than three years with Cisco, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Cisco with the title of senior vice president of customer and partner experience engineering.

His resume includes more than nine years with Salesforce, according to his LinkedIn account. Colon left the company in 2019 with the title of senior vice president of Success Cloud product management and innovation.

Jean Hayden

Databricks hired Jean Hayden in January as its vice president of go-to-market strategy and operations, according to her LinkedIn account.

Hayden joined the San Francisco-based data lakehouse vendor after about seven years with Google, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Google with the title of managing director for strategy and operations for the global customer experience division.

In this role, Hayden managed “functions of Strategy & Planning, Sales Operations, Systems, Data & Business Intelligence, Performance Metrics & reporting, Chief of Staff operations,” according to her LinkedIn account. Her division saw “growth from $5M ARR to $1B+ ARR over 5 years” and “product growth to $20B+.”

Before Google, Hayden worked at Partners in Performance for about two years, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the consulting firm in 2015 with the title of principal.

Papi Menon

In January, Papi Menon joined Cisco as vice president and chief product officer for emerging technologies and incubation, according to his LinkedIn account.

In this role, he leads “the Product organization charged with incubating new and emerging technologies within Cisco,” according to his LinkedIn account. He focuses on cloud native applications and security plus edge computing and internet of things (IoT).

Menon came to San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco after more than three years with HashiCorp, according to his LinkedIn account. He left HashiCorp with the title of vice president of product management. He led product management for security, privacy, product analytics, hybrid cloud, internal platform services and the HashiCorp Cloud Platform.

His resume includes less than a year with Docker as vice president of product management. He worked at GitHub for more than three years, leaving in 2019 as director of product management, according to his LinkedIn account.

Kim Lynch

Last month, Oracle hired Kim Lynch as its executive vice president of global intelligence and defense, according to her LinkedIn account.

Lynch joined the Austin, Texas-based database services and cloud vendor after about 24 years with Booz Allen Hamilton, according to her LinkedIn. She left Booz Allen with the title of executive vice president.

In this role, she worked “with clients across the intelligence community (IC) to provide data-driven technology solutions to maintain decisional advantage for our clients,” according to an archived profile on Booz Allen’s website. She started at the company in 1999.

She was “the client service officer for our National Agencies account” and “the senior leader for Booz Allen’s U.S. Government classified clients, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency businesses,” according to Booz Allen.

Christine Bentsen

Christine Bentsen joined Veeam last month as vice president of product marketing, according to her LinkedIn account.

Bentsen came to the Columbus, Ohio-based backup and data management vendor after more than two years with Perforce Software, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Perforce with the title of vice president and head of global product marketing.

Her resume includes about four years with Broadcom and CA Technologies, which Broadcom bought in 2018 for about $19 billion.

She joined CA in 2016 and left Broadcom in 2020 with the title of head of marketing for development operations (DevOps), according to her LinkedIn account.

Ross Kennedy

Microsoft hired Ross Kennedy last month as vice president of the digital natives unit, according to his LinkedIn account.

In a post on LinkedIn, Kennedy said he works under Casey McGee, Microsoft’s vice president of global independent software vendor (ISV) sales. In this role, he will “harness Microsoft Cloud to enable Digital Native Enterprises - at all stages - to innovate, scale, and become market makers and disruptors.”

Kennedy came to the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant after more than four years with Google, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company with the title of global director of deal pursuit for Google Cloud.

During his time at Google Cloud, he helped to grow the unit from $5.8 billion to more than $30 billion, according to his Linkedin account.

Previously, Kennedy worked at Liferay for more than six years. He left the company in 2018 with the title of vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and general manager of international operations.

Adrian Ivanov

Adrian Ivanov came to Automation Anywhere last month, taking on the role of executive vice president of global go-to-market execution, according to his LinkedIn account.

Before joining the San Jose, Calif.-based automation vendor, Ivanov worked at Forge for about a year, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company last year with the title of senior vice president of Forge company solutions.

His resume includes about two years with Algolia, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2021 with the title of senior vice president of sales for the Americas.

In this role, Ivanov “improved Americas Sales Team quota attainment from < 50% to > 80%” and “developed an Expansion playbook improving add-on bookings from < 15% to a 50%+ quarterly average,” according to his LinkedIn account.

Ivanov previously worked as chief revenue officer of SmartRecruiters for about two years, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2019.

Benji Germain

Sherweb hired Benji Germain in January as vice president of products, according to his LinkedIn account.

Germain joined the Canada-based IT distributor after about 23 years with Bell, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Bell with the title of national director of the technical team.

In this role with Bell, Germain led teams of specialists and architects across Canada in networking, unified communications, data center, cloud computing, security and contact center, according to an English translation of his LinkedIn page, part of which is in French.

He worked on ensuring Bell’s revenue goals, including more than $300 million in managed services, more than $200 million in professional services and more than $600 million in resale services, according to the translation of his LinkedIn account.

He joined Bell in 2000 as a principal solutions architect, according to his LinkedIn account.

Ashley Haynes-Gaspar

In January, Lumen Technologies hired Ashley Haynes-Gaspar as its executive vice president for customer success, wholesale and international, according to her LinkedIn account.

She joined the Monroe, La.-based telecommunications vendor after more than five years with Microsoft, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Microsoft with the title of chief operating officer of United States business applications and industry.

In this role, she was COO of the “$1.5B division of Microsoft Business Applications & Dynamics 365 portfolio,” according to her LinkedIn. She was also “COO for Microsoft Industry Clouds in the US representing the company‘s full capability across Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Government, Financial Services, and Supply Chain solutions.”

Before Microsoft, Haynes-Gaspar worked for GE for more than 15 years, according to her LinkedIn account.

Jeffrey Russell

ConvergeOne made Jeffrey Russell its new CEO in January. He succeeds John McKenna.

Russell joined the Bloomington, Minn.-based company – No. 35 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 list – after about 25 years with Accenture, No. 1 on the list.

He started at the company in early 1998 as the managing partner for the company’s Asian supply chain, working out of Melbourne, Australia, and gradually worked his way through various roles in North America and Europe until he became the top executive of Accenture in Canada in early 2019.

Russell earlier this month unveiled his retirement from Accenture Canada in a LinkedIn post where he wrote about his move from Australia to Singapore, New York, London, Miami, and Canada, where he was born.

Joshua Skeens

Joshua Skeens was promoted to CEO of Logically last month, succeeding Michelle Accardi.

Skeens was previously the chief operating officer of Portland, Maine-based Logically – a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500.

He joined Logically through the 2021 acquisition of managed security services provider (MSSP) Cerdant. Skeens had worked at Cerdant for more than 14 years before the acquisition.

His final role at Cerdant was chief technology officer and COO. He started at Cerdant as a network services manager in 2007, according to his LinkedIn account.

Barry Mainz

In January, Forescout made Barry Mainz its new CEO. He replaced former CEO Wael Mohamed.

Mainz joined the San Jose, Calif.-based device security vendor after a few months as an operating partner with Crosspoint Capital Partners, which helped take Forescout private in 2020.

He previously worked at Malwarebytes for more than four years, leaving in November with the title of chief operating officer.

His resume includes about two years with MobileIron, leaving the company in 2017 as its CEO.

Daniel Bernard

Daniel Bernard joined CrowdStrike last month as chief business officer.

Bernard came to the Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity vendor from rival SentinelOne. He had worked at SentinelOne for more than five years, leaving with the title of chief marketing officer.

His duties will include overseeing CrowdStrike’s work with channel partners. The company’s channel chief, Michael Rogers, now reports to him.

Bernard will also head CrowdStrike’s growth initiatives targeting small and medium-sized businesses.

His resume includes more than a year with Cylance, which he left in 2017 with the title of director of global business development. He worked at Dropbox for more than two years, leaving in 2016 with the title of channel partnerships lead.

Joseph Wright

Capgemini hired Joseph Wright last month, making him vice president of business services, according to his LinkedIn account.

In this role, Wright is “working with clients to drive transformation and deliver business outcomes,” according to his LinkedIn account.

Before joining the France-based company – No. 5 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 – Wright worked at Accenture for more than 20 years, according to his LinkedIn. He retired from Accenture in March.

His last role with Accenture was managing director of the regional west business line, according to his LinkedIn account. In this role, he “held executive-level finance and operations oversight for Accenture’s Western U.S. Business Services practice area—serving on the Regional Leadership Team and holding co-accountability for $5B+ in P&L delivery.”

Wright “led teams in the design/delivery of ~$2B in services to 70+ clients across multiple industry segments incl. Software, Healthcare, Industrial Products, and the Public Sector; held ownership for all end-to-end project phases from initial scoping to final delivery—focusing on initiatives related to Finance, Accounting, Operations, Customer Success, Marketing Services, Inside Sales, Procurement, and Human Resources,” according to his LinkedIn account.

He joined Accenture in 2001 as management consulting practice lead for finance and accounting, according to his LinkedIn account.

Michael Wittman

In January, Michael Wittman joined CGI’s federal division as vice president of consulting services, according to his LinkedIn account.

Wittman came to the Canada-based company – No. 14 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 – after about 11 years with Northrop Grumman and Peraton, according to his LinkedIn account.

In 2021, Peraton closed on its $3.4 billion acquisition of Northrop Grumman’s IT and mission support services business.

Wittman joined Northrop in 2011 as a project manager and left Peraton with the title of senior director, according to his LinkedIn account.

Chris Tapley

Chris Tapley joined EPAM Systems in January as vice president and banking practice leader, according to his LinkedIn account.

Tapley came to the Newtown, Pa.-based company – No. 23 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 – after more than three years with Capgemini, according to his LinkedIn account.

He left Capgemini with the title of senior director and head of core banking for North America.

Prior to Capgemini, Tapley worked for Synovus for about five years, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2019 with the title of chief application development and support officer. He also acted as chief data officer and chief digital officer.

Kaushal Kurapati

Salesforce hired Kaushal Kurapati in January, making him the company’s senior vice president of artificial intelligence and search, according to his LinkedIn account. He will work on Einstein, Genie and other offerings from the company.

Kurapati came to the San Francisco-based enterprise applications vendor after more than four years with Oracle, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Oracle with the title of group vice president and general manager of customer data platforms (CDP) for personalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

In this role, he led “a global team of ~400 across product management (~40), engineering (~300), data science (~30) and operations (~20) groups spanning real-time data, ID resolution, personalization, recommenders, AI/ML efforts for MarTech (marketing tech) space as part of Oracle Marketing Cloud division,” according to his LinkedIn account.

Before Oracle, Kurapati worked at Mastercard for about four years, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Mastercard in 2018 with the title of vice president of product management for targeted offers, personalization and analytics.

Ron Mechling

Ron Mechling joined Simeio in January as senior vice president of growth and alliances, according to his LinkedIn account.

In this role, he partners “with Leadership to drive market share growth and customer satisfaction,” according to his LinkedIn account.

Mechling came to the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company – a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500 – after more than a year with Cora Systems. He left Cora with the title of chief revenue officer.

As CRO, Mechling led “global revenue streams and market strategy” and oversaw marketing, sales, customer success and account management. During his time with the company, annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew 33 times in 16 months and he helped to increase the average deal size seven times, according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes more than five years with NetSuite, according to his LinkedIn account. Mechling joined the company the same year it was bought by Oracle for about $9 billion. He left NetSuite in 2021 with the title of area vice president of sales for North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific (APAC).

In that role, Mechling led a “global Sales Team to consult with CEO, COO, CFO leaders of High Tech, Life Sciences, Energy and Professional Services Companies about financial and operational management of their finance, sales and service delivery organizations – impacting contribution margins, operational efficiency and delivery of services to internal and external customers,” according to his LinkedIn account.

He also had “direct control of $40+ million of new product revenues and influence of $325 million new and recurring revenues of assigned product offerings.”

Bill Gregory

Last month, Bill Gregory joined Verinext – the rebranded Anexinet and Veristor – as executive vice president of customer experience (CX), according to his LinkedIn account.

Gregory came to the Blue Bell, Pa.-based company – both Anexinet and Veristor appeared on CRN’s 2022 MSP 500 separately and merged the same year – after more than 11 years with Light Networks, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Light with the title of president and chief operating officer.

He also served as co-CEO of the company for a time. His resume includes more than four years with Avaya, leaving the company in 2011 with the title of regional director for AT&T southeast, according to his LinkedIn account.

Matt Lemley

Matt Lemley joined Infocenter last month, taking on the role of chief information officer, according to his LinkedIn account.

Lemley came to the Charlotte, N.C.-based MSP after more than seven years with EY, according to his LinkedIn account. He left EY with the title of senior manager of cybersecurity for data protection and privacy.

His resume includes more than three years with Cafaro, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company in 2015 with the title of network systems manager.

## Salil Jain

Rackspace hired Salil Jain in January as its chief business officer, according to his LinkedIn account.

Jain joined the San Antonio-based multi-cloud services company after more than four years with MetricStream, according to his LinkedIn account. He left with the title of chief customer officer and executive vice president of operations.

In this role, Jain “built the customer success and renewals functions to retain and grow the install base of MetricStream customers” and managed “business operations including revenue operations, professional services operations and product operations, as well as some line functions like inside sales and our training business,” according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes less than a year with Pure Storage, where he worked as vice president of enterprise and vertical go-to-market. He left the company in 2018.

He also worked at DocuSign for more than two years, leaving in 2017 with the title of vice president of sales operations. And he worked at SAP for more than 10 years, leaving in 2014 with the title of global vice president of mobile solutions and growth initiatives, according to his LinkedIn account.

Emily Lewis-Pinnell

Emily Lewis-Pinnell joined Caylent in January, taking on the role of vice president of engineering, according to her LinkedIn account.

Lewis-Pinnell came to the Irvine, Calif.-based Amazon Web Services consulting partner after more than 18 years with NTT Data Services and Dell Technologies, according to her LinkedIn account. In 2016, NTT Data bought Dell’s IT services business for about $3.5 billion.

She left NTT with the title of cloud transformation senior executive and global lead.

In this role, she “led the development of NTT DATA Services‘ public cloud business, leading the organization in establishing NTT DATA as an Azure Expert Microsoft Gold partner, AWS Premier partner, and GCP Premier Partner and recognized as Visionary in Public Cloud Transformation by Gartner and a Leader in Cloud Transformation by Nelson Hall,” according to her LinkedIn account.

She joined Dell Technologies in 2004.