30 Notable IT Executive Moves: September 2022

Convergence Networks, Davenport Group, CrowdStrike, HPE, Oracle and Cisco were among the tech companies to make executive hires during the month.

A new Convergence Networks CEO, a CFOat Davenport Group and a new chief marketing officer of CrowdStrike are among the major IT executive hires of September 2022.

Chris Remy, formerly of Mobile Technologies (MTI); Kevin Williams, formerly of Aprio; and JJ Johnson, formerly of Illumio, are just some of the names featured on CRN’s September 2022 IT executive moves list.

[RELATED: 30 Notable IT Executive Moves: August 2022]

Who changed jobs in September 2022?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle and Cisco 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 Pratish Shah, formerly of Amazon Web Services; Paul Pessutti, formerly of Slync.io; and Elaine Mason, formerly of Splunk.

What follows are 30 notable IT executive moves from September 2022.

Tom Krause

In September, Tom Krause officially started his new role as CEO of Cloud Software Group, the parent organization of Tibco and Citrix, according to his LinkedIn account.

Before he joined CSG—the result of private equity firms taking Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Citrix private and merging it with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tibco—Krause was president of Broadcom Software.

Krause was slated to lead VMware after Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of the company, but announced his departure in July to instead lead the combined Citrix-Tibco.

Krause first joined Broadcom in 2012 and became its CFO a few years later. In 2020, he was promoted to lead the chip company’s six software divisions as president of Broadcom’s Software Group, which he helped form.

Paul Hager

Last month, Paul Hager started with Ingram Micro as vice president of services for the U.S., according to his LinkedIn bio.

Hager joined the Irvine, Calif.-based IT distributor after more than two years with Elevity IT. He left the company with the title of director of solutions.

He came to Elevity with the 2020 acquisition of Information Technology Professionals (ITP) by Gordon Fleisch. Hager was CEO of ITP at the time of the acquisition.

Kevin Williams

Kevin Williams joined Davenport Group in September as CFO and operations officer, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Williams came to the Lewisburg, Tenn.-based company—No. 297 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500—after more than six years with Aprio, according to his LinkedIn bio. Williams left Aprio with the title of CFO.

His resume includes more than four years with BrandBank, according to LinkedIn. He left the company in 2015 with the title of senior vice president and controller.

Luanne Tierney

Mission hired Luanne Tierney in September as its chief marketing officer, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Tierney came to the Los Angeles-based company— No. 132 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 —after more than five years as CEO of LT & Associates, a fractional marketing consulting firm.

Her firm’s services included “Go To Market, Alliances, and Channel marketing support in IoT, AI, Cybersecurity, SaaS, Service Provider, Data Analytics and Consumer markets” as well as “building communications, executive events, integrated marketing plans and programs ‘to’ and ‘through’ Partners.”

Her resume includes more than a year as chief marketing officer for Betterworks, leaving the company in 2021, and for Open Systems, which she left in 2019, according to her LinkedIn bio.

She worked at Proofpoint for more than a year, leaving in 2016 with the title of senior vice president of marketing, according to her LinkedIn bio. She worked at Fortinet for about a year, leaving in 2015 as vice president of marketing. And Tierney worked at Juniper Networks for more than three years, leaving in 2014 with the title of vice president of global partner marketing.

Tierney spent more than 15 years with Cisco, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left the company with the title of vice president of worldwide partner marketing.

Chris Remy

Chris Remy became the new CEO of Convergence Networks in September, according to a company statement.

Remy succeeded Mat Lafrance, who is still a board member and focused “on employee development and engagement,” according to the company. Mike Maddox remains company president.

Remy came to the Portland, Ore.-based company—a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500—after more than 12 years with Mobile Technologies (MTI), according to his LinkedIn bio.

He left MTI in 2020 with the title of CEO. In this role, he “led an organization that provided 24/7 technical support to some of the largest retailers and OEMs across North America,” according to the Convergence statement.

JJ Johnson

JJ Johnson joined CrowdStrike last month as chief marketing officer, according to her LinkedIn.

At the Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity vendor, Johnson “will be responsible for driving brand awareness, global messaging and communications programs, go-to-market strategies, demand generation and field sales support for CrowdStrike’s global product, customer and partner marketing teams,” according to a company statement.

Before she joined CrowdStrike, Johnson was CMO of Illumio for less than a year, according to her LinkedIn bio. In this role, she “led marketing strategy and execution” and “centralized and led the Global Marketing and Sales Development teams to accelerate pipeline development.”

Her resume includes more than a year with Amplitude. She left the company in February with the title of chief marketing and strategy officer.

She also worked at Tenable for more than three years, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left the company in 2020 as CMO. In this role, she “led the ground-up transformation of the global marketing organization and re-positioned Tenable from IT-centric VM to Cyber Exposure Management and Risk.”

Pratish Shah

Pratish Shah joined Hewlett Packard Enterprise last month as vice president of portfolio management for Pointnext services, according to his LinkedIn bio.

In this role with the Houston-based tech giant, Shah is “responsible for defining the HPE services portfolio to differentiate and enable HPE to become an industry leader in next-generation edge-to-cloud platform services,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Shah came to HPE after more than six years with Amazon Web Services, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left AWS with the title of head of the advisory practice for the U.S.-based delivery team within AWS professional services.

In this role, he was responsible for relaunching “advisory consulting (business and management) capabilities that enable the adoption and acceleration to AWS cloud platform services,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Manish Kamra

Last month, Manish Kamra joined N-able as group vice president of engineering, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Kamra came to the Morrisville, N.C.-based management software vendor for IT services providers after more than a year with Hootsuite, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left Hootsuite with the title of senior vice president of software development.

In this role, Kamra was responsible for “evaluating emerging technologies and engineering practices with a strategic focus on partnerships and potential acquisitions” and managing “corporate research and development for production operations and security,” according to a company statement.

He previously worked for Ericsson, where he held the title of vice president of software development and head of CENX product development. Ericsson bought CENX in 2018.

Kamra’s resume includes more than three years with Wind River, according to his LinkedIn. He left Wind River, then an Intel subsidiary, in 2017 with the title of senior director of engineering for Io). In 2018, Intel sold Wind River to TPG Capital.

He also worked at BlackBerry for more than five years, according to his LinkedIn bio. Kamra left BlackBerry in 2014 with the title of director of software development for mobile services and application development.

Paul Pessutti

Oracle hired Paul Pessutti last month, giving him the title of senior vice president of strategic solutions for North America, according to his LinkedIn bio.

In this role, Pessutti is “responsible for Supply Chain, Logistics, PLM, Global Trade, Analytics, and Enterprise Performance Management Applications sales and go-to-market across North America,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Pessutti came to the Austin, Texas-based cloud and database services vendor after more than a year with Slync.io, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left Slync.io with the title of executive vice president and chief revenue officer.

His resume includes more than a year with DXC Technology, according to his LinkedIn bio. Pessutti left DXC in 2020 with the title of group vice president and general manager for the travel, transportation, automotive, energy and hospitality industries.

In this role, he was responsible “for the global P&L, leading 8,000 people across 70 countries to grow, turnaround and transform the $1.6bn software and IT services business,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Pessutti spent more than 13 years with SAP, according to his resume. He left the company in 2019 with the title of senior vice president and general manager for the travel, transportation and hospitality industries.

Elaine Mason

Elaine Mason returned to Cisco in September as senior vice president of strategy and innovation, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Before she came to the San Jose, Calif.-based networking vendor, she worked at Splunk for about a year, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left Splunk with the title of chief talent officer.

In this role, Mason “focused on scaling global talent acquisition and management, learning and leadership, organization effectiveness and workforce strategy to enable the company‘s hyper growth strategy,” according to her LinkedIn bio.

Mason previously worked at Ciso from 2016 to 2021, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left with the title of vice president of people and communities partner.

In this role, she was the “Chief People Officer for Emerging Technologies and Corporate Strategy divisions” and “led People and Communities (formerly HR) strategy to redefine business partnership, focused on positioning Employee Resource Groups as well as non-traditional groups such as ‘new leaders’ and ‘re-skill ready’ as building blocks for a new operating model at Cisco,” according to her LinkedIn bio.

Keith Ballinger

Google hired Keith Ballinger last month, giving him the title of vice president of engineering for foundation services, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Ballinger joined the Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud vendor after more than five years with GitHub and its parent company, Microsoft. Microsoft bought GitHub in 2018 for $7.5 billion.

Ballinger exited GitHub with the title of senior vice president of engineering, according to his LinkedIn bio. At Microsoft, he served as a general manager for about a year, leading “the PM and Engineering teams for Azure DevOps, App Center (appcenter.ms), and 1ES, a cross-Microsoft initiative to improve the systems, process and culture that power software development at Microsoft.”

His resume also includes eight years with Microsoft from 1999 to 2007, where he worked as a program manager, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Ballinger also spent more than a year with Xamarin, according to LinkedIn. He left Xamarin in 2016 with the title of vice president of product.

Tom Casey

Tom Casey joined Splunk last month as senior vice president and general manager of the namesake platform, according to his LinkedIn.

Casey came to the San Francisco-based data security and observability platform provider after more than five years with DocuSign, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left DocuSign with the title of senior vice president of engineering and head of product innovation and customer experience.

In this role, Casey led “product strategy, development, and delivery of all DocuSign products worldwide.” He helped scale DocuSign “from a private company with a few hundred million to a public company with more than $2B in revenue” and was “responsible for World Wide Technical Operations, Global Customer Support, and Trust & Security,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

His resume includes more than two years with Apptio, leaving in 2016 with the title of vice president of platform and infrastructure, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Casey also worked at Microsoft for more than 16 years, leaving in 2013 with the title of corporate vice president. In this role, he led the “global development team providing the infrastructure for all online payment transactions for Microsoft‘s commercial and consumer businesses,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Tony Alfano

Axispoint Technology Solutions Group (ATSG) hired Tony Alfano in September as its COO, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Alfano came to the New York-based company—a member of CRN’s 2022 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500— after more than a year with Avaya, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company with the title of senior vice president of global services.

In this role, he was “responsible for all implementation, support, customer success and service portfolio management and development globally across all products,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

He spent more than two years with NTT, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2020 with the title of executive vice president and chief operating officer of NTT Limited Americas.

Alfano also spent more than 10 years with SAP, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2018 with the title of chief operations officer for SAP services.

Peter Russo

Peter Russo joined ServiceNow last month as vice president and creator of ERP and platform foundation product and solutions marketing, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Russo came to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based technical management support tools vendor after more than a year with Oracle, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left Oracle with the title of global vice president and head of ERP marketing.

In this role, he led “the Cloud ERP product marketing team, including core ERP, project management, finance & risk product marketing, finance audience marketing, as well as instituting installed base (on-premises ERP) to cloud programs at Oracle,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Before Oracle, Russo worked at SAP for more than eight years, according to his LinkedIn bio. Russo left SAP in 2020 with the title of global vice president and head of ERP, finance and supply chain marketing.

In this role, he led a “global marketing team responsible for SAP‘s full intelligent ERP portfolio including S/4HANA & S/4HANA Cloud, SAP’s Finance line-of-business & GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), SAP Digital Supply Chain and SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

His responsibilities included “overall marketing strategy, product marketing across all LoB‘s (IT, SCM, Finance, Sales, Service & Commerce), and demand generation through a dedicated regional marketing team.”

Patricia Grant

In September, Patricia Grant became a new senior vice president and CIO at Tenable, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Grant joined the Columbia, Md.-based cybersecurity vendor after more than five years with ServiceNow, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left the company with the title of vice president of IT strategy and operations.

In this role, Grant reported to the CIO and was responsible for “building new functions that enable IT to run like a business” and “IT/Security/Application Operations, Enterprise Architecture, PMO, IT Business Operations, IT Risk Management, and Now on Now Program, comprised of a team of nearly 300 employees/contractors and $100M budget,” according to her LinkedIn bio.

Part of her accomplishment at ServiceNow include driving a “cost optimization program across my org to reduce my Opex spend by 5% to optimize spend and invest in areas of growth,” creating a “framework to identify opportunities to improve our velocity and employee experience across the company” that realized $100 million in productivity savings and leading “IT through an agile transformation resulting in a 27% increase in time to deliver and a 5X spend to value ratio,” according to her LinkedIn bio.

Grant’s resume includes 10-plus years with Symantec, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left the company in 2017 with the title of senior director of communication, collaboration and productivity services.

Bruce Ragsdale

Last month, Intel hired Bruce Ragsdale as its vice president of supply chain sourcing, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Ragsdale joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker after more than seven years with ASM, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company with the title of senior vice president of global operations and supply chain.

His resume includes seven-plus years with Applied Materials, according to his LinkedIn bio. Ragsdale left Applied Materials in 2015 with the title of vice president.

Kimberly Anstett

Kimberly Anstett joined Trellix last month as global chief information officer, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Before Anstett came to the Milpitas, Calif.-based cybersecurity vendor, she worked at Iron Mountain as executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Her resume includes more than 15 years with Nielsen, according to LinkedIn. Anstett left Nielsen with the title of chief information officer.

Scott Gooch

2nd Watch hired Scott Gooch last month, giving him the title of senior vice president of cloud solutions, according to his LinkedIn account.

Gooch came to the Seattle-based company—a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500—after more than six years with Slalom, according to his LinkedIn. He left Slalom with the title of managing director at the Washington, D.C. branch.

In this role, Gooch led the “go to market strategy across multiple industries resulting in unprecedented growth in revenue and talent” and managed “brand enablement and community outreach throughout the local business community,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

His resume includes more than 13 years with Booz Allen Hamilton, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2016 with the title of vice president.

Amber Armstrong

Amber Armstrong joined Salesforce in September as senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the company’s Sales Cloud offering, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Armstrong came to the San Francisco-based data analytics vendor after more than a year with LivePerson, according to her LinkedIn bio. In this role, she served as a “Marketing and Communications executive for +$450M growth-focused SaaS provider of customer care, commerce, and AI solutions.”

Her accomplishments in this role include increasing “marketing sourced new logo opportunities by 71% and marketing contribution to new logo pipeline from 36% to 50%,” which “resulted in +55% growth in new logo wins per Q222 earnings,” according to her LinkedIn bio.

Armstrong also worked at IBM for more than 14 years, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left the company in 2021 with the title of vice president and chief marketing officer of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and blockchain. Part of her responsibilities included “AI infused SaaS applications and services (IoT, Operations, Supply Chain, Weather, Complex Engineering, Blockchain).”

Chris Laures

CDW hired Chris Laures in September as vice president of strategy for corporate development, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Before joining the Vernon Hills, Ill.-based company — No. 4 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 — Laures worked at TE Connectivity for about a year, according to his LinkedIn bio.

In this role, Laures “drove strategic projects and business reporting for senior executives” and “managed investigation into new product areas, defined strategies for managing business challenges, and oversaw inorganic opportunities which included establishing a new business unit via acquisitions,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

His accomplishments included recommending “against use of 3D Printing to serve low-volume demand after showing this represented <1% of sales,” instead identifying “an opportunity to reduce design cycle time 30% by using the technology for rapid prototyping which would improve new program wins 5-10% worth ~$100M+ in incremental annual revenue,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

Laures also “identified >$500M in sales exposure due to the geo-political uncertainty faced by producing and competing in China, prioritizing the most likely risks based on multiple indicators followed by the development of no-regret and big-bet responses that the business should begin executing to mitigate these scenarios,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

His resume includes more than two years with Caterpillar, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2021 as director of strategy.

Adrien Sirolli

Adrien Sirolli returned to SAP last month, gaining the title of vice president of solution management for Business Network, according to her LinkedIn account.

Before joining the Germany-based enterprise applications giant, Sirolli worked for more than a year at JPMorgan Chase, according to her LinkedIn bio. Sirolli left the company with the title of executive director for product strategy and go-to-market (GTM) operations for digital solutions.

Sirolli’s previous stints with SAP include 2006 to 2010, when she left with the title of director of product management for enterprise performance management, and 2011 to 2014, when she left with the title of senior director of solutions management for mobile applications, according to her LinkedIn bio.

She previously worked at Apple for more than three years, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left the company in 2021 with the title of worldwide product marketing for enterprise and government markets.

Her resume includes more than two years with Microsoft, leaving the company in 2016 with the title of director of product marketing for Dynamics CRM.

KJ Trivedi

Last month, Palo Alto Networks hired KJ Trivedi as senior vice president of strategic accounts and president of secure access service edge (SASE) for the Americas, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Trivedi joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based cybersecurity company after more than six years with Zscaler, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company with the title of area vice president for the East.

His resume includes more than five years with BMC Software, according to his LinkedIn bio. Trivedi left BMC in 2016 with the title of area sales director.

Elena Khasanova

Critical Start hired Elena Khasanova last month, giving her the role of vice president of professional services, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Before she joined the Plano, Texas-based company—a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500—Khasanova worked for more than 10 years at Varonis, according to her LinkedIn bio.

At Varonis, she founded the “Partner Enablement function within the company consisting of 23 partners from 9 different countries to shift PS delivery to key platform resellers,” according to her LinkedIn bio.

Tim Mannschreck

Diversified hired Tim Mannschreck in September as vice president of enterprise sales, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Before Mannschreck joined the Kenilworth, N.J.-based company—a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500—he worked at Unisys for more than two years, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Mannschreck left Unisys with the title of strategic client executive for the West Coast, according to his LinkedIn bio. In this role, he was “responsible for sales of new logo accounts as well as expansion of existing accounts on the West Coast.” He “held complete P&L, operational and sales growth responsibility for West Coast State and Local accounts” and “set strategic direction for new and existing services including bringing innovation into the existing portfolio.”

His resume includes more than two years with MV Transportation, according to his LinkedIn. He left the company in 2020 with the title of operations senior vice president.

He also worked at NTT Data Services for more than four years, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2018 with the title of senior vice president of global technical sales.

Mannschreck was with Dell Technologies for more than six years, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2013 with the title of executive director of Americas sales and strategic renewals.

Eric McGrane

In September, Eric McGrane joined Red River, taking on the role of senior vice president of business development and growth enablement, according to his LinkedIn bio.

McGrane came to the Claremont, N.H.-based company—a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500—after more than four years with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), according to his LinkedIn bio.

He left GDIT with the title of growth director of U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) enterprise services, according to his LinkedIn.

His resume includes more than two years with DXC Technology, according to McGrane’s LinkedIn bio. He left DXC in 2018 with the title of client sales executive for DISA.

Mu Han

Zoom hired Mu Han last month as chief development officer, according to his LinkedIn bio. Han will lead product development in this role.

He came to the San Jose, Calif.-based unified communications platform provider after more than 25 years with Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Han left Microsoft with the title of corporate vice president, according to his LinkedIn bio. In this role, he led “the product management and engineering team responsible for the real-time signaling and media technology and services that power Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Azure Communication Services.”

Bill Long

Zayo Group hired Bill Long in September as its chief product officer, according to Long’s LinkedIn account.

He joined the Boulder, Colo.-based communications infrastructure provider after more than nine years with Equinix, according to his LinkedIn bio. In this role, he led “the team responsible for Product Management at Equinix including Collocation, Interconnection and Infrastructure services globally.” His responsibilities included product strategy, roadmap definition, financial management, commercial enablement and pricing.

Long previously worked at Level 3 Communications for more than nine years, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left the company in 2013 with the title of vice president of voice services.

Trent Blakely

Trent Blakely joined Unitas Global last month, taking on the role of vice president of product, according to his LinkedIn bio.

In this role, he will work with the Unitas Nexus marketplace for connectivity orders and other products, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Blakely came to Chicago-based Unitas—a member of CRN’s 2022 MSP 500—after more than two years with Equinix, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left Equinix with the title of product management lead for channel.

His resume includes more than two years with Sungard Availability Services, according to his LinkedIn bio. Blakely left the company in 2020 with the title of senior product manager for the network and security services portfolio.

In this role, he owned “Waves, Ethernet, MPLS, Internet, DDoS Protection, Cloud Connect (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, etc.), and Managed Routers, Switches, Load Balancers, and Firewalls” and “built long term and in-depth product portfolio strategy that outlines the products, pricing, and promotional tactics,” among other responsibilities.

Blakely also spent more than three years with Level 3 Communications, leaving in 2017 with the title of product manager for high speed internet in North America and Asia-Pacific, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Valentyn Kropov

N-iX hired Valentyn Kropov last month as CTO, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Kropov joined the Malta-based company—No. 231 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500—after more than eight years with SoftServe, according to his LinkedIn bio. He left SoftServe with the title of vice president of retail and financial technology (FinTech).

In this role, he managed “a team of 300 engineers/managers,” helped with “tech Projects in AI/ML, Cloud, Big Data, Robotics, and app development areas” and owned the “retail (e-comm, big box, grocery, M&M, retail-tech) and FinTech (banks, insurance, NFT, blockchain) domains,” according to his LinkedIn bio.

He left GlobalLogic in 2014 after more than four years, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Janet Gillespie

Janey Gillespie joined Ricoh in September, taking on the role of vice president of marketing operations, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Gillespie came to the Exton, Pa.-based company — No. 184 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 — after more than nine years with Panasonic Canada, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left Panasonic with the title of vice president of marketing and brand.

Her resume includes more than three years with XM Canada, according to her LinkedIn bio. She left XM in 2011 with the title of vice president of marketing.