Google Cloud Nabs HPE Exec For GCP Go-To-Market Role

Jason Schroedl joins a contingent of his former HPE and Cisco colleagues also recently brought on by Google Cloud, which has been on a hiring spree after pledging in 2019 to triple the size of its sales organization over the next few years.

Google Cloud has poached another Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive as director of its go-to-market strategy for Google Cloud Platform.

Jason Schroedl joins a contingent of his former HPE and Cisco colleagues also recently brought on by Google Cloud, which has been on a hiring spree after pledging in 2019 to triple the size of its sales organization over the next few years.

Schroedl, formerly head of global go-to-market (GTM) strategy and programs at HPE, started in his new Google Cloud position today. His new team works closely with Google Cloud Platform’s product, marketing and sales teams to drive the GTM execution and manage strategic GTM projects across the GCP product portfolio, according to his LinkedIn page.

“I’ve long admired Google‘s innovation, culture, and talent…dating back to the very early days when my friend and former colleague Susan Wojcicki (now CEO of Google’s YouTube) rented out her garage and became one of the first employees,” Schroedl wrote on his LinkedIn page. “Since then, Google has always been my browser home page…and I’ve thought about becoming a Googler. But my entire career has been focused on the enterprise market. So it didn’t seem like the right fit or the right time.”

“Until now,” Schroedl continued. “My recent work has involved open source tools that all originated at Google: like Kubernetes, TensorFlow, Kubeflow, Istio and even Hadoop (from the Google File System). And I’ve watched Google Cloud’s momentum, enterprise focus and customer-first approach under Thomas Kurian‘s leadership. It’s truly impressive. So when I was offered this opportunity, I made the difficult decision to leave Hewlett Packard Enterprise.”

Schroedl said he’s honored to be part of the Google Cloud team that includes a raft of former HPE and Cisco coworkers who recently joined Google Cloud -- the third largest cloud provider, whose annual revenue run is approximately $12 billion based on earnings for the second quarter that ended June 30.

“We have committed to tripling the size of our customer-facing teams, and we‘re excited to bring new, talented Googlers on board that will help us serve customers across industries,” a Google Cloud spokesperson said.

The executives mentioned by Schroedl on LinkedIn are HPE alumni Kelly Ducourty, managing director of cloud GTM strategy and operations for Google Cloud globally since March; Philipp Barmettler, director of GTM strategy for Google Cloud since March (by way of Facebook); and Andrada Morar, global head of GTM activation, social selling and customer-to-community at Google Cloud since January; along with former Cisco colleagues Brian Schwarz, director of GCP product management since January (by way of Pure Storage); and Mark Balch, senior product manager for Google Cloud Platform since May (by way of OpenGov and Diamanti).

CRN last month reported that Google Cloud had hired four new executives from SAP, Blue Yonder (formerly JDA Software) and U.S. Bank for senior roles as it continues its focus on industry vertical solutions to help gain enterprise customers.

Schroedl joined HPE in December of 2018 after the company acquired BlueData, where he was vice president of marketing.

As head of global GTM strategy and programs for HPE, he was responsible for global GTM for its portfolio of enterprise software solutions within its software business unit, including the container platform, artificial intelligence/machine learning, data fabric and security product lines from the BlueData, MapR and Scytale acquisitions. He previously was director of product and solutions marketing at Cisco Systems from April of 2011 to October of 2014.

Commenting on his tenure at HPE a week ago, Schroedl said his last day marked the end of a very rewarding time in his career.

“These past five and a half years have been an amazing journey -- from when I first met Kumar Sreekanti (HPE’s chief technology officer and head of software) in a modest office above a pizza shop in downtown Mountain View, to the startup days and nights with my awesome colleagues at BlueData, Inc., to the HPE acquisition and creation of our new software business unit (including incredible talent from MapR Technologies and Scytale.io), to launching our new HPE Ezmeral software brand and new HPE GreenLake cloud services,” Schroedl said in a LinkedIn post.