30 Notable IT Executive Moves: June 2011

Round And Round They Go...

With major IT vendors in various states of chaos and disorder and startups coming on strong, 2011 has been a year of pretty significant IT executive moves so far, and in June, that trend continued. Here's a look at major moves that happened in the past month at Cisco, HP, EMC and many others.

Cisco Exits Continue

The list of major executives that have left Cisco in the past eight months has become a hit parade. In June, Christofer Hoff, former director of cloud and virtualization solutions for Cisco's Security Technology Business Unit (STBU), joined the exodus, as did Brian Schipper, former senior vice president of human resources. Hoff is headed for Juniper, where he'll have an as-yet-undefined security role for the Cisco archival.

Shakeup At HP

Thrice passed over for the top job at Hewlett Packard over the past 10 years, Ann Livermore seemed destined for a shift. Livermore, executive vice president of HP's enterprise business, was confirmed in June to be leaving her post for a role on HP's Board of Directors. Her move wasn't the only headline-grabber in the shakeup. HP let go of Pete Bocian, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, eliminating the chief admin position in the process, and also bid goodbye to Randy Mott, executive vice president and CIO. Several HP executives were also bumped up, including Dave Donatelli, executive vice president of HP's ESSN group, Bill Veghte, executive vice president of software, and Jan Zadak, executive vice president of global sales, all of whom now report to HP CEO Leo Apotheker.

Leonard Iventosch

Once an EMC enemy as the former channel chief at NetApp, Leonard Iventosch is now vice president of Americas channel sales at the storage giant. Iventosch came to EMC via EMC's acquisition of Isilon, where he was vice president of global channel partners since 2008. Along with Iventosch's move, EMC confirmed that Gregg Ambulos, who'd been managing both worldwide and Americas channel sales for EMC, will become senior vice president of global channel sales.

Vivek Kundra

Vivek Kundra, the country's first federal CIO and the prime mover behind many of the Obama Administration's top technology priorities, confirmed in mid-June that he would throw in the towel after two and a half years on the job. Kundra is headed for a post at Harvard University, and public sector-focused solution providers expressed disappointment at the departure, saying that Kundra's exit might stall many of the government IT initiatives Kundra and his team helped to get off the ground.

Simon Crosby And Ian Pratt

The co-founders of the Xen open source project left Citrix to form a startup called Bromium, which focuses on virtualization technology to address security challenges in cloud environments. Simon Crosby, CTO of Citrix's data center and cloud division, and Ian Pratt, chairman of Xen.org and former vice president of Citrix's virtualization and management division, both originally came to Citrix when it acquired XenSource in 2007.

Shane McNamara

Lot of moving and shaking in the carrier/telco channel in recent months, and XO Communications is no exception. Two months after Brian Law, its former channel chief, left his post, Shane McNamara, most recently general manager of carrier services for CDW, was named to lead XO's Business Partner Program and XO indirect sales. McNamara reports to Mike Toplisek, who like McNamara is a former Global Crossing executive.

Shooting Gallery At Skype

Executive exits are all too common in cases of regime change, but word from Skype, which named Tony Bates its new CEO last fall and is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, was of cross-the-board firings this past month. Among the Skype hit list: David Gurle, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business, Christopher Dean, head of consumer markets business development, Russ Shaw, vice president and general manager of mobile and EMEA, Don Albert, general manager, North America, Doug Bewsher, chief marketing officer, Anne Gillespie, head of human resources, and former Qik executes Ramu Sankara and Alyson Campa.

Richard Green

As Nokia's "burning platform" continues to burn, more executive exits have happened at the once-proud Finnish mobile phone giant. The most prominent within the last few weeks was Richard Green, Nokia's CTO, who according to Reuters is exiting Nokia over a series of strategy disagreements. Henry Tirri, head of Nokia Research Center, has been made acting CTO.

John Herbold

Apple's iCloud may be taking off, but John Herbold, who served as senior product manager for Apple iCloud starting in June 2007, won't be part of it. Herbold was confirmed as the new vice president of products at HealthTeacher, a provider of online health promotion, disease prevention, social and emotional wellness and safety resources for children. Herbold was previously a senior product manager for Apple's MobileMe team.

George Hotz

Gain notoriety as a hacker, get a job: that was the path for George Hotz, the 21-year-old Sony hacker sued for breaking into the PlayStation 3 console, and now, apparently, on Facebook's payroll. Facebook confirmed the hire but has not officially disclosed Hotz's role at the social networking giant. Other reports indicate Hotz will be working on Facebook's impending iPad application -- a curious development given that it was Hotz known among hacker circles as Geohot, who gained notoriety in 2008 by jailbreaking Apple's iPhone.

Biz Stone

In late June, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was confirmed to be leaving a full-time role at Twitter to join former Twitter alumnus Evan Williams at Obvious Corp. -- a move that leaves the microblogging service without the full attention any of its creators. Stone and Williams are both peripherally involved with Twitter still, as is co-founder Jack Dorsey, still listed as Twitter's executive chairman even though he spends most of his time as CEO of mobile payment company Square.

Richard Deranleau

In a move that raised a few eyebrows given Brocade's positive financial momentum, Richard Deranleau, Brocade's CFO, left the company in mid-June. Dan Fairfax, the former CFO of Foundry Networks, which Brocade acquired in 2008, has stepped in as Brocade's CFO. Deranleau's exit followed that of Tejinder Grewel, former vice president of corporate development, who left Brocade at the end of May.

David Knight

More for the file on former Cisco executives jumping ship to upstart competitors: David Knight was confirmed in late June as the new executive vice president of product management and marketing at Proofpoint, a SaaS security specialist. Knight, most recently chief technology officer for Cisco's Collaboration Software Group, follows Debra Chrapaty, former SVP of the same group, out the door at Cisco.

Aruba Moves

Aruba Networks named a permanent chief financial officer and new vice president, worldwide sales, both of whom will report to Aruba President and CEO Dominic Orr. Michael Galvin, who has served as Aruba's interim CFO since April, has been officially named to the role. Galvin has been at Aruba since 2005, and before stepping into the interim CFO role was vice president of finance. Galvin became interim CFO at the wireless stalwart following the surprise resignation of former CFO Steffan Tomlinson, who left Aruba for a venture capital job.

Also, Michael Kirby was appointed vice president of worldwide sales. Kirby joined Aruba in 2004 and was most recently vice president of sales for the Americas. Aruba did not confirm who will be stepping in to the Americas sales role behind Kirby.

Edward Schwartz

Edward Schwartz was named the new security chief at RSA, the security division of EMC, following a very public snafu over a SecureID data breach that left many of RSA's high profile customers vulnerable to cyber attacks. Schwartz was previously security chief at NetWitness, a company EMC acquired in April, and will report to David Martin, EMC's vice president and chief security officer.

Nick Watson

HP Networking poached Nick Watson, former European strategic private account director for Cisco, to be its new EMEA vice president. Watson replaced Carlos Sartorius, who moved up to a worldwide position at HP Networking.

Brian Wiser

A well-known channel presence, Ingram Micro's Brian Wiser was bumped up to the role of senior vice president, specialty solutions division, North America. Wiser reports directly to Ingram North America President Keith Bradley, and replaces John Soumbasakis, who in April was named senior vice president and President, Latin America at the distributor. In his new role, Wiser oversees many of Ingram's higher-margin organizations and investments, including data capture/POS, consumer electronics subsidiaries IMCE and AVAD, and Incgram's Mobility and Physical Security business units.

Steven Wastie

Steven Wastie in late June joined Xirrus as chief marketing officer, where he'll be responsible for driving global marketing and product management for Xirrus around the world. Wastie is an industry veteran, and before Xirrus held VP and SVP-level positions at IPass, Juniper, Inktomi and Netscape.

Hector Ruiz

Former Advanced Micro Devices CEO Hector Ruiz surfaced in late June with a consulting company, Bull Ventures. Co-founded with Bharath Rangarajan, also a former AMD executive, the consultancy is based in San Francisco and, according to its Website description, aims to help companies who want to "grow from good to great." Ruiz in Nov. 2009 resigned from Globalfoundries, the chip manufacturer and AMD spinoff, and continues to be scrutinized for his alleged association with the Galleon Group LLC insider trading scandal, though he has not been charged with any crime.

B.J. Schaknowski

Right at the end of May, CA Technologies named BJ Schaknowski its new vice president, global solution provider sales. Schaknowski, a channel veteran, is a former Intuit channel executive, and at CA will focus on global sales channel strategies, program design and partner enablement. He started at CA on June 6 and reports to David Bradley, senior vice president, global channel sales.

Greg Meyers

Greg Meyers is Microsoft's new vice president of federal sales, the software giant announced in June. Meyers had previously been Microsoft's general manager for U.S. federal civilian government sales and operations, and he replaced Teresa Carlson, who left Microsoft last fall to take over Amazon Web Service's public sector team.

Ron Johnson

JC Penney is hoping Ron Johnson, who will become the retailer's CEO in November, can work some of his Apple magic. Johnson, who had been with Apple since January 2000 and was previously vice president of merchandising at Target, is credited with the creation of Apple's Retail Stores and its Genius Bar help desk, both seen as widely successful for brick-and-mortar consumer electronics retail outlets.

Cloud Telecomputers Emerges

Cloud Telecomputers, a startup that focuses on cloud-ready IP telephony hardware and software applications and licenses a platform called Glass for creating Android-based phones for business use, added two industry veterans to its roster in early June. Anthony Gioeli was named president and CEO, replacing interim CEO Walter Kortschak. Gioeli was most recently executive vice president of sales and marketing at cloud UC company PanTerra Networks, and was previously CEO of several startups, including Atrua Technologies and AirPrime. Also joining Cloud Telecomputers is former Polycom CEO Robert Hagerty, who joined the company's board of directors. Hagerty stepped down from Polycom in May 2010 after 13 years at the video and UC stalwart.

Kazuo Hirai

As public relations black eyes go, the hacking attack that brought down Sony's PlayStation network is a shiner among shiners. Among the executive casualties from the fallout appears to be Kazuo Hirai, president and chief executive of Sony's video game unit, who will be replaced by Andrew House, currently head of the video game unit's European business, in September. Sony has estimated that the recovery from the PlayStation breach will cost about $173 million. Hirai, considered a front-runner to succeed Sir Howard Stringer in Sony's top job, will continue to oversee the gaming business as its chairman, according to Sony.

Larry Summers

That Larry Summers? Yes, that Larry Summers, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary, who in late June was announced as the newest team member at Silicon Valley venture capital stalwart Andreessen Horowitz. Summers told The New York Times that he expects to "be more involved in Silicon Valley" -- Summers was named to the board of directors of Square earlier in the month -- and said he looks "forward to learning about technology and hopefully being able to contribute."

Martin Ellis

Agilysys, the Solon, Ohio-based solution provider and software developer, confirmed at the end of May that Martin Ellis, its president and CEO, would step down. It's one of the many big changes happening at Agilysys, which is selling its Technology Solutions Group -- about 70 percent of its business -- to solution provider OnX Enterprise Solutions of Toronto, Canada for $64 million. Ellis will continue to serve as a special adviser to the non-executive chairman of Agilysys' board, and James H. Dennedy, a board member, has stepped in as interim president and CEO.

NTT Appointments

Solution provider and telco NTT America made a number of executive appointments in late June. Michael DeVito is now vice president for enterprise solutions, in charge of NTT America's business management and Arcstar network services teams, as well as enterprise sales. DeVIto previously worked at BT Global Services, Equant Network Services, Qwest and MCI. Reporting to DeVito will be Bryan Tam, promoted to vice president and head of enterprise sales, responsible for day-to-day sales team management at NTT America. Finally, Jun Nojima has been appointed chief administration officer, a newly created role, where he'll be responsible for corporate marketing, human resources, corporate strategy and legal issues.

Brian Wallace

Beleaguered Research In Motion is losing executives left and right, and June was no exception. Brian Wallace, who headed up digital marketing at RIM as vice president of digital marketing and media, defected to Samsung Mobile, where his title is vice president of strategic marketing for the U.S. Wallace follows RIM's former CMO, Keith Pardy, out the door.

Elsewhere, one of RIM's three COOs, Don Morrison, has gone on medical leave, expected to return to RIM in the fall. Larry Conlee, a former RIM COO, has also returned to the company as a special advisor, according to RIM.

Jack Daniel

Jack Daniel, well-known in security circles, left Astaro in mid-June to become a product manager at Tenable Network Security. Astaro confirmed the move on its corporate blog, following an announcement Daniel posted to his personal blog, Uncommon Sense Security, where he described the Tenable offer as one "I could not pass up." Astaro is in the process of being acquired by Sophos.

Ted Stinson

Ted Stinson is now in the driver's seat for Quantum's global salesforce, having been named senior vice president, worldwide sales in mid-June. Stinson reports directly to CEO Jon Gacek and previously held various executive roles at Symantec and Veritas Software. Along with Stinson's appointment, Quantum confirmed that Bill Britts, previously leader of Quantum's worldwide sales, marketing and service, would continue to head up worldwide marketing and service as well as business development for the company.

Check out more IT executive moves from the Month of May.