30 Notable IT Executive Moves: February 2017

Start It Off

Topping the list of executive comings and goings in February was the announcement from CSC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise of the top 38 executives who will govern DXC Technology, the new company that's being created by the merger of CSC and HPE's Enterprise Services operations. That deal is expected to close by April 1.

February also saw a number of comings and goings at all executive levels, including in the "corner office" at such companies as Softchoice and Red River.

And, as with any month, there were a number of shuffling ins and outs in the all-important channel chief posts with new channel execs at Avaya, Vericode, Quest and 8x8, among others.

Here's what we think were the most important executive moves in February.

Mike Lawrie, et. al.

CSC and HPE Enterprise Services unveiled the executive lineup for DXC Technology, the new channel superpower that's being created through the merger of CSC and HPE's services business.

Mike Lawrie was officially named as the new entity's chairman, President and CEO, which are the titles he holds at CSC. However, in the new organization, Lawrie will have seventeen new company leaders reporting to him.

CSC and HPE also announced the appointment of other members of DXC's executive ranks. Among the new DXC execs are HPE EVP Mike Nefkens who will be EVP and GM, regions and industries, in the new company; Larry Stack, currently SVP and global sales leader at HPE, who will hold that same post at DXC; CSC EVP Stephen Hilton who will be DXC's EVP and GM of Global Infrastructure Services; and CSC EVP and CFO Paul Saleh who will serve in the same capacity at DXC.

Vince De Palma

Vince De Palma started as CEO of Softchoice at the beginning of February with plans to grow the company's Microsoft Azure practice and increase the amount of business it is doing in the enterprise market.

De Palma joined Softchoice after leading document disposal service company Shred-It for nearly seven years. He replaced David MacDonald who retired after almost 16 years as Softchoice president and CEO.

The Toronto-based company, No. 32 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, will continue expanding its managed services business and maintain a laser-like focus on customer experience, De Palma told CRN during an interview.

Jeff Sessions

Red River president Jeff Sessions was promoted to CEO of the Claremont, N.H.-based solution provider last month when then-CEO Rick Bolduc moved to the position of executive chairman in order to lead a planned acquisition spree.

According to a statement from Red River, No. 52 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, Sessions' is focusing on hiring senior execs to accommodate the company's planned growth. Currently, the company's C-suite is occupied by Sessions alone.

Bolduc, who has served as Red River's first and only CEO since the company's founding in 1995, will transition to lining up mergers and acquisitions for Red River in high-growth areas such as security, application development, hybrid cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT), Sessions said in an interview with CRN.

Dave DeWalt

Dave DeWalt resigned from his position as executive chairman of FireEye, cutting his final management ties after stepping aside as the company's CEO in May of 2016.

Since stepping down as CEO, DeWalt has joined the boards of directors of three startups in the security and Internet of Things (IoT) space, taking the position of vice chairman at digital identity company ForgeRock and IoT networking company Forescout; and, in February, the job of chairman at network protection company Claroty.

In an interview with CRN at the 2017 RSA Conference in San Francisco last month, DeWalt said he thinks IoT companies offer huge opportunities.

Michael Berry

Intel hired away FireEye Chief Financial Officer Michael Berry, appointing him CFO of Intel Security only a week after FireEye announced Berry's departure.

Berry's hire comes at a pivotal time for the Intel Security division, which is currently being spun out from parent company Intel.

The spinout includes a $4.2 billion deal with private equity firm TPG and is expected to close in April, at which time the company will again assume the McAfee name it had before being acquired by Intel in 2010.

Kim Stevenson

Intel's client and IoT businesses chief operating officer Kim Stevenson announced her plans to leave the company just six months after taking the job in August 2016.

On her Twitter page, where Stevenson disclosed her departure from Intel, said she was "on to new adventures."

Stevenson served as Intel's CIO at Intel before taking the client/IoT business COO job. Before that she worked at EDS, a Hewlett-Packard company, as vice president until 2009.

Daniel Doimo

Cylance appointed Daniel Doimo as the company's president and chief operating officer, tasking him with leading the security technology company's strategic goals during a time of rapid growth according to the Irvine, Calif.-based vendor.

In his new position Doimo will be responsible for the company's sales, marketing, business development and professional services organizations and will report directly to CEO Stuart McClure.

Doimo joined Cylance from Schneider Electric where he worked for 12 years, serving as executive vice president of Global Solutions and a member of the company's executive committee. Earlier at Schneider he served as executive vice president of the Power Business unit and ITB operations. He also played a role in the 2007 merger of MGE UPS Systems and APC.

John Donahoe

Former eBay CEO John Donahoe was hired to lead ServiceNow as the company's new CEO. Donahoe is replacing current CEO Frank Slootman, who plans to step down on April 3 after holding the job for six years. Slootman will continue as ServiceNow's chairman.

Donahoe has served as the chairman of PayPal's board since July 2015 and before that ran online auction giant eBay for seven years as that company's CEO. Before that he worked at Bain & Company for 23 years.

Walter Denk

Avaya named Walter Denk as its new channel leader, placing him in charge of plans to enhance partner programs and channel support following the company's filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.

Denk has been working at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company for five years, serving as Avaya's SMB business group vice president in Germany.

Before joining Avaya in 2012, Denk held positions in sales and marketing at Deutsche Telekom, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Leslie Bois

Veracode disclosed in February that it had hired Kaspersky Labs veteran Leslie Bois to be the application security company's channel chief as it ramps its channel programs over the coming months.

Officially, Bois began her work at Veracode in January as the global head of channel and alliances, a new position at the company. Her departure from Kaspersky was disclosed in December.

Bois spent nine years in channel positions at Kaspersky Lab North America, most recently as vice president of channel sales.

George Karabatsos

Quest Software named George Karabatsos to be its new channel chief following the departure of Peter Koliopoulos, who left Quest earlier last month after less than a year with the company.

Karabatsos was previously a sales and distribution executive with Quest. He joined Dell in June 2016 as director of global distributor sales and then transitioned to Quest when Dell sold off its software unit in November. Dell originally acquired Quest in 2012 for about $2.4 billion.

Koliopoulos was credited with helping to establish EMC Corp.'s channel operation as it transitioned from a direct sales model. He was at the data storage giant between 2006 and 2011 before becoming vice president of global partner marketing at EMC's VCE unit.

John Solomon

After two years on the job, John Solomon, the executive who has led Apple's charge into the enterprise, has departed the company.

Solomon joined Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple as vice president of the enterprise and government business in January of 2015, helping Apple make a big push into the enterprise market.

According to his LinkedIn page Solomon left Apple and in February took a job as Advisor to the CEO at Sharecare, a digital health company that helps people "manage all their health in one place."

Karl Soderlund

Former Imperva channel chief Karl Soderlund joined VoIP telephony company 8x8 in February, taking on the role of group vice president.

Soderlund announced the move through his LinkedIn page, adding that he was "very excited to be starting" his next "big adventure leading global channels at 8x8."

Following Soderlund's announcement, Imperva confirmed his departure, saying his parting was part of a company restructuring that took place in November. Brian Feeney, vice president of channels, and Kirt Jorgenson, senior director of channel and alliance marketing, are now leading Imperva's channel operation.

Ron Gill

Ron Gill, the former sales leader for Ruckus Wireless America, has landed a new position at rival company, Aerohive Networks.

Milpitas, Calif.-based Aerohive hired Gill as its new vice president of Americas sales, placing Gil in charge of leading the company's channel sales charge in the region.

Gill served as vice president of Americas enterprise sales at Ruckus, leading Ruckus' North American sales for eight years. In 2012, the company also added Latin America to his responsibilities.

Gill left Ruckus in November 2016 at the same time the company announced that its parent company, Brocade Communications, was being acquired by semiconductor maker Broadcom for $5.9 billion. Brocade acquired Ruckus in May 2016 for approximately $1.2 billion.

Tom Fisher

Former Oracle senior executive Tom Fisher joined the executive team at MapR Technologies in February as the company's chief technology officer.

Fisher brings with him over 20 years of advanced technology experience in engineering, operations and IT to the position. At Oracle he served as a senior executive of engineering and operations, and senior vice president and CIO for Oracle's global commercial cloud services.

Prior to working at Oracle, Fisher served as CIO and vice president of cloud computing at SuccessFactors, now part of SAP; at Qualcomm as CIO of CDMA technologies; and with eBay where he was vice president and acting CTO.

Marybeth P rofrock

Logicalis U.S. named Marybeth Profrock as vice president of marketing, placing her at the company's New York headquarters to take charge of the company's marketing strategy.

Profrock has more than 20 years of industry experience, having previously served as vice president of marketing during her 12 years with Anexinet; and various marketing, sales, partner management and business development positions with Thomas Technology Solutions, a division of Reed Elsevier.

Lee Sher

Proficio named Lee Sher as its new senior director of channel sales, part of a larger effort by the managed security service provider to expand its channel efforts.

In addition to hiring Sher, Proficio in February announced its plans to boost its commitment to the channel by using a recent $12 million private equity investment the company received from Kanye Capital to expand its offerings for partners through its Synergy Partner Program. On tap are new collaborative sales engagement, deal registration and co-marketing initiatives.

Sher brings over two decades of experience to the channel chief job, previously managing partner sales at companies including Check Point, Fortinet, Imperva, Solutionary/NTT and Bay Dynamics.

Mark Parrinello

Hyperconverged infrastructure system company Cohesity hired Mark Parrinello, previously with NetApp and Nimble Storage, as the company's first worldwide sales vice president.

In his new position, Parrinello will work with the company's 20-plus sales representatives while expanding its use of the channel in its go-to-market strategy.

In an interview with CRN, Parrinello said he plans to work with a wider range of partners than the company has in the past, building relationships with larger partners while investing more in the vendor's regional partners.

Mark Maisano

Pivot3 named Mark Maisano to be the hyper-converged infrastructure technology company's new channel chief. As vice president of channel sales, Maisano is charged with helping to accelerate the company's business by building closer ties to its channel partners.

Maisano joined Pivot3 from Acronis where he spent more than a year as vice president of global distribution. Before that he was senior director of worldwide distribution at Seagate Technology and its former EVault cloud storage unit.

John Giacomini

Austin, Tex.-based Forcepoint has been undergoing a significant reorganization to reposition its sales force and product portfolio around high-growth areas. The reorganization included layoffs earlier this year and the departure of John Giacomini, the company's executive vice president of sales.

The most recent changes follow a series of executive shifts that the company has made within the last year, including the appointment of Matthew Moynahan as CEO, Kristin Machacek Leary as vice president and chief human resources officer, Timothy McDonough as CMO, and Meerah Rajavel as CIO.

Tim DeLisle

Digital solutions provider Black Box Corporation hired Tim DeLisle as vice president of sales for its North American Commercial Services business unit, charging him with the responsibility of deepening its relationships with current and prospective customers for the company's technology solutions and managed services.

DeLisle brings over 25 years of experience to the position, having served as vice president of enterprise sales and strategic alliances at EarthLink and a number of leadership positions at EMC Corp., Sungard, Comdisco and Unisys Corp. prior to joining Black Box.

Scott Genereux

Veritas Technologies appointed Scott Genereux as the company's new executive vice president of worldwide field operations, placing him in charge of all sales, channel services and support for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

Genereux has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, most recently at Oracle as senior vice president of the company's Cloud Converged Infrastructure group.

Olen Scott

Olen Scott, vice president of partner channels for EarthLink, was named channel chief at Windstream after the telecommunications provider acquired EarthLink for $1.1 billion on Feb. 27. Scott's appointment came after Windstream's channel executive, Jason Dishon, decided to leave the newly combined companies to seek other opportunities, according to Windstream.

Scott is now responsible for designing, operating and supporting Windstream's channel sales organization.

"Since the announcement of the merger, we've been celebrating the potential that the merger holds with partners for our joint customers. Access to all of this, under one roof, brings a lot of benefits for both partners and their end customers," Scott said.

Gregg Smith

Enterprise mobile security company Silent Circle hired Gregg Smith as its CEO, looking to leverage his two decades of experience leading companies through startup and expansion stages.

Smith comes to Silent Circle after serving as CEO at mobile security company Optio Labs and, before that, at mobile marketing firm Acuity Mobile.

Silent Circle, based in Fairfax, Va., also named FireEye vice president and global government chief technology officer William "Tony" Cole had joined the company's board of directors.

With Smith in place, Silent Circle's interim CEO and general counsel Matt Neiderman left the company to pursue other interests.

M. Sean Radcliffe

M. Sean Radcliffe, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at solution provider Ciber, resigned from the company on Feb. 11, effective Feb. 24, according to an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing said Radcliffe left to take a position as general counsel with another public company.

Radcliffe's LinkedIn profile says he is currently working as executive vice president and general counsel at Chicago-based health care company R1 RCM.

Marco Peretti

Endpoint security company Avecto hired Marco Peretti as its new chief technology officer. Peretti will oversee and drive the development of Avecto's product portfolio and work alongside Avecto's co-founders.

Peretti comes to the Somerville, Mass,-based company with over 15 years of experience in the security industry, including founding SecureWave and co-founding BeyondTrust. Peretti also invented the first privilege management solution for Windows, according to Avecto.

Remo Canessa

Zscaler appointed Remo Canessa as the company's new chief financial officer. The company said Canessa's experience in working with companies undergoing rapid growth and expansion would prove invaluable at the fast-growing cloud security company.

Canessa has more than 30 years of financial management experience at both private and publicly held technology companies, including 11 years as CFO at network intelligence and service company Infoblox and three years as CFO at NetScreen Technologies.

Valarie Abend

Systems integrator Accenture hired cyber-risk management specialist Valerie Abend as managing director, Accenture Security – Financial Services, North America, as the company continues to expand its new security practice.

Before joining Accenture Abend was senior critical infrastructure officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, advising U.S. banking regulatory principals on cybersecurity. Altogether she has more than 20 years of public and private sector experience in cybersecurity and critical infrastructure fields.

Santhosh Nair

Mobileiron launched a new Internet of Things division in February and hired Santhosh Nair as vice president of the new business unit, charged with building out the IoT practice across healthcare, energy, manufacturing and automotive industries.

MobileIron is currently developing its IoT platform with a target release date later this year.

Nair joined Mobileiron from Wind River where he was vice president and general manager of that company's IoT business unit.

Anthony Belfiore and Maggie Wilderotter

Security platform developer Tanium appointed Anthony Belfiore and Maggie Wilderotter to the company's board.

Belfiore is currently the chief security officer of global insurance/reinsurance broker Aon, a Titanium customer, and brings to the Tanium board an understanding of the importance of security in the private sector.

Wilderotter is the former CEO of Frontier Communications and brings her experience in scaling companies from hyper-growth startup to major industry player. Widerotter also served on President Obama's Commission for Enhancing National Cybersecurity.