30 Notable IT Executive Moves: December 2014

Start If Off

The end of the year didn't leave channel companies at a loss for executive hiring. In December, the channel saw a number of companies shuffling their executive lineups and welcoming new channel chiefs.

Take a look at which executive moves made the cut before end of the year.

Samsung Executive Shuffle

While it's not a single executive move, the Samsung executive shuffle this month is worth a mention. As Samsung faced another year of dropping smartphone sales, it fired several of its high-ranking executives. While the company didn't name which executives were in and which ones were out, it did confirm that chief executive and head of mobile operations J.K Shin would be staying on board. Market share for the company has dropped 8.7 percentage points over the past year to 23.8 percent.

Mohamad Ali

A day after it received a hostile takeover bid from J2 Global, cloud-based backup provider Carbonite made a countermove with the appointment of Mohamad Ali as president and CEO. Ali succeeded co-founder and CEO David Friend.

"I am delighted to turn the reins over to someone of Mohamad's caliber," said Friend in a statement at the time. "The company has a big future in the rapidly evolving cloud-first landscape, and to seize it we must execute with vision and excellence. Mohamad has the right background and skill set to lead the company as it continues to grow."

Bill Marozas

Converged infrastructure service company Curvature picked up 19-year Juniper and Cisco veteran Bill Marozas in December to kick-start its channel program. The appointment is part of a recent push by Curvature to ramp up its dramatic sales growth through a more structured channel program. Marozas came to Curvature from Juniper, where he was senior director of worldwide alliances and channels enablement and responsible for the Juniper Partner Advantage Program.

Peter Altabef

Solution provider powerhouse Unisys, No. 17 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, has a new CEO in 20-year industry veteran Peter Altabef. The appointment came after months of searching when former CEO Ed Coleman announced he would be stepping down in October. Altabef has been charged with bringing the solution provider to a path of revenue and profit growth, something the company has struggled with in recent earnings reports. Altabef assumed the position Jan. 1.

Fred Studer

NetSuite closed out the month with the appointment of new Chief Marketing Officer Fred Studer. He will report directly to CEO Zach Nelson, who had been filling in for the CMO role since David Downing departed in 2013. In an interview with CRN at the time, Studer said that he will have a particular focus on helping channel partners improve their marketing efforts. Studer comes to NetSuite most recently from Microsoft, where he spent seven years in the Business Solutions division and as general manager of the U.S. Microsoft Office business.

Mark Conley

Former channel chief of CommVault Mark Conley took a new position in December as senior manager of worldwide channel programs at SolidFire, an all-flash storage array and solutions company in Boulder, Colo. While he did a brief interlude at SDN startup Pluribus Networks, Conley told CRN at the time that he missed the storage industry, where he had spent more than a decade. In his new role, Conley said his priorities are to develop a partner portal and align the company's sales organization with the channel.

Michael Fey

Blue Coat Systems had an executive win early in the month, landing former McAfee products veteran Michael Fey as its new chief operating officer. Fey had previously served as executive vice president, chief technology officer and general manager of corporate products at Intel Security Group (formerly McAfee). In his new role, Fey will be responsible for leading the company's acquisition and integration strategy as well as field- and customer-facing business operations and strategy.

Kevin Costello

Rackspace has added a new member to its board of directors with cloud software veteran Kevin Costello. He joined the company at an exciting time, after a year of acquisition rumors and a new CEO. Costello will bring extensive industry experience to the board, including as president of Ariba for more than six years and 18 years at Andersen Business Consulting.

Rick Wilmer

As part of a dual executive addition to push forward the "social Wi-Fi" trend, AirTight Networks added 27-year industry veteran Rick Wilmer to its executive lineup this month. Wilmer will be chief operating officer. Wilmer told CRN at the time that he was impressed by the AirTight Networks technology and engineering. He brings extensive experience of his own to the AirTight Networks lineup, coming most recently from Leyden Energy, a lithium-ion battery startup. He has also held positions at Aruba Networks and Seagate.

Mike Anthofer

In another executive move for AirTight Networks this month, the vendor added 28-year industry veteran Mike Anthofer as chief financial officer. Anthofer came to AirTight Networks from Tessera Technologies, a firm that licenses chip technologies, where he was executive vice president and CFO. Anthofer told CRN at the time that he was excited to move to a company in the midst of a growth spurt and plans to help accelerate that growth.

Geir Ramleth

As it works to make big steps into enterprise mobility, Citrix made a key executive addition at the beginning of the month from one of its biggest customers, Bechtel Corp. Geir Ramleth left Bechtel after more than 11 years as CIO to join Citrix as senior vice president and chief strategy officer. The position of chief strategy officer is a new one for Citrix and executives said that its addition would allow it to compete more effectively in the enterprise market.

Ramin Sayar

Former VMware and Hewlett-Packard exec Ramin Sayar has joined Sumo Logic, a startup selling log management and analytics software, as president and CEO. Former CEO Vance Loiselle is stepping down for family reasons, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sayar comes to Sumo Logic most recently from VMware, where he was senior vice president and general manager of its cloud management business for five years. Prior to that, he spent three years at HP as vice president of products and strategy for HP Software. In his new role, Sayar will be charged with expanding the customer base and setting the company apart in the market.

Carlos Dominguez

After more than 22 years with the company, Cisco senior vice president, Office of the Chairman and CEO, Carlos Dominguez is leaving the company. Dominguez was considered one of Cisco's top technology evangelists, especially around emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things. He held the senior vice president position for the past seven years. Prior to that, he ran Cisco's Worldwide Service Provider Operations and U.S. Service Provider sales for seven years.

Ian Bayly

High-performance wireless networks company Xirrus has appointed a new channel chief in Ian Bayly. With more than 17 years of industry experience in sales and partner management, Bayly will be responsible for leading the expansion of the Xirrus channel and building out the channel strategy for the Xirrus Cloud Managed Wi-Fi solution. Bayly's title will be vice president of worldwide channels and strategic alliances. He comes to Xirrus from Cambium Networks, where he was global vice president of OEMs and strategic alliances.

David Magee

Atrion Communications, a Branchburg, N.J.-based solution provider, has added David Magee as its new CTO, the company said this month. Magee brings extensive experience to his new role, with more than 22 years of experience in financial services and consumer and health-care service industries. Magee came to the solution provider from Telerx Marketing, where he was vice president of network infrastructure and security. In his new role, he will be charged with developing the strategic relationships and aligning the technology to better support customer visions.

Gerry Baron

Channel-only cloud company Cirrity has brought 25-year industry veteran Gerry Baron on board as chief marketing officer. Baron has extensive senior-level leadership experience in a variety of areas, the company said, including security, communications and mission-critical software. In his new role, he will be responsible for developing the go-to-market strategy for marketing, sales and partnerships.

Bob Gault

Extreme Networks got a new channel chief in December. Bob Gault, former vice president of Cisco's Cloud and Managed Services Partner Organization, joined the high-performance networking company as vice president of global channels and partners. In his new role, he has been charged with transforming the San Jose, Calif.-based company's partner program into a core area of the overall business as well as help partners drive profit and revenue through Extreme Networks solutions.

John Van Siclen

It's been a busy year for Dynatrace (formerly Compuware) -- the company went private in September and announced a rebranding shortly after. This month, Dynatrace continued the change trajectory with the announcement of a new CEO. John Van Siclen was chosen as the company's new CEO, charged with leading the company through the changes and the growth it expects going forward. Van Siclen had been general manager of Compuware APM, a position he had held since the 2011 acquisition of Dynatrace, where he was CEO. Prior to that, Van Siclen held CEO roles at Adesso Systems and Interwoven.

Stan Clark

Ingram Micro announced a new executive to help lead its cloud push as it continues to accelerate its investment in the area. Former HP executive Stan Clark will be joining the team as vice president, cloud solutions, reporting to Executive Vice President of Global Cloud Computing Nimesh Dave. In his new role, Clark is responsible for identifying key partners, developing vertical solutions and working with partners. Prior to joining Ingram, Clark spent six years at HP, including as worldwide senior director, Board of Advisors, Office of the Customer and global director of strategy and planning.

Ken Grohe

Twenty-six-year industry veteran Ken Grohe has joined Barracuda Networks as senior vice president and general manager of emerging products. In his new role, Grohe will be responsible for the CudaTel and CudaEye products as well as Barracuda Copy and SignNow. Grohe most recently served as vice president of worldwide customer operations at Virident.

’I am thrilled to bring Ken on board to lead the efforts associated with our emerging product lines and to help expand our channel,’ said BJ Jenkins, CEO of Barracuda, in a statement. ’Each of these solutions has a significant opportunity to help our customers and drive our growth."

Christopher Stansbury

Arrow Electronics appointed Christopher Stansbury as principal accounting officer, adding to his current role as vice president of finance. Stansbury joined the distributor in August 2014. Prior to that, he was CFO of the Networking Group for Hewlett-Packard, after holding other roles at the vendor. He has also held executive-level finance positions at PepsiCo.

Scott Sullivan

Network visibility solutions company Gigamon got a new channel chief in December. Scott Sullivan joined the company Dec. 9 as vice president of worldwide channel sales, where he will be responsible for developing the company's channel strategy and driving growth. Sullivan most recently served as senior vice president of worldwide sales, channels and alliances at VSS Monitoring. Prior to that, he held positions at Juniper, Intera Group and Vidsoft.

Jeff Nollette

All-flash storage array and appliance company Violin Memory appointed 30-year industry veteran Jeff Nollette as its newest channel chief. Nollette's title will be worldwide vice president, channel sales. He will be responsible for expanding the Violin channel program and partner base. Nollette comes to Violin from Egnyte, where he was vice president of channel sales. He has also held channel leadership positions at EMC and NetApp.

Francois Daumard

After being poached by FiberLink from Apple in 2013, Francois Daumard has moved again to AVG, where he is now vice president of global channel sales, according to his LinkedIn profile. At Apple, Daumard was responsible for building a mobility channel program. Most recently at FiberLink, Daumard was vice president of channels for North America and oversaw the expansion of the company's channel program.

Steve Garrou, Adam Kuta

Tarrytown, N.Y.-based distributor Westcon Group made dual additions to its executive vice president lineup this month, adding Steve Garrou as executive vice president, strategy and solutions development, and Adam Kuta as executive vice president and CIO. Garrou most recently served as vice president of global solutions management at CenturyLink Technology Solutions. He will be responsible for the strategy and branding of the cloud and data center businesses. Kuta most recently served as senior vice president of information technology at Coach.

Jerry Briggs

As CACI International, No. 16 on the CRN SP500 list, looks to aggressively grow and improve operational performance. To drive that, the solution provider has hired Jerry Briggs as executive vice president and business group manager of health care, litigation and enterprise IT. Prior to joining CACI, Briggs worked at Accenture, where he most recently served as COO of H&PS North America. In more than 20 years with Accenture, he also held other high-level positions, such as managing director and CEO of the U.S. federal business.

Rob Chandhok

The same day that It announced $16 million in Series A funding, Internet of Things startup Helium also announced a key executive appointment in Rob Chandhok, who will be COO and president. The news came less than two weeks after Re/code reported that Chandhok had left Qualcomm, where he was a senior vice presdient. Helium is working to create a new wireless networking protocol for the Internet of Things, something Chandhok helped spearhead at Qualcomm with AllSeen.

Simon Short

Global Convergence has promoted Managing Director of Sales for EMEA and APAC Simon Short to president of worldwide sales and marketing, a move it says will help align the company for future growth. In his new role, Short will be responsible for leading the sales organization as well as monitoring the performance of all sales and marketing efforts. A 20-year industry veteran, Short joined the company in June of this year after serving as managing director of international business for NextiraOne, which was recently acquired by Dimension Data.

Brandon Ledford

In a move that signifies its focus and investment in compliance standards, Global Convergence has brought on Brandon Ledford as director of policy and compliance. In his new role, the former Deloitte consultant will be responsible for developing compliance strategy.

’There is a great opportunity for solution providers who understand the IT solutions and services that help businesses remain compliant,’ Ledford said in a statement. ’But those solution providers also need to trust that their own business partners and suppliers follow the same standards."

Omar Abbosh

Accenture has appointed Omar Abbosh as chief strategy officer to drive the solution provider powerhouse's strategy for operations, acquisitions and joint ventures. In particular, Abbosh will be responsible for Accenture's Smart Grid Services and Energy Consumer Services. Abbosh has been with Accenture for 25 years, most recently as senior managing director of growth and strategy for the company's resources group. The appointment will be effective March 1, at which time current chief strategy officer Shawn Collinson will retire.