30 Notable IT Executive Moves: May 2018

Leadership Shakeups At Xerox, Intel And Office Depot

Intel and Office Depot were among the companies that saw leadership shakeups in May, but none were as dramatic as the resignation of Xerox CEO Jeff Jacobson and his fellow board members.

Jacobson stepped down after a contentious fight between Xerox and activist investors as the company has been holding merger talks with Fujifilm.

Other companies that saw big personnel changes were Amazon, Cisco, Zscaler, Tyler Technologies and Mimecast. In the following slides, check out our picks for the 30 most significant executive moves that took place in the channel last month.

Jeff Jacobson

Jacobson resigned as CEO of Xerox and from his board seat as the company announced it was backing out of a deal to sell a controlling stake to Fujifilm.

The resignation, accompanied by five other board members stepping down, came after the Rochester, N.Y.-based company's proposed deal with Fujifilm fell through and after legal challenges from activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, who had been fighting the proposed buyout and lambasting Jacobson's management since January.

Jacobson became CEO in January 2017 after serving in executive roles with the company since 2012. He is being succeeded by John Visentin, a senior consultant to Icahn Enterprises and channel veteran who served as chairman of Presidio from 2015 to 2017.

Dan Stone

Office Depot announced that Stone, president of the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company's CompuCom Systems subsidiary, planned to resign, effective June 6.

An Office Depot spokesperson told CRN that Stone is leaving to "pursue other interests" and will be replaced as acting president by Greg Hoogerland, an executive who joined CompuCom in 2014 and was most recently the company's chief customer officer. When Stone's replacement takes over as planned in June, he or she will be the fifth top executive the company has had in the last five years.

Stone joined CompuCom in early 2015 as president of the company's End-user Enablement business unit and its Tech-Zone Service Centers after a one -year stint as president of Lenovo Latin America. He was appointed CEO of CompuCom in late 2016, and became president of the company after CompuCom was acquired by Office Depot.

Rowan Trollope

Cisco Systems executive Trollope left the company to become the CEO of Five9, a San Ramon, Calif.-based provider of cloud software for contact centers.

Trollop was the San Jose, Calif.-based company's senior vice president and general manager of applications and, until a few months ago, the head of Cisco's Internet of Things business. Replacing Trollope as leader of Cisco's collaboration division is Amy Chang, a Cisco board member whose startup, Accompany, Cisco reached a deal to acquire for $270 million.

Trollope was one of Cisco's most-esteemed executives and is credited with guiding a major overhaul of its collaboration portfolio to a cloud model, which brought the division from losses to double-digit growth. He also led Cisco's IoT business until the end of March, when Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Computing Systems Product Group, took over those duties, the company said.

Lori Cornmesser

Infoblox appointed Cornmesser as the company's new channel chief after she spent more than four years leading global channel sales for network validation and visibility provider Ixia.

Cornmesser took the role at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based network identity appliance provider after the previous vice president of worldwide global partners, Chris Jones, left in March to take a global sales leadership position at Qlik.

For her new role, Cornmesser said she hopes to customize messaging for different types of partners and improve Infoblox's product interoperability through alliances with other security vendors.

Todd DeBell

DeBell was appointed senior director of global channels and alliances at Bugcrowd to increase channel sales to as much as 90 percent of global revenue.

In his new role, DeBell said he expects his team of 10 direct reports to grow very rapidly over the next three to six months as he strengthens the bonds between the San Francisco-based company's channel organization and its inside sales team and technology alliance partners.

Most recently, DeBell was vice president of worldwide channels at ForeScout. Before that, he was global channel chief of security management vendor FireMon.

Emily Cataldo

Cataldo joined BetterCloud as the New York-based company's first vice president of channel, a role that will have Cataldo re-engage with existing Google-aligned partners.

She was most recently on the leadership team of Accenture's Google practice. Prior to that, she worked with Google and ISVs in the Google ecosystem at Cloud Sherpas, the Google Cloud partner that was acquired by Accenture in 2015.

For her new role, Cataldo said she hopes to find resellers, systems integrators and distributors that work with multiple vendors that BetterCloud supports, and create new opportunities for their practices.

Steve Fund

Fund, Intel's chief marketing officer, was moved into a "special projects" leadership position while the company started a search for a permanent replacement, The Oregonian reported.

Fund joined the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company four years ago after serving in marketing leadership roles at Staples, Procter & Gamble and Lycos. In a memo obtained by The Oregonian, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said the projects Fund is working on "will be announced at a later date."

Michelle Johnston Holthaus, general manager of Intel's sales and marketing organization, is acting as Fund's interim replacement until the company names a new, permanent CMO.

H. Lynn Moore Jr.

Tyler Technologies promoted Moore from president to CEO while his predecessor, John S. Marr Jr., moved into the role of executive chairman as part of a leadership transition.

"Lynn has been an important leader for Tyler for 20 years, managing our legal department, mergers and acquisitions, and asset allocations, and has been deeply involved in all important strategic decisions," Marr said. "In recent years, he has worked closely with our operational executives and has become a trusted resource to them on the issues they face today."

Moore joined Tyler in 1998 as general counsel and was promoted to president of the Plano, Texas-based company in 2017 for the first step of the leadership transition.

Alison Gleeson

Gleeson is stepping down as Cisco Systems' top Americas sales executive on July 28 after working for the San Jose-based company for 22 years.

Gleeson is the second high-level sales executive to step aside recently as part of a long running shake-up that began when Chuck Robbins became Cisco CEO three years ago.

Gleeson started with the San Jose, Calif., company in 1996 as a regional sales manager and worked her way up through the company's commercial sales ranks before taking the position as senior vice president, Americas nearly four years ago. Along the way, Gleeson developed a reputation as a hands-on channel-friendly executive who helped partners close deals in the sales trenches.

J.C. Collins

Salesforce promoted Collins to senior vice president and COO of industries, innovation and partners – a position in which he will be responsible for running Salesforce's channel programs.

Collins took over those duties from Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, who shifted to the new position of senior vice president for industries, where she leads the San Francisco-based company's go-to-market efforts organized around seven core verticals.

Before coming to Salesforce in 2013, Collins helped emerging technology companies establish sales and channel strategies as an associate partner at Monitor, a consulting firm later acquired by Deloitte.

Kate Hutchison

Veeam Chief Marketing Officer Kate Hutchison left her position after nine months on the job, the Baar, Switzerland-based company confirmed in May.

Hutchison "is moving on from her role as Veeam's chief marketing officer to pursue other external opportunities," Stuart Marks, a Veeam spokesman, said in an email statement to CRN. "During her tenure, Kate made a significant contribution to Veeam's success and we wish her all the best for her future endeavors."

Hutchison is a 20-year tech industry veteran who has held CMO roles at IT heavyweights Riverbed, Polycom, VMware and Citrix. She joined Veeam last September with a particular focus on expanding the company's presence in the North America market.

Jim Freeman

Freeman, vice president of Amazon Alexa communications, left the company for a second time to rejoin his previous employer, German e-commerce company Zalando.

After serving in leadership roles at Amazon from 2009 to 2016, Freeman left the Seattle-based company to join Zalando as an engineering executive before he departed for Amazon for his last stint there. Prior to working at Amazon, Freeman served in leadership roles at MaxMedia and MediaOcean.

Freeman is among several top executives to leave Amazon in the past few months, including Alexa Smart Home founder Charlie Kindel and Alexa AI research and development lead Ashwin Raim.

William Welch

Zscaler announced the departure of Welch, the San Jose-based company's chief operating officer two months after its initial public offering.

Having previously served as the company's vice president of operations, Welch first joined the company in 2014. Prior to that, he served in vice president roles at HP and Symantec.

"We thank Bill for his many contributions and wish him the best of luck," Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler, said in a statement. "We have strong sales leaders running our Americas and international markets, who will continue to drive our business.

Christina Van Houten

Mimecast, a Lexington, Mass.-based provider of email security software, appointed Van Houten, an Oracle and IBM vet, as chief strategy officer.

For her new role, Van Houten will be charged with driving corporate development, product management and market strategy. She previously held executive roles at Infor and IBM's Netezza. Prior to that, she was a senior director for Oracle's retail global business unit.

"Christina’s experience in driving innovation on a consistent large scale technology platform, delivering a rich integrated suite, and solving emerging customer problems is invaluable to us in this new role," Peter Bauer, CEO at Mimecast, said in a statement.

Michael Dodson

Quantum Corp. appointed Dodson, a longtime finance executive, as the company's chief financial officer and CEO, replacing Patrick Dennis, who resigned to focus on pressing family matters.

The San Jose-based company's board is undergoing a search for a permanent CEO. In the meantime, Dodson is being tasked with leading Quantum's ongoing business transformation and cost savings initiatives to reach sustainable profitability.

Dodson has worked for several global public technology companies and has served as CFO for five, including Mattson Technology, DDi and ESI.

Steve Fieler

HP promoted Fieler, an 11-year veteran of the Palo Alto-based company, to chief financial officer while CFO Cathie Lesjak became interim chief operating officer ahead of her planned retirement in 2019.

The executive shuffle comes after HP COO Jon Flaxman, a 36-year-old company veteran, died at the age of 61 in March. A 32-year veteran of HP, Lesjak had served as CFO since 2007 and in 2010 served as interim CEO following the resignation of CEO Mark Hurd.

Fieler was previously the head of HP's treasury and corporate finance functions and had once served as CFO for HP Software. In taking the new role, Flier's experience "makes him really equipped with a deep understanding of our business," HP CEO Dion Weisler said.

Tom Ferrando

Salient CRGT, a provider of agile software development solutions, appointed Ferrando, the company's president, to replace Brad Antle as CEO. The Fairfax, Va.-based company also named Phil Nolan, former CEO of Camber Corporation, as board chairman.

Ferrando has served in executive leadership roles with Salient CRGT's predecessor companies, including as CEO of CRGT and COO of Cherry Road Technologies, since 2001.

"Tom is exceptionally qualified to lead Salient CRGT, having spun out and grown the business over nearly two decades," Walter Florence, a member of the Salient CRGT Board, said in a statement. "He approaches each customer relationship as an opportunity to address crucial IT modernization issues across our diverse mix of federal agency partners, and his deep and hands-on operating experience at Salient CRGT leaves him well suited to drive key strategic initiatives going forward."

Scott Etheridge

Arise Virtual Solutions, a Miramar, Fla.-based provider of customer management technology, promoted Ethridge from chief operating officer to CEO.

Prior to becoming COO, Etheridge served as the company's chief financial officer. Before joining Arise, Etheridge was vice president and CFO of the Partnered Brands division of Liz Claiborne, CFO of NBC Sports and senior vice president and CFO of NBCUniversal International.

The company's former CEO, John Meyer, will remain with the company as chairman of the board. "After a thorough and thoughtful period of succession planning, we are thrilled to have Scott assume the role and responsibilities of CEO," Meyer said in a statement. "Scott has established a stellar leadership reputation in the organization during his tenure at Arise."

Richard Moore

Atrion Communications hired Moore, former head of information security for New York Life, as the solution provider's first-ever chief information security officer.

The Branchburg, N.J.-based company is tasking Moore with building out a lab ecosystem where clients can see simulations of security productions in action. Moore expects to have a cyber innovation center up and running within his first 90 days.

Prior to New York Life, Moore spent three years as senior information security manager at Citizens Bank and two-and-a-half years as an associate director in KPMG's information security group. "We saw a guy that has the technical experience, that's been there, done that," said Pat Grillo, Atrion's CEO and executive chairman.

Brent Bowman

Bowman, a former Intel executive, became chief financial officer of [24]7.ai, a San Jose-based provider of intent-driven customer engagement solutions.

He was most recently vice president of finance and CFO for Intel's Programmable Solutions Division, which he joined through Intel's acquisition of Altera Corporation. At Altera, he served as vice president of finance and corporate controller. Prior to that, he spent 16 years at Sun Microsystems.

"Brent is a highly accomplished and respected financial leader, with a proven track record of building and leading successful finance teams," PV Kannan, chief executive officer of [24]7.ai, said in a statement. 'We are delighted to welcome Brent to the [24]7.ai team, as we drive long-term value and strengthen our position in the marketplace."

Michael Gable

Bitdefender, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based cybersecurity vendor, named Gable as vice president of its Data Center Group, a new division focused on cloud and data center security.

Previously, Gable served as a regional vice president for Malwarebytes, vice president of global professional services for LANDESK Software and director of worldwide sales engineering for CloudPassage. He has also worked for Novell and Trend Micro.

’We are delighted to welcome Mike as a key member of our global enterprise team,’ Bogdan Irina, chief operating officer of Bitdefender, said in a statement. ’He will play a key role in expanding our efforts in the data center and cloud space, bringing more than two decades of technology and cybersecurity sales-leadership experience.’

Neil Butchart

Insider threat management software vendor Ekran System named Butchart as the company's vice president of business development to supports its expansion in U.S. and global markets.

Butchart was most recently executive vice president and chief revenue officer at ReFirm Labs. Before that, he served as senior vice president of global sales at Digital Defense, vice president of global sales at LockPath and vice president of North America at Secunia.

"We are excited to have Neil Butchart, an industry veteran and respected business leader, on our team. Ekran System welcomes his experience and energy, as we have ambitious plans to become a leader in North America, while continuing our successful growth in Europe and Asia," Dennis Turpitka, founder and CEO of Ekran System, said in a statement.

Nancy Wells

Wells was appointed senior vice president of global sales at Backstop Solutions Group, a Chicago-based provider of cloud-based productivity solutions for consulting firms, pensions and private equity firms.

With more than 30 years of experience in sales and management, Wells was most recently senior vice president of sales at Market Track. Before that, she held leadership roles at Microsoft, Xerox, Oracle, National Data Corporation and Gartner.

"Nancy joins us at a pivotal stage in our evolution and will help position us for continued growth. Her decades of experience and focus on solving business problems with technology indicated to us that she was the right fit not only to lead our global sales, but also to contribute positively to the direction and culture of Backstop overall," Clint Coghill, CEO of Backstop, said in a statement.

Neville Letzerich

Duo Security, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based cybersecurity vendor, named Letzerich, a former Forcepoint executive, as the company's first chief marketing officer.

Working out of Duo's Austin office, Letzerich is expected to scale the company's global marketing operations. He most recently served as CMO of Forcepoint. He has also held executive leadership positions at BazaarVoice and the Information Intelligence Group within EMC.

"Putting Neville at the helm of our world-class marketing operation is yet another step in supporting our company's rapid growth and momentum," Dug Song, co-founder and CEO of Duo Security, said in a statement. ’Duo is on a mission to build an enduring company for our customers. What we deliver to the market is more critical than ever."

Brad Schow

ConnectWise, a managed services provider platform developer, named Schow as vice president of consulting — a role that will have him lead the company's product-focused consulting service.

With 20 years of experience in growing a solutions and managed services provider business, Schow was most recently a peer coach and business consultant at HTG, an international consulting group that was acquired by ConnectWise in January.

"Brad’s phenomenal record with HTG Peer Groups and his deep industry experience as a business coach will allow us to amplify how we support and encourage all our partners, no matter where they are in their business journey," Arnie Bellini, CEO of ConnectWise, said in a statement.

Jenny Cooper

Data center operator and cloud services provider TierPoint appointed Cooper as senior vice president and chief accounting officer and Chris Scaglione as senior vice provident of financial operations.

Previously, Cooper was vice president of finance and accounting for the North American operations of Nidec Motor Corporation. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at SunEdison and LMI Aerospace.

Scaglione was most recently vice president and general manager of St. Louis-based TierPoint's Midwest operations. Before joining, he was regional vice president of sales at Cosentry, which was acquired by TierPoint in 2016. Prior to that, he held leadership positions at World Wide Technology, XIOLINK and Deloitte.

Jeff Rowland

Rowland was named vice president of global sales at Accelerite, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of infrastructure software.

With more than 25 years of experience in sales and marketing, Rowland most recently led global sales at ThinAir. Prior to that, he served as executive vice president of Internet of Things security and global business development at GlobalSign, executive vice president of sales at Sideband Networks and executive vice president of Americas sales at Identiv.

’Jeff understands the complexities organizations face to secure connected enterprises, quickly build private and public enterprise clouds, and bring rapid IoT service creation to life. He has the track record and experience to lead our global sales operations at this exciting stage in our growth, and we’re happy to have him on board," Nara Rajagopalan, CEO of Accelerite, said in a statement.

Jimmy Abbott

KeyMe, a New York-based provider of access and key management solutions, appointed Abbott, a Zappos and Amazon vet, as chief financial officer.

Most recently, Abbott held the CFO role for The Yard, Reverb.com and Poppin. Before that, he worked in senior finance roles at Zappos and served as an analyst at Amazon.

KeyMe also hired Adam McCann for the newly created position of director of analytics. McCann most recently led a team of data scientists and engineers at Deloitte.

Dave Weinstein

Claroty, a provider of operational technology security software, named Weinstein, the state of New Jersey's former chief technology officer, as vice president of threat research.

Weinstein has years of technology experience in the public sector, having led a cabinet-level agency of over 600 technologists as New Jersey's first cybersecurity advisor. Prior to that, he served as a cyber risk consultant at Deloitte and worked for the U.S. Cyber Command.

"Whether a direct attack for the purposes of sabotage, or spillover events like ransomware, the ripple effect caused by impedance or interruption of control systems is becoming too frequent and too costly to ignore,’ Benny Porat, CTO and Co-founder of Claroty, said in a statement. "Dave has lived in the shadow of these risks, and his understanding and experience will not only bring our threat research team a perfect leader and partner, but will also help our customers to better understand their risk, responsibilities and recourse in this increasingly volatile landscape."

Theresa Lawrence

ERP Maestro, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based provider of access control solutions, appointed Lawrence as chief marketing officer and Brad Noe as chief technology officer.

Lawrence was most recently co-founder and chief marketing and customer officer of job search company Fridayd. Prior to that, she was vice president of marketing at Modernizing Medicine. She has also held senior marketing roles at Ultimate Software and Tyco Integrated Security.

Noe was previously vice president of engineering at several startups, including Netspeak, Dayjet and Interclick. He has also worked at Motorola, Yahoo and IBM.