30 Notable IT Executive Moves: October 2017
Start It Off
October saw the changing of the guard at numerous vendors and solution providers, with a large number of companies announcing CEO changes. Companies that swapped their chief executives during the month included Dimension Data Americas, Pomeroy, MobileIron and Westcon-Comstor, while Samsung Electronics announced the planned departure of its three co-CEOs. Meanwhile, other major executive moves included changes of the channel chief roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and AT&T, while Dell picked up a new executive to drive IoT partnerships.
In the following slides, check out our picks for the 30 most significant executive moves affecting the channel in October.
Paul Hunter
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Global Channel Chief Denzil Samuels, who has been with HPE for just nine months, is leaving the company and is being replaced by HPE CEO Meg Whitman's chief of staff Paul Hunter.
Hunter, a 15-year HPE veteran with experience as an HPE business unit and channel sales leader in the United Kingdom, takes the helm with HPE in the midst of the massive Next restructuring.
HPE President Antonio Neri said in an internal memo that Samuels -- a former Salesforce.com and GE Digital channel executive -- has decided to leave HPE at the end of the first fiscal quarter Jan. 31 to pursue "other sales-focused opportunities." He said Samuels will help transition the Channels and Alliances organization to Hunter.
In an interview with CRN, Neri said Hunter, who has worked side by side with Whitman for the past three years, is the right executive to lead the channel sales charge under a new global sales structure. "Paul has the [channel] DNA and a deep understanding of the business with our channel partners," Neri said.
Archana Deskus
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has hired Archana "Archie" Deskus, previously the CIO of GE's Baker Hughes oilfield services business, to oversee a massive IT restructuring. Deskus, a 17-year IT veteran who spent the past four years at Baker Hughes, will be responsible for dramatically revamping HPE's internal IT systems.
Under the Next restructuring, HPE is moving from 1,000 business processes supported by 10 ERP systems and more than 950 applications, to just 100 business processes with a single global ERP system with 350 applications.
Before taking the CIO job at Baker Hughes, Deskus was CIO at Ingersoll-Rand and Timex. She will report to HPE President Antonio Neri, who is overseeing the Next initiative.
Chris Wolff
Dimension Data veteran Chris Wolff has joined Dell to help drive new Internet of Things channel partnerships at the company.
Wolff has left her post as the senior vice president of Dimension Data's Group Cisco Alliance, after 18 years with the company, to become Dell's head of global OEM and IoT partnerships, according to her LinkedIn profile.
During Wolff's time at Dimension Data, she worked closely with one of the channel player's top partners, Cisco, to provide strategic guidance between the two companies' strategies in areas where they were making joint investments.
A Dimension Data spokesperson confirmed that Wolff had left the company to "help Dell develop their IoT practice."
Brooks McCorcle
Brooks McCorcle, an AT&T veteran of nearly 30 years and the carrier's channel chief who has led AT&T Partner Solutions for five years, is retiring.
Zee Hussain, division president of AT&T Partner Solutions, has succeeded McCorcle as channel chief.
In tandem, AT&T said that it is realigning its indirect channel program, bringing its three different solution provider models – AT&T Partner Exchange, ACC Business, and AT&T Alliance Channel — under one roof.
In her role as channel chief, McCorcle led AT&T Partner Exchange, a reseller program that she launched within the company about four years ago. McCorcle was also responsible for Wholesale Solutions, and ACC Business, an alternate sales agent program.
In his new role, Hussain will lead AT&T's three partner programs. Hussain, a 19-year AT&T veteran, has served in various roles with the carrier, including vice president of AT&T's Premier Client Groups, sales vice president for the midmarket, and director of channel acquisition sales.
Kwon Oh-hyun
The three co-CEOs of Samsung Electronics are stepping down to make way for new leadership.
The co-CEOs who are departing are Kwon Oh-hyun, Jong-Kyun Shin, and Boo-Keun Yoon.
The resignations follow the August sentencing of Samsung's de facto leader, Jay Y. Lee, to five years in jail in connection with a bribery scandal that also toppled South Korea's former president, Park Geun-Hye.
Samsung didn't specify when the resignations of the three co-CEOs will be effective, although Kwon previously said he would be departing as of March.
Samsung said it plans to maintain its three co-CEO structure but didn't specify successors in the roles. Reports suggest the company is expected to promote three top Samsung executives—Kinam Kim, Hyunsuk Kim, and Dongjin Koh—into the roles in March, when Samsung is set to hold a shareholder meeting.
Barry Mainz
MobileIron said in October that, less than two years into his tenure, CEO Barry Mainz has left the company and been replaced with Chief Financial Officer Simon Biddiscombe.
The company didn't go into specifics about the reasons for Mainz's departure; it said a "mutual decision" was reached between Mainz and the MobileIron board, and that the move would "accelerate growth and profitability" at the company.
Mainz had served as CEO of MobileIron since January 2016 and, before that, had been the president of Intel subsidiary Wind River.
Biddiscombe, who has been appointed as president and board member in addition to the CEO role, had been the CFO at MobileIron since May 2015. Before that, he was the CFO of revenue management firm ServiceSource, while earlier he was CEO of storage and networking firm QLogic.
David Geevaratne
New Signature co-founder David Geevaratne has left the solution provider to become BitTitan's new director of sales.
As chief sales officer at Microsoft-focused New Signature, Geevaratne said he was primarily familiar with BitTitan's migration tools focused on helping customers lift and shift workloads to Office 365. But he told CRN he was impressed by all the things their MSPComplete managed services automation platform could do, after hearing BitTitan executives speak at Microsoft's Inspire conference.
Geevaratne spent nearly 15 years New Signature, helping build the company from a startup into a two-time Microsoft U.S. Partner of the Year award winner.
At BitTitan, Geevaratne is focused on supporting the company's North American executive team, distributors, and solution provider customers.
Ross Wainwright
Systems integrator Dimension Data has found its next Americas CEO months after experiencing widespread turnover at the executive level.
Ross Wainwright, former executive vice president and chief customer officer of SAP's S/4HANA Cloud division, will fill the position originally vacated by Mark Slaga, who left the company in December.
Wainwright, who also served as North America chief operating officer and global head of financial services at SAP, will report to Dimension Data's global CEO, Jason Goodall.
As a top leader of SAP's North American Services business unit, Wainwright led more than 3,400 sales, consulting and education professionals.
Brian Robinson
Managed services heavyweight Pomeroy has appointed Chief Financial Officer Brian Robinson to succeed Chris Froman as CEO.
Froman, who had been CEO of the solution provider since 2009, has stepped into the executive chairman role on the company's board of directors.
Pomeroy hired Robinson in August 2016. Prior to his appointment, Robinson had spent more than 17 years at electronics manufacturer General Cable, where he held a number of high-profile roles including executive vice president, CFO and treasurer.
Meanwhile, Froman oversaw Pomeroy as it went private through a merger agreement with Platinum Equity in 2009. Six years later, he guided Pomeroy through another major transition as private equity firm Clearlake Capital acquired the company and merged it with retail partner Tolt Solutions to create a 4,000-employee, $1 billion channel giant.
Dolph Westerbos
Westcon-Comstor CEO Dolph Westerbos has departed, making him the third high-ranking executive to exit since the sale of its Americas business to Synnex was announced.
Westerbos will be taking over as CEO of Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Staples Solutions, the operating name for Staples' European business.
Westerbos joined WestconGroup as CEO in December 2013 following two years as EMEA and Asia-Pacific president at supply chain logistics provider Brambles.
Jens Montanana, CEO of Westcon-Comstor parent Datatec, has assumed the role of executive chairman at Westcon-Comstor.
Mike Houghton
Channel veteran Mike Houghton has been tapped to help reshape the go-to-market strategy of solution provider Logicalis U.S. in the newly created role of chief sales officer.
Houghton joins Logicalis after spending seven years at distributor Avnet, and another nine months at Tech Data, which closed its massive acquisition of Avnet in February. Houghton dealt directly with Logicalis while spearheading Tech Data's enterprise sales efforts in North America and said he developed a great deal of respect for its culture and strategy.
"There's a lot of good, foundational elements the team has built over the years. I felt like it was a great opportunity to come in and be a part of that," Houghton told CRN.
Lauren Shapiro
The president of master agent PlanetOne Communications, Lauren Shapiro, resigned in October.
Shapiro, a telecommunications industry veteran of more than three decades, said that she has accomplished her goals as a leader working for the master agent since 2010.
Shapiro joined PlanetOne as its vice president of operations. In 2013, she became the company's president.
David Bankemper
Polycom has hired Juniper Networks channel veteran David Bankemper as its new North America channel chief.
Bankemper, a 28-year channel veteran who was formerly vice president of channel systems North America for Juniper, will be responsible for partner strategy, enablement, and acquisition in the U.S.
Bankemper's appointment comes with Polycom Vice President of Global Partner Organization Nick Tidd ramping up its efforts in the Microsoft Skype unified communications market against rival Cisco's Spark platform.
Christopher Hertz
The founder and former CEO of New Signature, Christopher Hertz, has been named chief marketing officer of DivvyCloud.
Hertz had taken a year off after departing New Signature – twice named Microsoft U.S. Partner of the Year under his watch – last October.
DivvyCloud's software enables automated monitoring and autonomous remediation via 140 customizable, pre-written policies (known as "Bots") around cloud security, compliance and cost governance.
Hertz joins DivvyCloud as it's preparing for a major sales and marketing push.
Kate Hutchison
Veeam Software named Kate Hutchison, a 20-year tech industry veteran, as its chief marketing officer.
Hutchison previously held CMO roles at Riverbed, Polycom, VMware and Citrix. She said ensuring that Veeam's channel partners have the marketing resources they need, as well as clear and powerful messaging, will vault the company into its next stage of growth.
Hutchison takes over for Peter Ruchatz, who was Veeam CMO for nearly four years, and left the company six months ago to take the CMO and chief product officer at MeteoGroup. Hutchison oversees a team of more than 300 people globally and has responsibility for product marketing, corporate marketing, and global events.
Steve Raymund
ConnectWise has appointed Steve Raymund, formerly the longtime CEO of Tech Data, to its board of directors to in part help the company evaluate options for outside financing.
The IT service management vendor said Raymund would help ConnectWise think through the pros and cons associated with an initial public offering, taking venture capital funds, or borrowing money from the banks, according to ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini.
Raymund took Tech Data public in 1986 and chaired the company's board of directors from April 1991 until this June.
Scott Forbush
Master agent Telarus is bringing on longtime channel advocate Scott Forbush as its new senior vice president of sales.
Forbush previously served as channel chief for Zayo Group Holdings and as vice president of indirect sales for Electric Lightwave.
Forbush has spent more than 20 years in the telecom industry, including nearly 12 years at various service providers such as Vonage and Integra. His decision to make a move from a carrier to a partner came after realizing the unique opportunity that master agents have in the consolidating industry today, he said.
Susan Graham Johnston
Networking startup 128 Technology has named Susan Graham Johnston, formerly an executive at tech companies including Oracle, to the role of president.
Most recently, Graham Johnston served as managing director of British Oxygen Company. Earlier, she spent five years at Oracle as vice president in the Communications Global Business Unit and the Systems Business. She also served as a member of the Oracle Women’s Leadership Advisory Board.
Prior to that, Graham Johnston held several leadership roles at Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by Oracle.
Ryan Jackson
IT veteran Ryan Jackson is aiming to help ISG Technology reinvent itself as the company's new senior vice president of technology operations and chief technology officer.
Jackson joins ISG after spending 16 years at CSC, which merged with HPE Enterprise Services earlier this year to form DXC Technology. Jackson held several different roles with CSC, most recently serving as director of the company's global account delivery, big data, analytics and business intelligence practices. He said he wants to see ISG expand the scope of its solutions expertise to include some of those areas.
Dave DeWalt
Security automation and orchestration firm Phantom has appointed well-known security industry executive Dave DeWalt as vice chairman of its board of directors.
DeWalt is the former CEO of security giants McAfee and FireEye. Since leaving FireEye last year, DeWalt has joined the boards of directors of multiple cybersecurity companies, including Optiv Security, ForgeRock, Claroty and ForeScout Technologies.
Dave Wright
Dave Wright, the founder of SolidFire, has returned to NetApp from a sabbatical.
Wright helped engineer NetApp's 2016 acquisition of SolidFire, where he was serving as CEO at the time. In April, he left NetApp on a sabbatical.
A NetApp spokesperson declined to respond to a request for more information, other than to confirm that Wright had indeed returned and that he will be acting as an evangelist for the company's SolidFire technology going forward.
Saar Gillai
Networking technology firm Teridion has named Saar Gillai, formerly of HPE and Cisco, as its new CEO.
Previously, Gillai served as senior vice president and general manager of HPE's Communications Solutions Business. Prior to that, he was the senior vice president of worldwide products and solutions at 3Com, which was acquired by HP.
Earlier, Gillai held several roles at Cisco, including as vice president of engineering in the Wireless Networking Business Unit.
Tiffany Olson Jones
Bot detection startup Distil Networks has named Tiffany Olson Jones, formerly of FireEye, as its new CEO.
Previously, Jones had served at FireEye in the role of vice president of global solutions providers, OEM and alliance operations.
Jones joined FireEye via its acquisition of iSight Partners, where she was senior vice president and chief revenue officer.
Ann Ziegler
CDW said that Chief Financial Officer Ann Ziegler will depart at the end of 2017.
Collin B. Kebo, currently CDW's vice president for financial planning and analysis and CFO for international operations, will succeed Ziegler as CFO at CDW as of Jan. 1, 2018.
Ziegler and Kebo have both been with CDW since 2008. Kebo originally joined as vice president for financial planning and analysis, and added responsibilities as CFO for international operations in 2016.
In addition, CDW has promoted Frederick Kulevich to senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, from his prior role as vice president and deputy general counsel.
Mark Kokes
In October, BlackBerry saw the departure of two executives involved with the company's patent licensing efforts. The licensing business has become a key focus for BlackBerry, which reportedly holds 40,000 patents, as the company looks to reverse its falling revenue while continuing to shift to a software model. Initially, BlackBerry saw the departure of Mark Kokes, who had headed the company's patent licensing arm. Victor Schubert then left his role as a licensing director at the company.
Bob Potter
SentryOne has named Bob Potter, a tech industry veteran formerly of companies including Rocket Software, as its new CEO.
Potter takes the reins from SentryOne founder Greg Gonzalez, who has moved into the role of chief technology officer.
Most recently, Potter had been on the operating team at Alpine Investors. Prior to that, he held roles including senior vice president at Rocket Software and vice president of business development at QlikTech.
Ryan Walsh
Pax8 has promoted Ryan Walsh, a 16-year channel veteran, to serve as chief channel officer.
The role will involve heading up the strategic direction of the Pax8's IT channel strategy, partner solutions and vendor relations. Walsh will report to Pax8 CEO John Street.
Walsh joined Pax8 in 2012 as vice president for partner solutions. Previously, he held positions at McAfee, MX Logic and NETdelivery.
Curt Allen
Windstream has appointed telecommunications industry veteran Curt Allen as senior vice president of channel, a role that will involve heading up the company's channel organization.
Previously, Allen was the co-owner and president at X4 Solutions, which was acquired by Sandler Partners. He became Sandler's president of channel after the acquisition.
Greg Enriquez
Software development tools company Gigster said it has appointed former TrapX CEO Greg Enriquez as senior vice president of sales.
Enriquez had been CEO at TrapX between March 2015 and June 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Prior to that, he held roles in sales, services, business development, and marketing at companies including FireEye, Mandiant, Symantec and IBM.
Jill Kyte
Cyber risk management firm RiskSense has named Jill Kyte, formerly of BrightPoint Security, as vice president of marketing.
Previously, Kyte was the vice president of marketing and sales for BrightPoint Security, which was acquired by ServiceNow. Before that she served as vice president of marketing and business development at Solidcore Systems, which was acquired by McAfee.