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November 15, 2021

Big Data Career Notes: November 2021 Edition

In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the big data community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!


Kristina Agassi and Paul Scholey 

Sisense, the AI-driven cloud platform provider for infusing analytics everywhere, appointed Kristina Agassi as its general counsel. Agassi will be responsible for overseeing Sisense’s legal, compliance and governance functions. 

Sisense also appointed Paul Scholey as its vice president of international sales. Scholey will be responsible for Sisense’s international sales. Before he joined Sisense, he served as vice president and general manager of international sales at BlueJeans.

George Axberg

VAST Data appointed George Axberg to lead the company’s data protection strategy with its global customers. Prior to joining VAST Data, Axberg spent 16 years at Dell EMC where he led the company’s sales strategy for data protection, availability, backup and recovery.

“Data loss for any period of time is the worst thing that can happen to a business because it undermines customer trust. In the unlikely event of unplanned downtime, VAST Data’s all-flash storage architecture can help companies recover data up to 50 times faster than HDD-based systems,” said Axberg. “This is the biggest thing to happen to backup targets since they moved from tape to disk 20 years ago. Universal Storage is the architecture of the future because it delivers the performance, scalability, security and cost advantages that legacy storage just can’t match.”

Nenshad Bardoliwalla 

DataRobot promoted Nenshad Bardoliwalla to the role of chief product officer. Bardoliwalla will be responsible for the company’s product strategy and roadmap. Bardoliwalla joined DataRobot in early 2020 through the acquisition of Paxata, where he was the co-founder and chief product officer. 

At DataRobot, Bardoliwalla has served as senior vice president of product and customer experience and has been instrumental in driving the end-to-end platform vision with a first-class experience for all users, from engineers and data scientists to IT operators and business consumers.

Jay Brown 

Domo, the business cloud platform provider, appointed Jay Brown to its board of directors. Brown co-founded Roc Nation, a full-service entertainment business, in 2008 and today serves as vice chairman, continuing the brand’s expansion. 

“As B2B technology delivers a more consumer-like experience, there are many lessons to share from the practice of building strong mass-market brands,” said Brown. “Domo has the brand values, a highly engaged customer base, and an outstanding product to help propel it to the next level. I am looking forward to putting my experience to work to help Domo’s management team in their next chapter of growth.”

Simona Baxa and Tomas Honzak

GoodData promoted Simona Baxa to the role of vice president of human resources. In her new role, Baxa will be responsible for the company’s global human resources team across GoodData offices. 

GoodData also announced the promotion of Tomas Honzak to vice president of security and compliance. Honzak will be responsible for GoodData’s company-wide security success regarding both client data and product launches.

Brian Brogan

Panzura appointed Brian Brogan as the company’s vice president of global sales channels. Brogan joined Panzura with more than two decades of experience in the IT channel, having served in leadership roles at Automation Anywhere, SAP, EMC (now Dell EMC), and IBM. 

“Technology partners, systems integrators and the reseller community are pivotal to Panzura’s success,” said Brogan. “My priority is to remain tightly aligned with them, so we can continue pushing the limits together, and help our shared customers move fast toward digital transformation with a smart, secure solution to manage their hybrid-cloud data.” 

Graham Breeze, Brock Mowry, and Phil Trickovic 

Tintri, a DDN subsidiary, appointed Graham Breeze as its vice president of products. Breeze has been a key contributor at various tech organizations across a career that spans more than 30 years, including nearly a decade with Tintri. 

Brock Mowry also joined Tintri as its field chief technology officer. Mowry will be responsible for developing new Tintri solutions that meet the enterprise’s changing needs, including the implementation of a microservices approach.

Lastly, Phil Trickovic joined Tintri as its senior vice president of revenue. Trickovic brings 25 years of tech experience to the organization, including nearly a decade of prior Tintri expertise.

Dominick Delfino 

Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, appointed Dominick Delfino as its Chief Revenue Officer. Delfino will be responsible for leading the company’s worldwide sales organization including sales engineering, sales operations, inside sales, OEM sales and channel sales.

“I have long admired Nutanix for its industry-defining technology, strong customer-centric culture and large market opportunity,” said Delfino. “I’m excited to join this talented team to deliver exceptional customer satisfaction and drive revenue growth. Given the simplicity, flexibility and resilience of Nutanix’s powerful cloud platform, I see tremendous opportunity to build on Nutanix’s strong foundation and continue expanding its loyal partner and customer base.”

Henock Gessesse 

SingleStore, the single database for all data-intensive applications, appointed Henock Gessesse as its general counsel. Before joining SingleStore, Henock served as general counsel for Freshworks and Metaswitch. Henock also worked as vice president and deputy general counsel at Broadcom Corp. 

“SingleStore’s hybrid multicloud platform ushers in a new era of data management by operationalizing both real-time data transactions and analytics through a single database. This is an extremely compelling offering in the current environment where data sprawl has become the norm,” said Henock. “I am thrilled to be part of the team that pioneered this innovative technology, and I look forward to further advancing this game-changing solution and working closely with SingleStore’s leadership on the next stage of the company’s development.”

Scott Herren

Rubrik, the zero-trust data security company, appointed Scott Herren, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Cisco, to its board of directors. Herren will also serve as chair of the audit committee. Prior to Cisco, Herren served as CFO for Autodesk and held senior strategy and financial positions at Citrix Systems, FedEx and IBM.

“Now more than ever, businesses need to be cyber-resilient and prepared for attacks associated with the evolving threat landscape,” said Herren. “I’m thrilled to support Rubrik’s strategic business transformation as they continue to provide data security and peace of mind for their customers.”

Eric Herzog

Infinidat, the provider of enterprise-class storage solutions, appointed Eric Herzog as its chief marketing officer. Herzog has more than 30 years of experience in the enterprise storage industry, managing all aspects of marketing, product management, and business development in both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. 

“Infinidat is the most innovative enterprise storage company at scale in the world today, delivering an AI-driven set-it-and-forget-it approach with unprecedented 100% availability, a superior performance that is faster than all-flash alternatives, an extensive storage software-defined portfolio, and lower total cost of ownership,” said Herzog. “I’m excited about the opportunity to reach every enterprise and service provider that will benefit from the power and flexibility of Infinidat solutions. With best-in-class solutions, exceptional support motivated channel partners, and an exciting vision for the future, we will expand the Infinidat brand to a leadership position in enterprise storage.”

Jeff Lambert and Robert Purcell 

Talend, a data integration and data integrity company, appointed Jeff Lambert as its first chief legal officer. Lambert brings more than 20 years of industry experience, most recently serving as the CLO and chief corporate development officer for Powerschool, a cloud software and analytics provider in the education market. 

In addition, Talend appointed Robert Purcell as its chief financial officer. Purcell brings to Talend more than 25 years of experience in executive financial roles. Before Talend, he served as CFO of payments for financial software company Paysafe. He has served in leadership roles, including Intuit, Amgen, and Deloitte. 

CeCe Morken and Daniel Warmenhoven

Alteryx, Inc. , the analytics automation company, appointed CeCe Morken, president of Headspace Health, to its board of directors. Before the merger of Headspace and Ginger, Morken was CEO of Headspace and before that held leadership positions with Intuit Inc.

In addition, Alteryx, Inc. appointed Daniel J. Warmenhoven, former NetApp chief executive officer and executive chairman, to its board of directors. Before joining NetApp, Warmenhoven served as chairman, president and CEO of Network Equipment Technologies and held leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard and IBM Corp.

Paul Mountford and Mark Novakovich

Protegrity, a global leader in data security, appointed Paul Mountford as its chief executive officer. Mountford brings toProtegrity 30 years of experience in the technology industry, having held senior executive positions at industry-leading companies such as Cisco Systems and Riverbed Technology. 

Protegrity also announced the appointment of Mark Novakovich to the role of chief financial officer. Novakovich will lead Protegrity’s global finance organization and oversee all financial functions, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, treasury and tax.

Patrick Pichette

Neo4j, providers of the graph data platform, appointed Patrick Pichette to its board of directors as an independent board member. Pichette, who serves as partner at Inovia Capital, brings 30 years of financial and operating experience, having held leadership roles at Google, Sprint Canada, and Bell Canada. He currently serves as the chairman of the board of Twitter and Lightspeed. 

“We are looking forward to working closely with Neo4j’s seasoned executive team as they chart the next chapter of the company’s global expansion, market leadership, and innovation journey,” Pichette said. “Neo4j’s graph technology offers a truly unique solution to solve some of the world’s most complex challenges, with a clear focus on promoting transparency and positive social change – this is very exciting.”

Kathy Priest

CData Software, a provider of data connectivity solutions, promoted Kathy Priest to the role of chief legal officer. Kathy has been with CData Software since 2015, most recently serving as vice president and general counsel. 

As the chief legal officer of CData Software, Priest will lead the company’s legal operations worldwide. She will also be responsible for corporate legal strategy, product compliance, data protection and privacy, and intellectual property. 

Max Schireson 

Quantum Machines, creator of the quantum orchestration platform, appointed former chief executive officer of open-source database company MongoDB Max Schireson to its board of directors. Schireson has served the board of supercomputer manufacturer Cray until it was acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2019. Schireson currently serves as executive in residence at Battery Ventures.

“Quantum computing has the potential to fundamentally change all aspects of our technology,” said Schireson. “I’m excited to work with Quantum Machines to continue to advance its business and its products and help realize the potential of quantum computers.”

Sandy Smith

Reltio, the cloud-native, software-as-a-service data platform provider, appointed Sandy Smith to its board of directors as the audit committee chairperson. Smith, former chief financial officer of customer data platform company, Segment, brings to Reltio her deep finance and technology experience.

“I am excited to join Reltio’s board, and to work alongside Chris and the leadership team as they take the company to the next level,” said Smith. “Reltio has a highly experienced management team in place, innovative technology that solves big customer problems, and an organization focused on delivering for customers. I look forward to working with this talented team as we steer Reltio through its next phase of growth.”

David Tharp

Dataiku, the provider of the platform for everyday AI, appointed David Tharp as its senior vice president of ecosystems and alliances. Tharp will be responsible for driving the strategy, development and field operations of Dataiku’s global partner program including technology alliances, global systems integrators and channel partners.

“I feel fortunate to join Dataiku at this important inflection point in our growth. We have already established an incredible partner ecosystem with the world’s largest professional services firms and cloud computing giants. The opportunity to unite these partnerships provides our customers an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate their AI transformations. Meeting the Dataiku leadership team and supportive investor community made this an easy career decision for me,” said Tharp. “I am excited to evolve Dataiku’s partner program to accelerate our growth with and through partners who are leading the largest AI transformations in the world. I look forward to scaling these relationships, building a team and delivering value and innovation for our customers, partners and all other stakeholders.”

Kenneth Van Alstyne

SoftIron Ltd., a provider of purpose-built and performance-optimized data infrastructure solutions, appointed Kenneth Van Alstyne as its chief technology officer. Van Alstyne will be responsible for building SoftIron’s technology strategy and roadmap. 

“A lot of companies talk about innovation, but SoftIron is redefining what that looks like on multiple fronts, at a time when the world needs new solutions,” said Van Alstyne. “A lot of companies are playing with software optimization for proprietary codebases, using commodity hardware platforms and calling that ‘innovation’. SoftIron is taking a more fundamental approach by starting quite literally at square one and asking, ‘what is really best for the customer?’…It’s a great honor to be a part of a team that challenges conventional thinking and I look forward to making a contribution to a new class of data infrastructure tools for an exciting age of computing.”

Audrey Zhao

CloudBees, the enterprise software delivery company, appointed Audrey Zhao as its chief financial officer. Zhao will be responsible for overseeing the company’s accounting, business operations, financial planning and analysis, legal, and procurement.

“This is a very exciting time to join CloudBees, as the industry is exploding with innovation and growth opportunities,” said Zhao. “The people at CloudBees and the company’s core values also attracted me to the company. I look forward to helping CloudBees capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead.”


To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.

Do you know someone that should be included in next month’s list? If so, send us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

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