Big Data Career Notes: February 2023 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!

Dee Dee Acquista and Chaim Mazal

Gigamon, the deep observability company, appointed Dee Dee Acquista as its vice president of worldwide channels and alliances. Most recently, Acquista served as the vice president of channel sales at Mandiant, now part of Google Cloud, where she was responsible for program management, strategy, design, and execution.

In addition, Gigamon appointed Chaim Mazal as its chief security officer. Mazal will be responsible for global security, information technology, network operations, governance, risk, compliance, and internal business systems, as well as the security of Gigamon’s product offerings.

Jennifer Curry

DataBank, a provider of enterprise-class colocation, interconnection, and managed services, appointed Jennifer Curry as its senior vice president of managed services. Curry will lead DataBank’s product and technology teams, where she will be responsible for the architecture, design and engineering, service delivery and support of the company’s managed services and network service offerings.

“DataBank is unmatched in its colocation and infrastructure footprint,” said Curry. “It’s an organization building the foundation for the next generation of the internet as the world embraces innovations in digital transformation like AI and Web 3.0. I’m honored to be part of the team that empowers the carriers, enterprises, and hyperscalers to do great things.”

Lisa Edwards and Taggart Matthiesen

LogicMonitor, a provider of the SaaS-based unified observability platform for enterprises and managed service providers, appointed Lisa Edwards as an independent board member. Edwards will provide valuable expertise in business operations, corporate governance and finance.

In addition, LogicMonitor appointed Taggart Matthiesen its chief product officer. Matthiesen will oversee all aspects of product strategy for the company and their unified observability platform, LM Envision, including product management, UX and data science.

Tamar Elan

Matillion, the leader in data productivity, appointed Tamar Elan to its newly created role of chief people officer. Prior to joining Matillion, Elan was the executive vice president of people at Versatile and Walkme and previously held senior HR leadership roles at Nova Measuring Instruments.

“Matillion has built and is growing an incredible business by enabling data teams to get business-ready data, faster, and Matillioners – our people – have been core to that success,” said Elan. “In order for Matillion to continue its focus on helping modern data teams, we need to maintain our own strong foundation by empowering our people to do their best work in a supportive culture built on teamwork and empathy. Matillioners are some of the brightest minds in the industry, and I am excited to be part of this amazing team.”

Jakki Geiger 

Hazelcast, Inc. appointed Jakki Geiger as its chief marketing officer. Most recently, she served as CMO of Pyramid Analytics and previously held senior leadership roles at Informatica, Reltio and others.

“Most executives know they need to modernize their data processing capabilities to process data quickly, but replacing their existing infrastructure is a cost-prohibitive non-starter,” Geiger said. “That is what makes Hazelcast so appealing to its customers; its real-time data stream processing platform can plug into existing systems as a data abstraction layer to process and merge new, fresh data with the historical context to quickly boost conversions in the Real-Time Economy.”

Bob Griswold

Cloudian appointed Bob Griswold as chairman of the company’s board of directors. Griswold’s prior roles include vice president of strategy and planning at HPE, senior vice president of product line management at Seagate, and VP, chief strategist for enterprise, commercial and small business at Cisco.

“I am thrilled to join Cloudian at this pivotal moment in the storage industry,” said Griswold. “Cloudian is exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on today’s transition to cloud-native technologies, and I believe strongly in the company’s strategy and its enterprise-proven platform; so much so, that I personally invested in the current funding round.”

Christopher Harms and  Kristina Johnson

Amplitude, Inc., a digital analytics platform, appointed Christopher Harms as the company’s chief financial officer. Harms will oversee Amplitude’s global business partners organization, which includes finance, accounting, operations, legal, and IT.

In addition, Kristina Johnson joined Amplitude as its chief human resources officer. Johnson will be responsible for leading Amplitude’s people and workplace functions, including talent acquisition and development, diversity, equity & inclusion, total rewards, employee engagement, and more.

Carolyn Harvey

LXT, an AI training data vendor, appointed Carolyn Harvey as its vice president of operations. Harvey will be responsible for leading and expanding LXT’s global operations organization, including defining and implementing strategies, structure, and processes.

“Companies that are successfully deploying AI know that high-quality data is a critical component of their AI strategy,” said Harvey. “Having worked in the AI data industry for over a decade, I understand that quality service delivery is complex and constantly evolving to meet customers’ changing data needs. When considering my next opportunity, it was important for me to join an organization with a vision and culture that prioritizes operational excellence for clients of all types, no matter where they are in their AI maturity journey. I am honored to join the LXT team and am excited to use my experience to help the company continue to deliver high-quality data for its clients worldwide.”

John Hoffman 

KX appointed John Hoffman as its chief revenue officer. Hoffman joined KX from Google, where he was head of sales for data and analytics. He brings over 20 years of experience in the enterprise software industry, including leadership roles in both start-up organizations and multi-billion-dollar corporations.

“I am truly excited to join a data and analytics market leader like KX, and the opportunity to further build and scale a world-class sales organization like their own is my dream,” Hoffman said. “Driving critical business insights is at the forefront of every organization, and KX helps bring the benefits of these insights to bear every day for the largest financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and energy companies. Needless to say, I can’t wait to dive in.”

Andrej Karpathy

The former senior director of artificial intelligence at Tesla Andrej Karpathy has rejoined OpenAI, where he was one of the founding members and research scientist. In 2017, Karpathy announced he was leaving Tesla after spending five years leading the computer vision team of Tesla Autopilot.

Monica Kumar 

Hitachi Vantara, the modern infrastructure, data management and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., appointed Monica Kumar as its chief marketing officer. Kumar was most recently the senior vice president of global marketing and cloud go-to-market at Nutanix.

“As a company, Hitachi Vantara has some incredible stories to tell,” said Kumar. “I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to help showcase not only the solutions, capabilities, and accomplishments of Hitachi Vantara, but the tremendous power of Hitachi and the opportunities it opens for our customers and partners today and tomorrow.”

Ren Lee

Dataiku, the platform for everyday AI, appointed the former head of Google’s global demand operations Ren Lee as its senior vice president of marketing for the Americas. Most recently, Lee ran demand generation at SailPoint Technologies.

“Dataiku’s mission to create the most usable AI solutions eclipses my belief that the best products bring with it an abundance of helpfulness and happiness to users every single day,” said Lee. “I love that Dataiku is a truly human-centered and highly accessible platform helping everyday office heroes supercharge their data with ease.”

Mark McLaughlin

Rubrik appointed Mark McLaughlin, former Palo Alto Networks chairman and chief executive officer, to Rubrik’s board of directors. McLaughlin currently serves as chair of the board of directors for Qualcomm.

“Data security threats—especially ransomware—are some of the most profound and urgent challenges every CEO, board of directors, and cybersecurity leader must be prepared to face,” said McLaughlin. “Rubrik is working to change the trajectory of the cybersecurity industry with its mission to secure the world’s data. Relying on Rubrik, governments and companies are able to deliver business resilience even in the face of the most sophisticated cyber events. I’m honored to join Rubrik’s board and help the company maintain its leadership position in data security.”

Jeff Miller

StarTree Inc., the leader in real-time and user-facing analytics, appointed Jeff Miller as the company’s chief revenue officer. Miller most recently served as CRO of Cockroach Labs, the cloud-native, distributed SQL database platform company. Before Cockroach Labs, he served as senior vice president of sales at Hortonworks.

“I am thrilled to join StarTree at a time of pivotal growth,” said Miller. “I am a firm believer in the power of open source based technologies and think that Apache Pinot will revolutionize the Analytics industry. The real-time analytics market is primed to explode, with companies like Stripe, Walmart, and Uber realizing the enormous value derived from delivering real-time insights. The use cases for this technology are unlimited. When I look at the StarTree platform, I see a highly differentiated product in terms of features and capabilities fueled by a highly loyal community. All the pieces are in place to build the next great data company, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Brian Roberts

Splunk Inc., the data platform leader for security and observability, appointed Brian Roberts as its chief financial officer. Roberts brings 30 years of financial expertise, including at some of the most recognized brands in the technology and consumer industries such as Lyft, Microsoft and Walmart.

“I have spent my career seeking out organizations with a strong community, values-driven leadership team and an ambition to deliver powerful innovation—and Splunk is the perfect fit,” said Roberts. “Splunk has built an unparalleled platform that enables organizations to increase their digital resiliency, and I’m confident that we are well positioned to capitalize on our enormous opportunity to drive strong financial performance. I’m thrilled to return to my software roots and contribute to Splunk’s next chapter.”

John Sedleniek 

Coalesce.io, the data transformation company, appointed John Sedleniek as its chief revenue officer. Sedleniek brings over 20 years of technology sales experience, most recently focused on data replications and integration. Before he joined Coalesce, Sedleniek was vice president of strategic accounts at Fivetran.

“There is a big opportunity in the data market for a modern data transformation solution. New data technologies and products have accelerated the need for curated data that is timely, accurate, and easy-to-access,” said John Sedleniek, Chief Revenue Officer at Coalesce. “Coalesce has built an impressive product with tremendous early customer adoption and I look forward to being a part of the next stage of growth.”

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.