Category: Moving People

Scality promotes Retureau

London-based Data outfit Scality has promoted Marie-Laure Retureau as its new vice president of sales for Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Retureau will lead a team of experts who will help customers and partners get the best out of Scality’s storage solutions.

Scality’s boss, Peter Brennan, said: ” Retureau is the perfect person to boost our business in Asia. She has amazing skills and is expanding our network of partners in this area with one goal: to help customers update and protect their data. She is committed to making our customers and partners happy and has strong connections in the region that will create many opportunities for us.”

Retureau has been working for Scality for two years and has a lot of experience in the data storage market. She has worked with customers and partners in many countries and knows how to solve their storage problems.

Virtuoso Partners taps VAR expert Josh Winters

Virtuoso Partners, the smart automation and content management firm, hired Josh Winters to lead its sales team.

Winters has nine years of experience in the industry and spent the last four at the VAR Softcat.

Virtuoso said they hired Winters as part of their mission to “Unleash Partner Success” and said it was a strategic move to beef up their support for their valued partners.

Winters knows the VAR game inside out and can meet the unique needs of partners who want to offer their customers smart automation and content management solutions.

Virtuoso said it wanted to empower its partners to make a killing in the booming market of smart automation and content management.

Verisk announces two new hires

Data analytics and technology provider Verisk has announced two new hires as part of the company’s international insurance market growth strategy.

For those not in the know, Verisk solutions in the UK and Continental Europe use data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to help insurers enhance decision-making, improve the customer experience and drive profitable growth.

Verisk has named Robert Stewart, Director of Business Development at Verisk Underwriting Solutions, and Neil Garrett as Sales Director, effective September 2023.

Verisk said it wanted to improve its support of clients and tap into the emerging needs of the industry across the UK.

Acumatica appoints Jeff Smits as CIO

Cloudy Acumatica has announced that tech industry veteran Jeff Smits has been appointed chief information officer (CIO).

He was in the office on September 11, and the company says he will pivotal role in optimising Acumatica’s strategic technology initiatives and support its continued commitment to providing innovative tools to its community of partners, customers and creators.

BlueVoyant hires Jon Leather

Cyber security outfit BlueVoyant has tapped industry specialist Jon Leather as its Head of European Supply Chain Defence Advisory.

Leather joins BlueVoyant from Standard Chartered Bank, where he served as the Head of Third-Party Information Security Risk Oversight. Previously, he spent more than a decade at Lloyds Banking Group, focusing on cyber risk and leading information and cyber security supplier assurance programmes.

Leather is highly experienced around the components and mechanisms that make up an organisation’s third-party cyber risk relationships.

Leather chaired the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Cyber Supply Chain Risk Working Group for Financial Services, an initiative he will continue to be involved with in an advisory capacity.

Wilkinson tapped for Vectra AVP role.

AI-driven threat detection and response outfit for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises, Vectra has appointed Keith Wilkinson as its new AVP, leading the UK&I.

Wilkinson joins Vectra from AWS, where he served as Head of GTM Productivity Applications for EMEA and built a technology go-to-market from the ground-up, responsible for strategy and sales execution. Before that, he held several notable leadership positions at Dynatrace, ClickSoftware (acquired by Salesforce) and Genesys.

Wilkinson said that organisations were confronted with an ever-expanding attack surface and emerging attacker techniques; this increases SOC workloads resulting in an overwhelming ‘spiral of more’.

Informa Tech will buy Canalys

Canalys Forum EuropeCanalys is to be acquired by Informa Tech with the deal completed in the third quarter of this year.

Informa Tech said the acquisition will mean it will now be the world’s biggest channel research and consulting group.

Gary Nugent, CEO of Informa, said: “Channel and Mobility are two incredibly exciting areas for our industry, where technology, supply chains and ways of going to market are ever-evolving. Over 70 percent of all business technology is sold via the Channel and this is why it is of huge importance to our customers.”

Steve Brazier, the CEO of Canalys said: “We have lived and breathed Channel and Mobility for 25 years while growing into other spaces such as Automotive. Now by combining with Informa Tech, and specifically leading brands Omdia, Channel Partners and Channel Futures, we have the platform to offer our clients even greater breadth and depth of expertise on a global scale. We are looking forward to working together to shape the future of technology research.”

No financial details are provided.

Amazon Web Services loses Chris Vonderhaar

Amazon Web Services has lost its top cloudy executive Chris Vonderhaar who was the bloke who planned, designed and constructed AWS’ data centres.

For those who came in late, AWS datacentres power the $85bn cloud company’s infrastructure and cloud services.

Vonderhaar had been with the company for nearly 13 years in top cloud infrastructure roles and it is unclear why he has left. In 2021, it was thought that Vonderhaar would be a successor to former AWS CEO Andy Jassy, recently promoted to CEO of Amazon.

In addition to leading the Amazon subsidiary’s datacentre global strategy, Vonderhaar was responsible for business development and procurement of utility connections, the AWS renewable energy portfolio, and AWS sustainability teams and business, according to his LinkedIn profile.

NTT DATA taps Oliver Bridges

IT services outfit NTT DATA has appointed Oliver Bridges as its new Head of Energy Data as part of its investment into its Energy & Utilities practice.

Bridges has worked as Head of Data Science and Analytics at Smart DCC, a smart meter network provider connecting over half of Britain’s homes. As part of this role, Bridges used his end-to-end knowledge of Smart DCC’s solution to develop and maintain a nationwide ecosystem of smart meters.

Before Smart DCC, Bridges held the position of Technical Analyst for Centrica, working on the front line of their smart meter rollout, before moving on to help design the data component for Britain’s national smart metering solution.

Rubrik names Keech VP United Kingdom and Ireland

Security outfit Rubrik has named Toby Keech Vice President for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Keech has been told to focus on expanding Rubrik’s data security leadership across the region, further developing the company’s sales strategy and go-to-market function.

He has been in the business for 20 years and joins Rubrik from Zscaler, where he has spent the last four years leading UK&I and MEA business units. Before this, he held senior sales roles at several technology businesses, supporting these organisations through acquisitions by the likes of NetApp and HP.

He said that ransomware continues to threaten the UK&I economy due to expanding attack surfaces are expanding and a need for organisations to protect more data.

Keech said he was excited to join an already fantastic team and continue to support our UK&I customer base to secure their data.

Aruba channel chief is retiring

Aruba worldwide channel chief Donna Grothjan is retiring after 30 years.

Aruba Head of worldwide sales Alain Carpentier announced Grothjan’s departure, effective at the end of May, at Aruba’s Atmosphere conference in Las Vegas.

Writing in blog Carpentier said it was an understatement to say the company was proud of the unwavering commitment Grothjan has shown to HPE Aruba Networking’s 55,000 partners globally and the broader channel community throughout her career.

“Her focus has always been on helping the channel community adapt to, and thrive in, changing conditions through innovative, partner-focused programs and tools that set our industry’s bar high.”

North appoints Crawford as new CEO

North has announced the appointment of David Crawford as its new chief executive officer.

Crawford replaces Glen Williams, who stepped down at the end of last year after almost two years in the role.

Crawford joins from European telecoms infrastructure company Cellnex Telecom where he was responsible for integrating the business into the group operating model, developing key customer relationships and driving local organic and inorganic growth.

Richardson quits as AMD’s channel chief

AMD North America Channel Chief Terry Richardson is leaving the company after more than 30 years of working in the channel and is believed to be retiring.

Richardson, a 30-year-plus channel veteran who has also held top channel jobs at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP and EMC, joined AMD two years ago and helped build it a robust network of partners.

Richardson’s departure on April 18 comes just three weeks after AMD Head of North America VAR Channels & Commercial Distribution Marty Bauerlein left AMD to take the newly created role of chief commercial officer at D&H Distributing.

Richardson was one of the most respected channel leaders in the business and he is widely attributed with giving AMD achieve a channel footprint it would not have been able to attain without him.

 

Agilitas loses chief marketing officer

Agilitas IT Solutions has announced that its chief marketing officer, Richard Eglon, will leave the firm after eight years.

He will officially leave the company in August 2023 and wants to spend time with his family after many years managing a busy and fast-paced work schedule.

He joined Agilitas in 2015 as marketing director before being promoted to chief marketing officer in 2021. Eglon built Agilitas’ channel services brands, and was responsible for setting and communicating strategic direction and executing go-to-market plans as well as its ESG initiative.

Exertis UK names Tim Griffin new CEO

Exertis UK has appointed Tim Griffin as its new CEO.

The change means Griffin is no longer managing director of parent company, DCC Technology, and willl be replaced by Clive Fitzharris.

Griffin takes direct responsibility for the entire Exertis UK, Retail & B2B operations and oversees other businesses in the UK and Ireland of DCC Technology.

He will also lead a development plan for the business in the UK to drive growth, innovation and market leadership.

“The size of the opportunity in the UK, both now and in the future, is a major prize and I’m excited to be taking the CEO role leading the evolution of our UK business as we drive it onwards to ever-greater success,” Griffin said.