AI Career Notes: January 2020 Edition
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In this monthly feature, we'll keep you up to date on the latest career developments in the enterprise AI community -- promotions, new hires, and accolades. Here's the AI career news for early January:
D-Wave Systems Inc. announced the appointment of Dr. Alan Baratz to the role of chief executive officer (CEO). In 2017, Baratz joined D-Wave serving as the chief product officer and executive vice president of research and development. Baratz is credited for driving the development, delivery, and support of all of D-Wave's products, technologies, and applications in recent years. He has held executive positions at Symphony, Avaya, Cisco, and IBM. He served as CEO and president of Versata, Zaplet, and NeoPath Networks, and as a managing director at Warburg Pincus LLC.
"I joined D-Wave to bring quantum computing technology to the enterprise. Now more than ever, I am convinced that making practical quantum computing available to forward-thinking businesses and emerging quantum developers through the cloud is central to jumpstarting the broad development of in-production quantum applications," Baratz said. "As I assume the CEO role, I'll focus on expanding the early beachheads for quantum computing that exist in manufacturing, mobility, new materials creation, and financial services into real value for our customers. I am honored to take over the leadership of the company and work together with the D-Wave team as we begin to deliver real business results with our quantum computers."
Dayle Hall
SnapLogic announced that it has named Dayle Hall as its new chief marketing officer (CMO). Hall will lead the company’s global marketing initiatives including branding and digital marketing, corporate communications, product marketing, demand generation, field marketing, and more. He joins SnapLogic’s executive leadership team and will report to CEO Gaurav Dhillon. Most recently, Hall was CMO at People.ai, where he was credited for creating a new category for AI AI -powered revenue intelligence and helped the company's revenue growth.
“The opportunity at SnapLogic was too good to turn down,” Hall said. “The team has done an incredible job establishing a market-leading position with a product that’s intuitive, easy to deploy and use, and sits at the fulcrum of all enterprise automation. There’s a massive opportunity to put this powerful platform in the hands of IT teams and functional lines of business alike because real business acceleration begins when data and applications are accessible across the entire organization. I’m excited to be here and put some firepower into SnapLogic’s go-to-market and marketing machine.”
Quantum Corp. announced that Rebecca Jacoby joined the company's Board of Directors. She will serve on the Board's Audit Committee and Leadership and Compensation Committee. Jacoby served as senior vice president (SVP) of Operations at Cisco Systems Inc., and held the position of CIO for eight years and retired from Cisco in 2018 after more than 22 years of service. She also oversaw various functions, including I.T., supply chain, security and trust, global procurement and employee services, and workplace resources.
"With the restatement completed and new governance practices now in place, and with a sharper focus on innovation and profitable sales, Quantum has been on a roll with a brisk pace of new product development," Jacoby said. "This is a particularly exciting time to join Quantum's Board, and I look forward to applying my experience to help Quantum grow and realize its true potential."
ZutaCore announced Dr. Tim Shedd as the new director of product management. Shedd has thermal sciences and engineering experience and holds 13 patents. He also launched Ebullient Inc. and held academic positions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Florida Polytechnic University.
"I appreciate the team's confidence in my ability to provide cross-functional leadership to help guide ZutaCore from product launch through to securing a solid foothold in the global data center thermal management market," Shedd said. "I know what it takes to cool the world's fastest, most demanding computing, and ZutaCore's HyperCool2 system has the potential to exceed customer expectations by overcoming hurdles of traditional air and water solutions. Hyperscale, edge and HPC applications will benefit from industry-leading low chip to ambient temperature differences and extreme package heat load capabilities, all at impressively low TCO."
Navin Shenoy
Intel's Navin Shenoy was promoted to the role of executive vice president and general manager of the Data Platforms Group at Intel Corp. He will focus on solutions that are driving transformation across a range of use cases, including cloud computing, virtualization of network infrastructure, and the adoption of artificial intelligence. Before his current role, Shenoy served as general manager of the company's Client Computing Group. In that position, he was responsible for profit and loss, business strategy, and product development across notebooks, desktops, tablets, 2-in-1 devices, and home gateways.
Shenoy joined Intel in 1995. He earned a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University. Early in his Intel career, Shenoy served as general manager for Intel Asia Pacific, where he led sales, marketing, and overall adoption of Intel products in the region. Shenoy also previously held leadership roles in Intel's P.C. and tablet business units and the CEO's office, including three years as chief-of-staff and technical assistant to former Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini.
Amit Walia
Informatica announced that its Board of Directors named Amit Walia as chief executive officer. Walia succeeds Anil Chakravarthy, who is stepping down from his role as CEO. Previously, as President of Products and Marketing, Walia was responsible for Informatica's product strategy, product management, product development, user experience, strategic ecosystem strategy, and global marketing function. He previously served as Informatica's executive vice president and chief product officer, where he spearheaded the company's innovation journey across all parts of the Enterprise Cloud Data Management market. Before joining Informatica, Walia worked in various leadership positions at Symantec, Intuit, and McKinsey & Company, and also spent the earlier part of his career working for Tata Group and Infosys Technologies in India.
"I am honored to serve as CEO during this extraordinary era of digital transformation, as Informatica is perfectly positioned to capitalize on this shift and help customers unleash the power of data," Walia said. "We are privileged to have a great customer base, an amazing team of employees across the globe, and a unique leadership position in all the markets where we compete. I look forward to working closely with the Company's Board and leadership team to continue building upon the exceptional transformation we have executed over the past few years and scale a long-term innovation-driven organization. Our best days are truly ahead of us."
Rick Valencia
Analytics Ventures announced that Rick Valencia joined the Analytics Ventures leadership team, taking on the role of operating partner. Valencia's primary function will be to help Analytics Ventures-backed companies transition from successful startups to independent, fast-growth technology companies. Before joining Analytics Ventures, Valencia was an SVP at Qualcomm and served as President of Qualcomm Life, Inc. Before founding Qualcomm Life, Valencia founded ProfitLine, Inc., a telecommunications service management provider, and served as chief executive officer from 1992 until the sale of the company in 2009.
"Having successfully launched multiple AI companies over the past two years with their venture studio model, I feel that Analytics Ventures has a proven approach to leverage the power of AI for company formation across multiple industry verticals," Valencia said. "I am excited to join this team of visionary business leaders and exceptional artificial intelligence scientists and look forward to being a catalyst for operational excellence and growth for our venture companies."
Tim Irvine
Accenture announced the appointment of Tim Irvine to lead the evolution of its Accenture Federal Digital Studio. In this role, Irvine leads a team, who work side by side with Accenture Federal Services clients to design and quickly deliver the digital solutions that federal leaders need to transform their agencies at the pace of change. Irvine previously served as Fjord's head of design for North America. He joined the Fjord team after Accenture's acquisition of Acquity Group in 2013, where he was the chief experience officer. His nearly three decades of experience began with a study of industrial design, which sparked his ongoing interest in combining human insights to creative thinking to solve complex problems – independent of the medium.
"It is a privilege to lead and serve with the talented and diverse group of professionals on our Studio team as we co-create transformative digital solutions with our government clients," Irvine said. "It's more important than ever that we help agencies navigate the rapidly evolving technology landscape with a consistent lens toward driving human impact. Our mission is clear and our ambition boundless when it comes to designing and delivering impactful experiences for citizens as they interact with their government."
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.
