Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Tuesday, March 19, 2024

AI Career Notes: November 2020 Edition 

In this monthly feature we bring you up to date on the latest career developments in the enterprise AI community -- promotions, new hires and accolades:


Bertil Brendeke

Submer, an immersion cooling vendor, announced Bertil Brendeke as the company's vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Brendeke comes from Acronis Cloud, where he served as vice president for Europe and the Middle East.

"Having worked with a few of the team members in the past, I am super excited about joining this scale-up company," said Bertil. "It is always a pleasure to work with young, ambitious, motivated, and talented team members when you know that the market is ready for the product and solutions of the future, which are being created by this pool of talented people. And that Submer stands for the creation of future-proof immersion cooling solutions which have also been recognized by International investors like Norrsken VC, Mundi Ventures, and Tim Reynolds."

Greg Bruno

Greg Bruno joined SoftIron Ltd., a software-defined storage provider, as its chief architect. Bruno will be responsible for managing SoftIron's software and hardware integration strategy. He comes from Teradata, where he held the engineering fellow's role on the Technical and Innovation Office Research Team. Bruno has over 20 years of engineering experience, including his work in developing the Rocks cluster toolkit at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

"There has been a certain level of stagnation in the data center and server industry when it comes to the way that hardware is designed and sourced, which has, disappointingly, become an almost acceptable status quo," said Bruno.

Melvin Cordova

Melvin Cordova joins Tachyum Inc.'s advisory board of its newly-created subsidiary Tachyum Government Corp. Cordova has more than 30 years of experience in delivering advisory services to companies that enter into business with the Department of Defense and intelligence community organizations.

He has a 22-year career in the United States Navy. His service includes leading DoD's investments in In-Q-Tel's portfolio businesses overseeing DIA contributions in military drills, and directing various technologies maturations. He has also served as senior program manager, deputy chief, and acting chief in the Defense HUMINT Management Office, Technology Tradecraft Office.

Dominick Delfino

Pure Storage, a storage-as-a-service provider, announced Dominick Delfino as its chief revenue officer and global head of sales. Delfino has built a 20-year career in managing software and hardware sales and system engineering teams. He comes from VMware, where he most recently held global sales leadership positions, including in VMware’s Software Defined Data Center unit.

“Pure has an enviable reputation in the market of being customer obsessed and I could not be more elated to join the team,” said Delfino. “Pure provides an unrivaled experience and helps customers make their ambitions a reality. I see tremendous opportunity to advance and expand the business.”

Karin Golde

Artificial intelligence technology provider CLARA Analytics tapped Karin Golde as its vice president of data science. Golde will oversee the development of an AI and machine learning-based portfolio. Before CLARA, she was VP of AI research & development at NetBase Quid.

“CLARA has broken new ground in practical uses of AI in ways that will redefine commercial insurance for decades to come,” said Golde. “I am very excited to be a part of this change, particularly as CLARA extends its applications in ways that empower people with the tools to make their work easier, faster, more rewarding, and more interesting.”

Kevin Goldsmith

Kevin Goldsmith joined data science platform provider, Anaconda, Inc., as its chief technology officer. Goldsmith, a 28-veteran in software development and engineering management, will manage Anaconda’s open-source and commercial product portfolio and help to develop new offerings for the data science field. Before Anaconda, he was CTO of Onfido.

“Anaconda makes a real impact in the lives of data scientists around the world every day, and I’m excited to be part of the future of the company as it continues to expand that impact,” said Goldsmith. “Millions of data science practitioners rely on Anaconda’s solutions, and I’m proud to be part of a team that’s obsessed with increasing the value it delivers to a growing community.”

Ashley Gorakhpurwalla

Western Digital Corp. announced the addition of Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, serving as executive vice president and general manager of the company’s HDD business unit. Gorakhpurwalla comes from Dell Technologies, where he spent 20 years, most recently in the Servers and Infrastructure Systems division of Dell EMC.

"Western Digital's customers are no longer just creating, processing and archiving their data. Now they have to manage it across clouds, analyze it in real-time and develop insights quicker and more efficiently than ever before," said Gorakhpurwalla.  "As our customers continue transforming to take advantage of the explosion of data and information, Western Digital's innovation, intellectual property and world-class engineering and manufacturing position the company at the very core of this transformation. My role at Western Digital gives me a new opportunity to continue my part in this exciting new era, and I look forward to working with the team."

Erica Hausheer

Cloud data analytics platform vendor Teradata named Erica Hausheer as its chief information officer. Under this role, Hausheer will oversee the company’s Information Technology division’s strategy and operations. Before Teradata, she held the role of senior vice president and CIO of 3D Systems.

“I’m excited to be joining Teradata – a company whose legacy in the data analytics space is well known throughout the industry,” said Hausheer. “As CIO, I understand the power of data to transform business operations, and I look forward to collaborating with other Teradata leaders to use Teradata’s own technology to propel the business forward for greater customer value and profitable growth.”

Dominique Henneresse

2CRSi, a high-performance, energy-efficient IT servers provider,  announced the appointment of Dominique Henneresse to its board of directors as an independent director. Henneresse has held leadership positions in the finance division of large and small corporations, including Alcatel, Steelcase, and Point P. He has held various advisory roles since 2010.

"I'm delighted to join 2CRSi's Board of Directors," Henneresse said. "I am looking forward to bringing my own experience into such an ambitious and dynamic team. In the age of Big Data, it is a chance to see a French group emerge in the development of innovative high-performance energy-efficient servers."

Chris Kenny

Chris Kenny was appointed as head of business development for the EMEA region at SambaNova Systems, an AI systems platform vendor. Kenny comes from Versa Networks, where he held the role of vice president and general manager. Prior to Versa Networks, he served as international vice president at DataDirect Networks.

“With the unparalleled deep bench of technical expertise and visionary leadership at SambaNova, it’s an exciting time to join the company and lead EMEA expansion efforts,” said Kenny. “Right now, there’s an overwhelming trend toward the digital world driving the need for new architectures that deliver greater accuracy and performance than those that have evolved from graphics or commodity legacy architectures. SambaNova is at the forefront of this innovation and I’m confident in the company’s vision and look forward to building this next chapter together.”

Alex Lo

Edge artificial intelligence solutions provider Kneron announced the addition of Alex Lo as its chief strategy officer. Lo is a 17-year veteran from NVIDIA, where he held the role of vice president of sales in Taiwan. He will be responsible for accelerating the company’s mission to democratize artificial intelligence for everyone.

“I am excited to join such an ambitious and experienced team at Kneron,” Lo said. “For such a young company, Kneron’s technology and accomplishments to date have impressed me. The onset of 5G will exponentially boost the demand for edge AI chips in IoT devices over the next decade. I am sure that Kneron will continue to impress not only me but the AI device industry as a whole. The potential of  Kneron is exhilarating, and I cannot wait to see what we can accomplish.”

Matteo Marchetta

Matteo Marchetta joined intelligent monitoring solutions vendor, Moogsoft, as its chief financial officer. Marchetta has a 20-year career serving under leadership positions in B2B and B2C business. Before Moogsoft, he served as CFO at Augmedix, provider of remote medical documentation and live clinical support, and as VP of finance for SAP’s Altiscale Cloud Platform.

“I am excited by the traction that Moogsoft has made in democratizing the cutting-edge data science methods of AIOps and observability,” said Marchetta. “In my former roles, I have been able to lead distributed teams around the globe to deliver double-digit revenue growth, and I look forward to leveraging those skills as a catalyst for Moogsoft’s growth.”

Tony Maslowski

Tony Maslowski joined deep learning AI computer systems vendor Cerebras Systems as its chief financial officer. Maslowski will be responsible for managing the company's finances and lead its expansion to new markets worldwide.  He brings over a 25-year career working with S&P 500 companies. He has also served as CFO at Broadcom.

"I am honored to join the Cerebras team and to support its mission of bringing the fastest AI computers in the industry to leading organizations worldwide," said Maslowski. "I look forward to helping Cerebras continue to grow at a rapid rate as we bring our pioneering technology to new markets and solve some of the largest AI problems in the world."

Chris Penrose

Chris Penrose joined Foghorn, an artificial intelligence software vendor, as its chief operating officer. Penrose comes from AT&T, where he held the role of senior vice president of the company’s IoT Solutions.He brings more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications and software, including 5G, edge computing, and next-generation networking.

“During my time at AT&T, I was involved in pioneering innovative technologies across a range of industries, which is where I first recognized the value edge computing brings to customers,” said Penrose. “FogHorn offers an Edge AI platform that will positively impact business operations, performance and efficiency in the years ahead. I look forward to working with the rest of the leadership team to broaden FogHorn’s reach and help customers achieve meaningful benefits from their edge analytics and AI/ML deployments.”

Molly Treese

Teradata promoted Molly Treese to chief legal officer. As CLO, Treese will manage the company’s Law Department, legal affairs, and  Ethics & Compliance function. She joined Teradata in 2007. In 2018  she was appointed to corporate secretary. Her most recent role was as senior vice president and deputy general counsel.

“My work with Teradata has been truly rewarding, and I look forward to stepping up into this new role,” said Treese. “Teradata, in the midst of its business transformation to be cloud-first, has enormous market potential. Built for the hybrid, multi-cloud world, Teradata has deep expertise, an outstanding customer base, strong partnerships, and a powerful cloud data analytics platform that cannot be matched when enterprise customers need to tackle their biggest data challenges. This is important work that I’m proud to say we handle with ethics and integrity.”

Michael Trzupek

AI and blockchain vendor Core Scientific appointed Michael Trzupek as its chief financial officer. Trzupek will be responsible for the company's financial activities, including EY audits, acquisitions, finance, tax, and accounting. Before Core Scientific, he served as CFO at Premera Blue Cross and interim CFO at Sound Transit.

"Core Scientific is led by an experienced leadership team with a long-standing record of success, and I am honored to be joining the company," said Trzupek.  "I sincerely look forward to building upon its strong foundation by working closely with our auditors, suppliers, and customers to capitalize on the exponential growth in digital asset mining in North America."

SNIA 2020-2021 Board of Directors and Technical Council

The Storage Networking Industry Association announced its 2020-2021 Board of Directors and Technical Council members. SNIA, a not-for-profit organization comprised of storage-based solution provider companies, confirmed its significant vision to be “All Things Storage,” focusing on responsibility and accountability to its members, its alliance partners, and end-users around the world. To see the full list of members, click here.

“2020 has been a year of change, renewed commitment and investment for the future by the industry,” said Michael Oros, SNIA Executive Director. “Taking on the changing world, we have new representatives from several industry companies that have joined the SNIA Board from Cisco Systems, Kioxia, NetApp, and Pure Storage. In addition, Dell has also joined the Technical Council, and together we look forward to the new industry engagements and technical work that is already underway with SNIA’s 2,500 storage industry experts from around the world.”


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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