AI Career Notes: August 2021 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:

Shekar Ayyar

AI and HPC software vendor Altair has appointed Shekar Ayyar, the CEO of AdMY Technologies Inc., to its board of directors. Ayyar, a venture partner with NTTVC, has also served as executive vice president and general manager for VMware’s telco and edge cloud business unit and previously held other leadership positions at VMWare. 

“I look forward to joining Altair’s board of directors. Altair is poised for exceptional growth propelled by its best-in-class, robust, scalable and technically differentiated platform that brings together the power of simulation, HPC and AI,” said Ayyar. “Its ability to leverage software and cloud technology combined with its entrepreneurial culture is a great asset.”

Terrie Banuelos 

Conversica, Inc., the provider of conversational artificial intelligence solutions, appointed Terrie Banuelos as its vice president of global sales. Before joining Conversica, Banuelos had revenue responsibility for the Americas at Acoustic, a spin-off company of IBM. 

Banuelos was at IBM for 17 years holding various positions, including serving as vice president of the company’s worldwide Watson marketing department, where she was responsible for the global sales organization of AI and insights, personalized marketing and digital experience solutions. 

David Collins

Diwo, which offers an enterprise decision intelligence platform for delivering business value from analytics, appointed David Collins as its chief revenue officer to lead its global sales and marketing efforts.  Collins joined diwo from Actian Corp., where he served as vice president of worldwide sales. 

“Diwo is beginning an exciting stage of growth, and the decision intelligence market is on the cusp of exploding over the next three to five years. The reason for this explosive growth is simple - Fortune 500 companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their data and analytics efforts, and the return is elusive because the result has been business insights.  Insights lead to more questions and more analysis, while our AI-augmented recommendations lead to business value. diwo skips the dashboard and delivers specific and actionable recommendations,” said Collins. “Diwo’s decision intelligence solutions are already being utilized by several Fortune 100 companies and are generating a tremendous return on investment.”

Lee Flanagin

Esperanto Technologies, developer of high-performance, energy-efficient computing solutions based on RISC-V for artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning applications, appointed Lee Flanagin as its chief business officer. Flanagin will be responsible for leading Esperanto’s marketing, sales and business development as the company scales.

“Applications for AI, machine learning and deep learning are exploding, and require innovative hardware and software,” Flanagin said. “I am excited to join Esperanto to accelerate the adoption of their leading-edge technology and high-performance, energy-efficient computing solutions in these rapidly growing markets.”

Andrea Goldsmith

Intel appointed Dr. Andrea Goldsmith its board of directors. Goldsmith, who is the dean of engineering and applied science and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton University, will serve as an independent director.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Intel’s board of directors at such an exciting time for the company. The bold strategy that Pat Gelsinger has laid out opens up the door to seemingly limitless possibilities for Intel,” said Goldsmith. “I look forward to bringing my knowledge of wireless networking technology to help shape the company’s future.”

Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, was presented the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chinese Institute of Engineers/USA, a non-profit professional organization of Chinese-American engineers, scientists, and other professionals. Huang received the award as part of the group's Asian American Engineer of the Year awards program, which annually recognizes outstanding Asian American scientists, engineers and role models. Huang was recognized for his contributions as “a visionary and innovator in parallel computing technology that accelerates the realization of AI computing.” 

“It is strange to accept a lifetime achievement award because I feel like I’m just getting started – and NVIDIA indeed is,” Huang said. “Still, I’m grateful and deeply honored to receive this award, which I share with my colleagues at NVIDIA.”

Jeff Huber

Zapata Computing, an enterprise software company for quantum solutions, appointed Jeff Huber, a former senior vice president at Google, to its board of directors. Huber is also the founding chief executive officer of GRAIL, a cancer screening company. 

“Quantum computing will follow artificial intelligence as the second revolutionary technology in the 21st century,” said Huber. “There is so much data in Industry that, if properly harnessed, could solve the most complex problems that affect the human experience, from how we move and live on the planet, to our financial markets and supply chains. Zapata is the leader in developing the quantum-classical applications that will unlock the untapped value of this data. The team is already working alongside some of the world’s biggest organizations to build production-ready quantum applications and is poised to take advantage of tomorrow’s more powerful quantum devices.”

Kimberly Jabal

Lucid, the provider of visual collaboration software solutions, appointed Kimberly Jabal to its board of directors. Jabal will act as chair of the company's newly-formed audit committee. She brings more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, most recently serving as the chief financial officer of Unity Technologies, where she led the company through its IPO. 

"There were several things that attracted me to Lucid: exceptional leadership, the company's financial success, its strong values and culture, and of course products that solve real problems and are loved by customers," said Jabal. "As the workforce continues to evolve, Lucid is well-positioned to be a key figure in the new normal for all businesses, whether their workplaces become fully remote, hybrid or ultimately return to the office. I believe that Lucid has a strong business with an exciting future, and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of this journey as the company helps shape the future of visual collaboration."

Gilad Katz

Sisense, an AI-driven analytics cloud platform provider, welcomed Gilad Katz as its senior vice president of engineering. Katz will be responsible for leading Sisense’s global engineering and development department. He comes to the company from AppsFlyer, where he led the research and development and product teams and grew the engineering department from 60 engineers to more than 300.

“I am thrilled to bring my experience in engineering to the fast-growing, world-class team here at Sisense,” Katz said. “Sisense has incredible momentum and I am fortunate to join such an exceptional business that saw the need for the cloud early on. I look forward to helping Sisense continue to expand and develop leading technologies that transform businesses around the world.”  

Amy Love

SambaNova Systems, a provider of software, hardware and services that run artificial intelligence applications, appointed Amy Love as its chief marketing officer. Love comes to the company from Pavilion Data Systems, where she served as CMO. She is a board member of the Girl Scouts of Northern California and a member of the board of advisors in the department of marketing at the University of San Francisco School of Management. 

“I am honored to join the highly-accomplished and committed team at SambaNova. The immense opportunity for SambaNova to have a material and lasting impact on the global technology industry is unmatched,” Love said. “Together, we are forging a new category of technology. I am thrilled to join the organization at a time when AI is catapulting organizations forward to achieve unmatched business outcomes leveraging the ease of SambaNova’s full solution that yields results in days, not years.”

Gary Messiana

AI-powered testing platform vendor, Functionize, has hired Gary Messiana as its chief executive officer. Messiana joined Functionize from Mesh7, where he held the role of chief executive officer. Mesh7 was acquired by VMware. 

“Functionize improves the quality, lowers the cost and speeds up the process of delivering applications to fuel digital transformation, revenue, and customer satisfaction growth,” said Messiana. “Taking on this role provides me with the opportunity to join an innovative organization that is already transforming the amount of time and cost spent in testing. I’m looking forward to leading the team as they realize their ambitious dream of making worldwide software testing more accurate, faster and less expensive.”

Tal Mor and Robert Wille

Quantum computing software vendor Classiq Technologies appointed Tal Mor and Robert Wille to its newly created technical advisory board. Mor, a professor of computer science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, is a member of the executive committee of the Technion’s Helen Diller Quantum Center. 

Wille is a professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria and he is the head of the Institute for Integrated Circuits. He is also the chief scientific officer at the Software Competence Center Hagenberg GmbH in Austria.

Arun Oberoi

Deeplite, a provider of artificial intelligence software designed to make other AI models faster, more compact and energy-efficient, appointed former executive vice president of global sales at Red Hat,  Arun Oberoi, to its board of directors. At Red Hat, Oberoi has played a critical leadership role in the company’s market-leading journey through its acquisition by IBM and continued strong growth.

“Deeplite is providing a groundbreaking solution that will transform the AI industry and make deep learning models more accessible for companies who want to fully leverage the technology across their operations,” Oberoi said. “There is a tremendous opportunity to move the AI industry forward through software solutions that extend deep neural networks to edge devices with limited hardware resources, without impacting their accuracy.”

Jay Parikh

Lacework, a cloud security vendor, appointed Jay Parikh as its co-chief executive officer to lead the company’s mission alongside current co-CEO David Hatfield. Parikh will also join the company’s board of directors. He joined Lacework as an advisor in May following his tenure at Facebook as vice president and head of engineering and infrastructure. 

“Joining Lacework as an advisor gave me a closer look into the potential of the company, and as I learned more, I knew immediately it was something I wanted to be a part of longer-term. Lacework’s approach is profoundly different from anything else in the market, and David Hatfield and I are excited to lead together to scale Lacework into the industry’s preferred security platform for the cloud,” said Parikh. “Together, we will broaden our leadership reach, execute with precision, deliver faster and accelerate the growth of Lacework — all with a relentless focus on serving our customers.”

Sam Pugmire, Tim Marsh, and Ajay Khanna  

Explorium, the external data platform provider,  announced three new executives to its leadership team. Sam Pugmire joined the company as its chief revenue officer. In his most recent role, Pugmire served as director of worldwide sales at VMware. Before VMware, he was the senior vice president of global sales for SaltStack, an IT automation and security company.

Tim Marsh joined Explorium as its vice president of alliances and channels to drive Explorium’s partnerships with global system integrators, consulting firms, resellers and technology providers. Tim comes to the company from Mulesoft, where he held several senior strategic partnership and alliance roles across the commercial and government sectors. 

Ajay Khanna joined Explorium as its chief marketing officer. Khanna will be responsible for product marketing, demand generation, sales enablement, branding and communications. Most recently, Khanna held the role of vice president of marketing for Reltio, a master data management SaaS platform provider.

Jeff Schwartz

Gloat, the provider of the AI-powered talent marketplace platform, appointed Jeff Schwartz as its vice president of insights and impact. Schwartz will work with Gloat’s leadership, customers and internal teams to shape Gloat’s product strategy.

“During the pandemic and the economic and social crises of the past 16 months, we all saw firsthand the amazing potential, resilience and adaptability of workers everywhere. We need to build on this to advance new mindsets, mental model, and strategies to navigate twenty-first-century work and careers — and one of the single most important and high-impact investments companies can make now to address this need is in talent marketplaces,” said Schwartz. “I am thrilled to join Gloat as the pioneer and global leader in this space, and truly excited to see what we can accomplish together.” 

Wade Shen 

SambaNova Systems, which offers advanced software, hardware and services to run artificial intelligence applications, welcomed Wade Shen to its advisory board. Shen brings more than 20 years of experience in the AI industry, including his current role as the co-founder and chief program officer of Actuate, a nonprofit dedicated to R&D to solve today’s societal challenges. He has also led a portfolio of AI and machine learning programs at the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 

“Today, we stand at a critical junction with innovations in AI and ML technology that will impact our world like never before,” said Shen. “I am thrilled to join an AI company on the leading edge of such profound transformation. With unparalleled hardware and software — and the ability to jump-start enterprise-wide initiatives overnight — SambaNova is truly pushing AI into the future.”

Jim Whitehurst

IBM President Jim Whitehurst has stepped down from his role as president and will transition to the role of senior advisor to the executive leadership team. Whitehurst was appointed president of IBM in April 2020. Before his role as president, he spent over 12 years at Red Hat as its president and chief executive officer. 

Whitehurst played a key role in the IBM and Red Hat integration. Before Red Hat, Whitehurst held the role of chief operating officer at Delta Airlines.

David Wyshner

Kyndryl, the new, independent public company that will be created following the separation of IBM's Managed Infrastructure Services business, appointed David Wyshner as its chief financial officer. Wyshner joined Kyndryl from XPO Logistics, where he led the global finance organization for the Fortune 200 global transportation and contract logistics company.

"I'm excited to be joining a new global company that will change the technology services industry," Wyshner said.  "I am eager to put my experience in executing spin-offs to use to help Kyndryl and its 90,000-person workforce be at the heart of progress for our customers."

Dario Zamarian 

Pavilion Data Systems, a data storage solutions provider, appointed Dario Zamarian as its chief executive officer. Zamarian has held multiple leadership positions, including as global vice president and worldwide general manager of enterprise systems and solutions at Dell. Before joining Pavilion, he was CEO of Space Systems/Loral, a company of Maxar.

“Pavilion’s current technology is unmatched, and its next-generation of products will create even more innovation that delivers unrivaled customer outcomes,” said Zamarian. “As artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-driven requirements accelerate, Pavilion is best suited to meet the needs of organizations adapting to data-centric decision making. I’m excited to be joining a world-class team and accelerating the company forward.”

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.