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

AI Career Notes: April 2023 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. Here's the place to read about the movers and shakers, your colleagues, your friends, and maybe yourself.


Wayne Allen 

atNorth appointed Wayne Allen as its sales director of the United States region. Wayne brings over 30 years of experience to atNorth. He was part of the founding team at Digital Realty Trust when it became the first data center company to go public on the NY stock exchange.

"I couldn't be more excited to join atNorth as the Sales Director for the US," said Allen. "Being a part of this global team that's dedicated to delivering sustainable data centers for high-performance computing needs is a great honor. With my extensive background in the data center industry, I am confident in my ability to showcase the numerous advantages of utilizing atNorth's facilities in the Nordics to the many companies in the US seeking more sustainable options."

Saty Bahadur

Appen Limited, providers of high-quality training data for artificial intelligence systems, appointed Saty Bahadur as its chief technology officer. Bahadur brings more than 25 years of experience developing groundbreaking technology, products, and platforms to Appen. 

“Artificial intelligence is rapidly transitioning from addressing niche challenges to solving mainstream industry sector and ecosystem problems. Appen stands at the vanguard of AI enablement, offering comprehensive solutions across diverse industries and clients, while crafting the next generation of human experiences powered by ethical AI," said Bahadur. "During my in-depth due diligence of Appen, I engaged with top business leaders and technologists who validated our shared ambition to harness Appen’s AI platform. I am genuinely thrilled to join Appen on its mission to become the intelligent backbone that fuels the development of generative AI solutions, ultimately benefiting the industry with Appen’s AI For Good strategy of Do Good, Be Good, and Lead Good to enrich the human experience."

Kit Beall 

Cohesity, a data security and management company, appointed Kit Beall as its chief revenue officer. Beall brings more than 30 years of experience to Cohesity, with deep expertise in software, cloud, security, artificial intelligence and managed services. 

“I’m thrilled to join Cohesity at this important juncture of the company’s evolution. I have long regarded Cohesity as having the best technology in the space, and deeply respect their CEO, founder, board, and management team,” said Beall. “Cohesity sits at the junction of three of the highest priority business issues today – security, cloud, and data management, and it provides a radically simple yet highly differentiated approach to securing, protecting, and deriving value from data. I look forward to helping customers and partners succeed, and working with this incredibly talented team.”

David Blyth, Nathan Kalyanasundharam, Suresh Ramalingam, Ben Sander, and Ralph Wittig

AMD appointed five technical leaders –  David Blyth, Nathan Kalyanasundharam, Suresh Ramalingam, Ben Sander, and Ralph Wittig  –  to the role of AMD Corporate Fellow. These appointments recognize each leader’s significant impact on semiconductor innovation across various areas, from graphics architecture to advanced packaging. Click here to learn more about each AMD Corporate Fellow.

Peter Brennan

Scality, a leader in distributed file and object storage, appointed former HPE executive, Peter Brennan, as its chief revenue officer. Prior to HPE, Brennan led a worldwide specialist sales organization for VMware, focused on hyper-converged and hybrid-cloud solutions. He has also held channel and sales leadership positions at LeftHand Networks, Opsware, CommVault, and EMC.

“Scality’s technology has the enterprise-scale capabilities that stand above a crowded object storage market space,” said Brennan. “I’ve seen what goes on behind the scenes, and loyal customers trust Scality for guidance. In addition, our affordable mid-market ARTESCA solution has increased revenue opportunities for partners — bringing enterprise-class features within the reach of more customers. It’s a perfect mix for expansion, and I look forward to extending our partner-first approach to achieve Scality’s growth objectives.”

Ali Fenn and Scott McFarland 

Lancium, an energy technology and infrastructure company, appointed Ali Fenn as its president. Most recently, Fenn served as president of ITRenew, which provided datacenter solutions and services to the global hyperscale, broader cloud service provider, and enterprise markets.

In addition, Scott McFarland joined Lancium as its chief revenue officer. McFarland joined Lancium from Dell Technologies. He will be responsible for the company’s sales function with a focus on growing revenue across new end markets.

Jason Forget

Cockroach Labs, maker of the enterprise-grade distributed SQL database, CockroachDB, appointed Jason Forget as its president and chief revenue officer. Forget most recently worked at Redis, where he was the first sales hire and led the growth there to over 9,000 paying customers.

"Over the last eight years, Cockroach Labs has created a tremendous team and product, putting them at the helm of changing how organizations manage transactional data," said Forget. "It's been inspiring to see how the company has fundamentally disrupted an industry that had remained unchanged for decades, and I look forward to going after the massive opportunity in front of us as a part of this team."

Christian Guttmann

Pegasystems Inc. appointed Dr. Christian Guttmann as its vice president of engineering, decisions and AI. Guttmann will oversee the architecture and delivery of AI technology that powers the Pega Infinity product suite.  Guttmann joined  Pega from Tietoevry, a global software and services company where he founded its AI and data business and served as vice president, global head of AI & data. 

As a scientist, Dr. Guttmann serves as a senior research fellow (adjunct) of AI and digital health at Karolinska Institutet, one of the world's top medical schools. He also serves as the executive director at the Nordic AI Institute, a top European independent institute on AI thought leadership. 

Natalia Harris

Mezmo, an observability data platform provider, appointed Natalia Harris as its vice president of people and inclusion. Harris will responsible for overseeing the company’s people development strategies and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

“Creating a positive and diverse workplace culture, building strong teams, and fostering employee development are paramount to success,” Harris said. “Although these have always been important at Mezmo, I plan to work with the executive team to elevate, improve, and expand existing programs to ensure we remain a leader on the way to a brighter world of work.”

Sudhir Hasbe

Neo4j, the graph database and analytics leader, appointed Sudhir Hasbe as its chief product officer. Hasbe will oversee the company's software portfolio across its native graph database and data science offerings. He previously led product management for Google Cloud's Data Analytics Platform. 

"As the world becomes more connected, so does our data, making the relationships between both data and metadata matter more than ever," said Hasbe. "Graph enables organizations to find hidden relationships and patterns across billions of data connections. It's why I've come to Neo4j, and why graph will one day be foundational for every modern enterprise."

Gus Hunt 

Domino Data Lab, provider of the Enterprise MLOps platform, appointed former Central Intelligence Agency Chief Technology Officer Gus Hunt as a strategic advisor to Domino's senior leadership team. Hunt will advise on Domino's hybrid cloud data science strategy for federal agencies.

"We need powerful data science and analytics to continuously identify the next acute threat facing our country," said Hunt. "If I can help the national security community do that job in part by making the right introductions and brokering conversations between the government's technologists and Domino, I'm confident that I'm helping our federal agencies stay current on vital technologies."

Jack Huynh

AMD appointed Jack Huynh as its senior vice president and general manager of computing and graphics. Huynh has been at AMD for more than 24 years and was most recently responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s semi-custom business. 

Huynh has served in a variety of leadership roles at AMD, most recently as the senior vice president and general manager for the AMD semi-custom business group, leading strategy, business management, and engineering execution for high performance custom solutions. Prior to that, Huynh served as corporate vice president and general manager where he led end to end business execution of mobility solutions for the AMD Client PC business group.

Raja Koduri

Raja Koduri is departing Intel after five-and-a-half years to focus on a new software startup. He was recently serving as the company’s Chief Architect and had been previously leading the graphics division (AXG, which in December was integrated into the DCAI group). Prior to joining Intel, Koduri had key roles at Apple and AMD, where he led the Radeon Technologies Group.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger wished Koduri well, tweeting, “Thank you @RajaXg for your many contributions to Intel tech & architecture-especially w/high-performance graphics that helped bring 3 new product lines to market in ‘22. Wishing you success as you create a new software co. around generative AI for gaming, media & entertainment.”

Koduri responded, “Thank you Pat and @intel for many cherished memories and incredible learning over the past 5 years. Will be embarking on a new chapter in my life, doing a software startup as noted below. Will have more to share in coming weeks.”

Mike Kropp, Ben Rathsack, and Peter Cleveland

SEMI elected three new members to the SEMI North America Advisory Board: Mike Kropp, president and chief executive officer of PEER Group; Ben Rathsack, vice president of product and technology development at Tokyo Electron America, Inc.; and Peter Cleveland, senior vice president at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited.

“The SEMI North America Advisory Board warmly welcomes Mike, Ben and Peter,” said Joe Stockunas, president of SEMI Americas. “Each has extensive industry experience that supports the Board’s interests in diversifying member representation. Mike Kropp of factory automation software supplier PEER Group, a mid-sized Canada-based company, actively contributes to more than 30 SEMI programs. Based in Austin, Texas, home to TEL’s U.S. headquarters, Ben Rathsack has extensive product development experience and passionately supports SEMI’s efforts to attract students to our industry. Peter Cleveland of TSMC has significant experience in advocacy, a key component of SEMI’s efforts to support members.”

Mark Luo

Quantum Brilliance, a developer of room-temperature miniaturized quantum computing products and solutions, appointed Mark Luo as its chief executive officer. Luo is a co-founder of Quantum Brilliance and previously held the executive role of chief operating officer.

“I am proud of Quantum Brilliance’s significant growth and achievements over the past four years and am honored to see our approach to quantum computing validated through investments, top-tier partnerships and technological developments,” said Luo. “I hope to continue fostering the company’s unique take on quantum computing and expand our reach into untapped markets.”

Narayan Menon

Matillion, the leader in data productivity, appointed Narayan Menon as its chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Menon brings over 25 years of experience in finance and operations, having held key positions in various companies, including Microsoft, Skype, Cisco, Intuit, Prezi, and Vimeo.

“As someone who uses data and analytics in almost everything I do at work, I am keenly aware of the importance of data – as well as how the lack of business-ready data can hamper an organization,” said Menon. “Matillion is uniquely positioned to help organizations get data business-ready, faster — accelerating time-to-value and increasing the impact data can have on growth and success. I am excited to be part of a fantastic team and to help expand upon Matillion’s success.”

Bob Metcalfe

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) named Bob Metcalfe as the recipient of the 2022 ACM A.M. Turing Award. Metcalfe was recognized for the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet.

Metcalfe is an Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and a Research Affiliate in Computational Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Aaron Moore 

QuSecure, Inc. appointed former Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and National Security Agency executive Aaron Moore as its executive vice president and head of engineering. Moore will be responsible for leading QuSecure’s engineering and software development activities.

“It’s an honor to join QuSecure at such an exciting and critical time for the company and post-quantum cybersecurity,” said Moore. “The advent of quantum computing has brought our nation to an existential inflection point. If we fail to address the threat or harness the potential of this technology now, we risk nothing less than losing our way of life as we know it. I look forward to helping QuSecure exceed their aggressive goals during this critical time to ensure our nation’s quantum-resiliency readiness.”

Ernie Ostic and Bernard Desarnauts 

MANTA, the leader in data lineage and metadata management, promoted Ernie Ostic to chief evangelist. Ostic joined MANTA nearly four years ago, bringing with him over 40 years of industry experience in data integration, including 14 years at IBM. 

In addition, MANTA appointed Bernard Desarnauts as its senior vice president of product. Desarnauts brings a strong track record of product leadership, including previous roles as SVP of product at PandaDoc and Rinse. 

Stuart Pann

Intel Corp. appointed Stuart Pann as senior vice president and general manager of Intel Foundry Services (IFS), Intel’s commercial foundry business. Pann will responsible for driving the continued growth of IFS and its differentiated systems foundry offering.

“Intel Foundry Services is a critical pillar of our IDM 2.0 strategy, and it’s been exciting to watch it grow from an idea to an operating business with a world-class IP portfolio and significant customers in less than two years,” Pann said. “I am committed to championing the interests of our foundry customers and to helping them take advantage of Intel’s leading-edge process technology and full stack of open systems foundry offerings so they can succeed in a world that demands ever more computing.”

Jérôme Serve

CGG, a global technology and HPC leader, appointed Jérôme Serve as its group chief financial officer. Serve joined CGG from the Interiors division of Forvia/Faurecia, where he held the role of CFO.

Serve started his career in Research in the Petroleum Engineering department of Stanford University before joining TotalEnergies as a Reservoir Engineer in Abu Dhabi and the UK. He moved into Finance as part of the Oil & Gas Corporate Finance team of ABN Amro, and then joined the M&A and Financing team of Shell.

Gayle Sheppard

Bright Machines, a technology company bringing an innovative approach to intelligent, software-defined manufacturing automation, appointed Gayle Sheppard as its chief executive officer. Sheppard will transition from her current role at the company as co-CEO to CEO. Before joining Brightmachines, Sheppard held leadership positions at Microsoft and Intel. 

“After serving as co-CEO with Lior for the past three months, I’m proud to step into the CEO role to lead the company on its journey to fundamentally reshape how and where products are made across the global economy,” said Sheppard. “Witnessing how the company has navigated the complexities of today’s market while cementing its place as a leader with some of the biggest global brands has been inspiring. I am laser-focused on ensuring our customers, technology, and company are well-equipped to meet the needs of modern industry. I look forward to working with, learning from, and growing the company with the outstanding team at Bright Machines.”

Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen 

SUSE, a provider of innovative, open and secure infrastructure software solutions for multi-cloud environments, appointed Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen as its chief executive officer. van Leeuwen has spent almost two decades at Red Hat. Most recently, he served as Red Hat’s senior vice president and general manager of North America, and before that of APAC.

“I have admired the organization for many years and am now looking forward to working with the executive team and the entire organization to execute on the various opportunities the market offers and serve our customers and partners,” van Leeuwen said. “I know that SUSE’s people are some of the best in the industry and I am excited to see what we can achieve together.”

Asaf Yigal 

Logz.io appointed its co-founder Asaf Yigal to the role of chief technology officer. Yigal has served as vice president of product at Logz.io since the company’s founding in 2015. Prior to that, he co-founded and served as vice president of product at Currensee.

“First, I’m eager to develop partnerships with providers who are adjacent to us in the market ecosystem to build out innovative, holistic solutions that offer value to our mutual customers,” he said. “Secondly, this CTO position is unique in that it bridges the gap between product development and marketing, giving me the rare opportunity to tell the story but also stay well connected to our engineering team. And thirdly, we’re a company that is committed to open source, which is a passion of mine, and I look forward to driving more active participation in the open source community.”


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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