AI Career Notes: July 2023 Edition

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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.

Chris Boehmler

Quantum Computing Inc. a nanophotonic-based quantum technology company, appointed Chris Boehmler as its chief financial officer. Boehmler brings to the company over 20 years of financial experience, including investment banking, planning & analysis, accounting operations, financial and SEC reporting, systems integrations and financial risks & controls.

“Importantly, I officially welcome Chris Boehmler to the QCi officer ranks,” said Robert Liscouski, CEO of Quantum Computing Inc. “Over the past year, Chris has not only surpassed our high expectations for meticulous financial acumen, but he has also proven to be a tireless study of our technology, our products, and future applications.  Chris’ impressive background and proven track record in financial leadership, combined with his deep understanding of our company and its technology, will be instrumental in guiding QCi’s financial growth and driving shareholder value within the rapidly emerging quantum computing landscape.”

Andres Botero

Rubrik, the zero trust data security company, appointed Andres Botero as its chief marketing officer. Botero will be responsible for driving Rubrik’s go-to-market strategies and growth initiatives. He most recently served as the chief strategy and marketing officer at BlackLine.

“Data security threats—especially ransomware—are some of the toughest challenges for which executive teams and cybersecurity leaders must prepare. Rubrik is leading the charge in cybersecurity by creating new categories of solutions and building partnerships that secure data and provide customers the confidence of cyber resilience,” said Botero. “I am grateful for the opportunity to join this successful leadership team and to work with the company to accelerate our market strategies and growth.”

Ido Bukspan

Pliops, a provider of data processors for cloud and enterprise data centers, appointed Ido Bukspan as its chief executive officer and board member. Bukspan most recently served as senior vice president of Chip Design at NVIDIA.

“I’m excited to join Pliops and continue to integrate the advanced technology it developed – together with its founders, Uri, Moshe and Aryeh, and the company’s leaders and employees,” Bukspan said. “Pliops is experiencing an excellent momentum for continued growth and expansion.”

Fab Dolan

Appen Limited, a solution provider of data services for deep learning and generative artificial intelligence systems, appointed Fab Dolan as its chief marketing officer. Dolan joins Appen with over 15 years of experience building brands such as Android, Google, YouTube, and Cheerios.

“We’re at a moment of incredible transformation that will impact every aspect of society, and I can think of no more exciting place to be than Appen, a company that has been consistently powering this technological revolution for decades – a company ready for the moment,” Dolan said.

Thomas Fedorko and Doug Norton

Inspire Semiconductor Holdings Inc., a chip design company, promoted Doug Norton, formerly vice president of business development, to chief marketing officer. He is also president of the Society of HPC Professionals and a member of the RISC-V SIG-HPC and marketing committee.

In addition, InspireSemi promoted Thomas Fedorko, formerly vice president of operations, to chief operating officer. Fedorko will oversee InspireSemi’s day-to-day operational functions including maintaining key supply chain relationships, managing production scale-up, and new product introductions.

Rob Floyd, Rob Griebel, Neal Keene, Lisa O’Reilly, and Nicky Roberts

Gryphon.ai, a solutions provider of compliance and AI-powered conversation intelligence, appointed Rob Floyd as its vice president of sales. Floyd will be responsible for leading the company’s solution architect, inside sales, and client executive teams.

Rob Griebel joined Gryphon.ai as its vice president of partnerships. As VP of partners and alliances, Griebel will be responsible for the development and execution of the partner and alliance strategy at Gryphon.ai.

Gryphon.ai appointed Neal Keene as its senior vice president of strategy.  As SVP of strategy, Keene will support the development and execution of business strategy by aligning department goals, processes, and resource allocation.

Lisa O’Reilly joined Gryphon.ai as its vice president of customer success. As VP of customer success, O’Reilly will focus on improving satisfaction among Gryphon.ai’s customer base and partner network.

Nicky Roberts joined Gryphon.ai as its vice president of revenue operations. As VP of revenue operations, Roberts will deliver visibility across the entire revenue stream and improve efficiency across the revenue process to achieve revenue growth.

George Gehringer 

Submer, an immersion cooling solutions provider, appointed George Gehringer as its vice president of sales. Gehringer brings to the company an extensive background in telecommunications sales, leadership, network systems, and engineering.

“Hyperscalers are dominating data center growth with a market share of over 65%; it is no coincidence that their cooling requirements and the TCO associated with running them is a constant focus of their investments,” said Gehringer. “As a key player in the immersion cooling solution industry since 2015, Submer is uniquely poised to efficiently support their intense cooling and expansive space demands.”

Kacy Hassack

Veeam Software appointed Kacy Hassack as its chief people and culture officer. Hassack career in human resources spans over two decades. Prior to joining Veeam, Hassack held leadership roles at organizations, including Indeed, Amazon Web Services, Hewlett Packard, and Dell.

“Great businesses start with great people,” said Hassack. “Veeam has become #1 in data protection and ransomware recovery by delivering incredible customer-focused innovation. People are at the center of the company’s success, and the Veeam culture reflects that. I am so excited to join Veeam and collaborate with teams across the company to develop strategies that emphasize the value of our employees and new approaches to enable our people to do their best work.”

Mardís Heimisdóttir,  Tracey Pewtner, and Elísabet Árnadóttir

atNorth, the Nordic colocation, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence service provider, appointed Mardís Heimisdóttir as the company’s director of strategy implementation. Mardís will contribute to atNorth’s significant growth plans by developing and managing strategic initiatives to drive business performance.

In addition, atNorth appointed Tracey Pewtner as its marketing director. With over 13 years of experience in the data center industry, Pewtner joins atNorth to increase market awareness and bolster its significant growth plans through a strong sustainability profile and intelligent creative content.

Lastly, atNorth appointed Elísabet Árnadóttir as the company’s director of security and compliance. Árnadóttir previously worked as a security officer for Rapyd and Advania and also as a consultant for atNorth. Árnadóttir brings 10 years of experience to the company in the information and cyber security sectors.

Amber Huffman and Zaid Kahn

The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), a non-profit organization bringing hyperscale innovations to all, appointed Amber Huffman to its board of directors. Huffman is a Principal Engineer at Google responsible for leading industry engagement in the data center ecosystem.

In addition, OCP appointed Zaid Kahn to its board of directors. Zaid is a general manager at Microsoft and is responsible for cloud and AI advanced systems engineering. Zaid has been heavily involved in OCP since joining as a Board member in 2021.

Werner Knoblich

SUSE, a provider of enterprise-grade open source solutions, appointed Werner Knoblich as its chief revenue officer. Most recently, Knoblich was global CRO at SaaS provider Mambu, and prior to that, he led the Europe, Middle East and Africa business at Red Hat for 18 years.

“I’m deeply passionate about open source and believe it’s the best way to operate,” Knoblich said. “In a meritocracy, the best idea wins. SUSE has been a leading open source champion for years and I am looking forward to helping our customers, partners and community.”

Rom Kosla and Bethany Mayer

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) appointed Rom Kosla as its chief information officer. Kosla comes to HPE from Retail Business Services, having served as the company’s executive vice president, IT, and chief information officer. Prior to Retail Business Services, Kosla was the senior vice president and CIO of Corporate and Enterprise Solutions at PepsiCo.

In addition, HPE appointed Bethany Mayer, former president and CEO of Ixia, to HPE’s board of directors. She will also serve as a member of the board’s technology committee. Before Hewlett-Packard Company’s 2015 separation into Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. and prior to joining Ixia in 2014, Mayer led the expansion of Hewlett-Packard Company’s networking business as senior vice president and general manager.

Jay McGrath

Granica, a provider of an AI efficiency platform, appointed Jay McGrath as its senior vice president of revenue. McGrath will be responsible for leading the company’s global go-to-market efforts across the sales, solutions engineering, and customer success functions and will build the company’s revenue operations processes and toolset.

“Data fuels organizational decision-making. With the recent trends in AI, enterprises will come to rely on these tools to make the most out of their data — but we’re at an inflection point. AI models can only be useful if the data they rely on is accurate and secure,” said McGrath. “I joined Granica because its platform is designed to allow more data to be cost-effectively captured, stored and used to power enterprise AI implementations, thereby improving AI model performance and business outcomes. The team is hyper-dedicated to the mission, with a strong culture focused on teamwork and inclusion. I’m excited to work with this amazing group to help our customers break down the barriers to AI innovation, dramatically lower their costs and increase data security.”

Doug Merritt 

Aviatrix, a solutions provider of secure cloud networking technology, appointed Doug Merritt as its chief executive officer and president. Merritt also joined the company’s board of directors as chairman.

“In my due diligence, it became evident that Aviatrix is leading the creation of a massive new category and that Fortune 500 companies already view Aviatrix as their trusted partner for secure cloud networking,” said Merritt. “I’m grateful to Steve for instituting a ‘customer for life’ mentality, backed by an incredible team, committed to driving innovation while putting customers first. I look forward to leading the next phase of what is emerging as an iconic enterprise infrastructure company.”

Amr Nour-Eldin 

LXT, a solutions provider of AI training data, appointed Amr Nour-Eldin as its vice president of technology. Nour-Eldin brings an extensive background in speech and audio processing as well as machine learning in the context of automatic speech recognition. Most recently, Nour-Eldin was a principal researcher in the global R&D division at Nuance (now part of Microsoft).

“With the emergence of AI as a truly transformational technology, the LXT mission to power technologies of the future through innovative data generation in every language, culture, and modality is more important than ever,” said Nour-Eldin. “I am very excited to join such a talented team and look forward to shaping the landscape and future of AI data together.”

David Reilly and Myrna Soto 

Vectra AI, a solutions provider of security AI-driven cyber threat detection and response services for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises, appointed David Reilly, former CIO and CTO of Bank of America to its board of directors. Reilly currently serves on the boards of Ally Financial, Data Dynamics, and NPower, a nonprofit organization.

Vectra AI also appointed Myrna Soto, founder and CEO of Apogee Executive Advisors, to its board of directors. Soto joined Vectra in 2022 as a key advisor to the leadership team and board of directors, where she has played an instrumental role in driving company strategy and supporting global accelerated growth plans.

Sendur Sellakumar

Dremio, the easy and open data lakehouse, appointed Sendur Sellakumar as its chief executive officer. Sellakumar joins Dremio with over two decades of leadership experience in enterprise software and data analytics. Prior to joining Dremio, Sellakumar served in a variety of software technology roles at Splunk and ServiceTitan.

“I am honored and excited to join Dremio as its CEO,” said Sellakumar. “Dremio’s innovative approach to enterprise analytics and its commitment to empowering organizations with fast, flexible, and reliable access to their data is truly impressive. I am looking forward to working closely with the talented Dremio team to further accelerate the company’s growth and deliver exceptional value to our customers. We are committed to helping enterprise customers realize the value of their data in driving business outcomes.”

Rachel Thornton

Fivetran appointed Rachel Thornton as the company’s chief marketing officer. Thornton brings more than 25 years of B2B tech experience, having served in marketing and leadership roles at Amazon/AWS, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft.

“I am proud to join a company that provides enterprises such tremendous ROI and is focused on a critical business need: automating the flow of data,” said Thornton. “I’m looking forward to working with the talented Fivetran team as we focus on accelerating customer growth worldwide and solidifying Fivetran as the standard for data movement.”

Frans van Houten

Absci, a generative AI drug creation company, appointed Frans van Houten to its board of directors. In addition to his role at Absci, van Houten serves on the board of directors of Novartis and acts as an advisor to private equity companies.

“Absci stands at the forefront of AI-enabled drug creation, a field that is accelerating right before our eyes,” said van Houten. “What motivates me most about Absci’s mission is the prospect of accelerating the development of breakthrough therapies, together with pharma and biotech companies, that can make a meaningful impact on patients’ lives. I’m convinced that by fusing AI and bioscience, we can dramatically enhance the speed and efficiency of drug discovery, even leading to breakthroughs. I am deeply committed to this cause and eager to work with this talented team to push the boundaries of what is possible in drug creation.”

Dan Zugelder

Dynatrace appointed Dan Zugelder as its chief revenue officer. Zugelder joined Dynatrace from VMware, where he held the role of senior vice president and general manager of the Americas region. Prior to VMware, he worked for 18 years at Dell EMC, where he held several key sales management positions, most recently serving as SVP of global accounts.

“I’m honored to be joining Dynatrace,” said Zugelder. “With the rapid evolution of the cloud and resultant explosion in data, end-to-end observability and application security have become mandatory. Dynatrace’s ability to provide precise, data-driven analytics and automation has proven to be key differentiator in the market. Building upon the strong go-to-market foundation that Steve and his team have in place, I am excited to play a key role in the next phase of growth for Dynatrace.”

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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