Big Data Career Notes: September 2020 Edition

In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the big data community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!

 Paul Appleby

The former chief executive officer of Kinetica, Paul Appleby, joins Elastic as its president of worldwide field operations. He brings over a 20-year career, having held senior management positions in the enterprise software industry. Appleby held the role of president of worldwide sales and marketing of BMC, and he’s held senior roles at Salesforce, Siebel Systems, C3 AI, Travelex, and SAP.

“Elastic brings customers the speed, scale, and simplicity they need to effectively explore and analyze their data using the power of search to drive business insights,” said Appleby. “I’m excited by Elastic’s solutions and how they help to explore and analyze data differently using the power of search and the boundless ability of organizations who use Elastic to solve their most critical and complex challenges.”

Hillary Ashton

Teradata promoted Hillary Ashton to the role of chief product officer to lead the newly created Products Organization, a division within the company that will focus on innovation, production management, and engineering and quality. Ashton joined Teradata as vice president of products from PTC’s augmented reality business unit, where she held the role of executive VP and general manager.

“My focus has always been – and will remain – accelerating Teradata’s efforts to bring products to market that delight our users and meet customers’ needs today and tomorrow,” said Hillary Ashton, Chief Product Officer at Teradata. “By first considering the needs of the market, our customers, and our prospects, we will advance our hybrid multi-cloud platform that provides differentiated value to our customers and growth for Teradata. I’m truly honored to step into this role and look forward to driving our innovation, expanding our market share and increasing our revenue.”

Tony Beller

Tony Beller joins TIBCO Software Inc. as the company’s senior vice president of worldwide partner ecosystems and original equipment manufacturing sales. Beller will be responsible for growing and developing new markets with the partner ecosystem, drive revenue, and ensure customer success.

“Partnerships are about collaborating and growing together. I’m eager to help educate our partners on TIBCO’s product lines, as I believe no one can better serve the enterprise than TIBCO,” said Beller. “I’ve been in this industry for two decades, and have always been impressed with TIBCO’s portfolio growth. I admire and respect TIBCO’s leadership and their knowledge that partners are critical to this evolution. My goal and philosophy is to help drive momentum through revenue growth, innovation, and customer success.”

Sabine Bendiek

Microsoft Germany Management Board Chairwoman Sabine Bendiek joined the SAP executive board as chief people officer and labor director. Bendiek will be responsible for leading the human resources division and people strategy, including delivering a safe work environment for SAP’s employees.

“SAP is recognized throughout the industry as a growth company and its people are crucial to its ongoing success. In any successful organization, business growth and the people strategy must work hand in hand.” Bendiek said. I thank the SAP Supervisory Board and Executive Board for putting their full trust in me to lead the people and operations functions that are the heart of SAP’s ongoing transformation.”

Sean Boyle

Splunk Inc. appointed Sean Boyle to its board of directors. Boyle has over 25 years of experience in finance, management and strategy, and the internet of things technology. He has served several leadership roles at Amazon, including as vice president of investor relations and chief financial officer.

“I admire the pace at which Splunk has been able to transition their business to the cloud and am honored to join their board,” said Boyle. “I look forward to the opportunity to help guide the company’s important work.”

Elissa Fink

Elissa Fink joined Qumulo’s board of directors. Fink has an extensive background in marketing, including working at Tableau Software for 11 years, where she held the role of chief marketing officer. Currently, she’s an adjunct professor at the University of Washington – Michael G. Foster School of Business. She also serves as a member on the board of directors at Concora and Pantheon Platform.

“Qumulo’s forward-thinking strategy and disruptive file data technology will help customers thrive in the digital era,” said Fink. “It’s an exciting time to join the company’s board. Amidst an environment of global market uncertainty, Qumulo is experiencing surging demand and accelerating momentum. The team is helping more and more customers gain value from their file data faster and at scale. I look forward to helping guide Qumulo’s visionary leadership team and talented professionals as they define a new category in enterprise data management with an unrivaled file data platform built for the cloud.”

Terri Hatcher

NTT DATA Services tapped Terri Hatcher for the role of chief diversity and inclusion officer. Hatcher will be responsible for advancing education, awareness, and leadership accountability, as well as to further develop a safe working environment where everyone receives the equal opportunity to succeed.

“The recent heightened awareness of racial inequity has created an openness for difficult conversations and provided a catalyst for change. It has established new allies and more momentum than ever to build a sustainable, diverse culture of inclusion,” said Ms. Hatcher. “Much of the recent focus has been on people of color, but we are committed to creating a culture where everyone feels welcome and can excel. I’m honored to be selected to build on and continue the effort for NTT DATA.”

Chris Hylen and Manish Sood

Chris Hylen joins Reltio as its chief executive officer and founder of Reltio, Manish Sood, is expanding his role and is now chief technology officer, founder, and chairman. Prior to Reltio, Hylen served at Imperva as its CEO, where he is accredited with helping the company’s revenue growth and led a $2.3 billion sale to Thoma Bravo. Sood will take on the newly created role of CTO, founder, and chairman, and under this role, he will manage the company’s product, technology, and security areas as CTO.

“Personally, I’m thrilled to have Chris Hylen join as CEO of Reltio and lead us on our next exciting chapter of growth and company building,” Sood said. “Chris has effectively and efficiently scaled multiple businesses to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and led multi-billion-dollar market cap companies. Chris’ addition to the team will put us on an extremely strong footing to build Reltio into a market leader in the industry. In particular, I am excited to partner with Chris to build something extraordinary. For those who know me, I live and breathe the product and the business value it delivers. I’m happiest when I’m working with our product, technology, and user experience teams and when I’m interacting with our customers and partners. These experiences energize me and get my creative juices flowing. I’m excited to focus my time and energy thinking about the big impact we can have on how companies operate, how they innovate, how they engage with customers, and how they drive better business outcomes.”

David Kingsley

Alteryx, Inc. appointed David Kingsley to the newly created role of chief human resources officer. Kingsley will be responsible for managing the company’s HR operations and leading its ‘Alteryx for Good,’ a social responsibility initiative, and ‘Alter.Us,’ a diversity and inclusion program.

“Alteryx is a known leader and innovator in the APA market, fueled by the stellar execution of its talented, global associate base,” said Kingsley. “Just as we provide our customers with one-of-a-kind experiences and game-changing technology and digital transformation for their businesses, it is critical that our associates are equally supported with the best tools and resources to succeed in every step of their career journeys. I am thrilled to join a purpose-driven company in a space that is increasingly important in today’s environment, and I look forward to engaging our associates in meaningful ways that enable career growth, productive teams and business efficiencies.”

Ted Kwartler

DataRobot’s vice president of Artificial Intelligence Trust, Ted Kwartler, was appointed to a new Federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building. Kwartler will be responsible for providing strategic guidance related to the ethical use of federal data. The Federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building’s goals is to fast-track the use of data to support the foundations of democracy, deliver on mission, serve the public, and steward resources while protecting security, privacy, and confidentiality.

“We believe AI is the future but that it needs to be built in a trustworthy and explainable way,” said Kwartler. “I’m humbled to bring my expertise and knowledge of Trusted AI to this new advisory committee and look forward to continuing to advocate for reliable, governable AI that can aid in decision making across the government.”

Hugh Raiford

CData Software announced the addition of Hugh Raiford as the company’s chief revenue officer. Raiford brings over a decade of sales experience and comes from Progress DataDirect, where he led the sales for the company’s Data Connectivity and Integration divisions.

“Combining unrivaled data source integration with exceptional engineering and performance, CData has built an impressive portfolio of data connectivity solutions and components with unparalleled depth and breadth in the market,” Raiford said. “CData’s talented team, seasoned leadership, and superior technology have paved the way for rapid growth. The opportunity to scale CData’s sales team and help make CData the go-to partner for data connectivity in every organization is one I simply could not pass up.”

Tom Shea

Panasas’s Chief Operating Officer Tom Shea succeeds Faye Pairman as president and chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. Shea has over 20 years of leadership experience in business and engineering roles, including serving as CEO of Gear6 and Mirra.

“I am honored to succeed Faye as CEO and to lead the Panasas team, building on our incredibly strong technology foundation,” said Shea. “We have re-invented ourselves over the past five years, and we are re-defining the price-performance equation in HPC storage with innovative technology that eliminates hidden costs. I look forward to working with our fantastic employees, customers and partners to advance our strategy, drive growth, and deliver value every day for our customers.”

Mark Templeton and Larry Lenhart

Reltio announced the addition of Larry Lenhart and Mark Templeton to the board of directors. Lenhart is an operating partner at NewView Capital and brings over 20 years of leadership experience in the technology industry. In addition, Lenhart has nine years of consulting experience, including his background serving as managing partner at Deloitte.

One of Templeton’s most notable achievement is growing Citrix, where he served as chief executive officer, from a $500 million company to a $3 billion empire.

David Turek

David Turek joins CATALOG as its chief technology officer. Turek comes from IBM and brings over 25 years of executive experience. At IBM, he held the vice president roles for IBM’s Technical Computing OpenPOWER and Exascale Computing divisions. Turek assisted with the launch of IBM’s Grid Computing unit. He also founded and led IBM’s Linux Cluster division.

“I am thrilled to join the team at Catalog,” Turek said. “While there is justifiable excitement about the innovations pioneered by Catalog to efficiently write data in DNA, we believe this is just the beginning as we vigorously push towards product commercialization. Our intention is to be the marketplace leader for the application of synthetic DNA for both storage and computation.”

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.