Big Data Career Notes: January 2024 Edition

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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!

Justin Hotard

Justin Hotard was hired by Intel this month to become the new executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center and AI Group. Hotard, who starts February 1, hails from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, where he was the executive vice president and general manager of HPE’s High-Performance Computing, AI, and Labs group. Hotard succeeds He succeeds Sandra Rivera, who left on January 1 to become the CEO the Programmable Solutions Group, an Intel spin-off.

“Justin is a proven leader with a customer-first mindset and has an impressive track record in driving growth and innovation in the data center and AI,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said. “Justin is committed to our vision to create world-changing technologies and passionate about the critical role Intel will play in empowering our customers for decades to come.”

Kevin Rubin

Kevin Rubin last week was named the interim CEO at Alteryx, which is currently in the process of being acquired by Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners for $4.4 billion. Rubin, who was the data analytics firm’s chief financial officer, succeeds Mark Anderson, who resigned as CEO to pursue other endeavors.

“I am pleased to serve as interim CEO as we continue to build on our strong foundation and capitalize on the momentum in the business,” said Rubin, who will continue in his CFO role in addition to assuming CEO duties. “Alteryx has a deep bench of talent across the entire organization fueling our innovation and success, and I look forward to continuing to deliver for our customers, employees and stockholders.”

Anne Baker

Endpoint management provider Adaptiva announced this month the appointment of Anne Baker to the chief marketing officer position. Baker moved up to the CMO’s seat from her previous role as vice president of product management and marketing.

“The time was right for me to return to Adaptiva as the company leads its hundreds of enterprise customers into the new era of autonomous endpoint management,” Baker said. “With security threats emerging daily and zero-day attacks increasingly taking advantage of unfixed vulnerabilities, IT and security leaders need endpoint management platforms that can continuously adapt to changing conditions.”

Udi Mokady

SQream, which develops a GPU-accelerated data analytics platform, last week appointed Udi Mokady to its board of directors. The addition of Mokady, who is the co-founder and executive chairman of CyberArk, comes amid the company’s “strategic expansion of the SQream team,” the company said.

“I am excited to join the SQream board and work alongside the company’s talented team at SQream,” Mokady said. “Its innovative data analytics technology has already proved to be a disruptive industry force, and I see immense potential for further growth. I look forward to utilizing my experience and industry knowledge to help shape SQream’s future success.”

David Scott

Storage executive David Scott was recently added to Cloudian’s board of directors. Scott, who was the CEO and president of 3PAR when it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard, where he eventually became the senior vice president and general manager of the HP Storage business, is eager to bring his experience to the object storage provider.

“As the enterprise IT landscape shifts towards hybrid-cloud operating models, the power of Cloudian’s native S3 API and scale-out design becomes increasingly evident,” Scott said. “I am eager to contribute to the journey and work alongside the talented team in advancing the success of their hybrid-cloud storage platform.”

Octavian Tanase

Hitachi Vantara this month named Octavian Tanase to be its new chief product officer. Most recently the SVP of hybrid cloud engineering at NetApp, Tanase brings a 25-year engineering record to the CPO role at Hitachi Vantara.

“Hitachi Vantara is at the forefront of delivering innovative and customer-focused data storage and hybrid cloud solutions that can directly improve data-driven decision making and positively influence the bottom line,” Tanase said. “My goal is to help the company expand its leadership position by harnessing the power of generative AI and other emerging technologies to drive even greater innovation in its portfolio. I look forward to working with Sheila [Rohra, Hitachi Vantara’s CEO] and the Hitachi Vantara leadership team to help our customers meet their business objectives.”

DiffusionData, a Silicon Valley provider of real-time data streaming solutions, has appointed Frank McCarthy to the position of Business Solutions Executive, Financial Services, EMEA. Prior to joining DiffusionData, Frank worked at Vizolution, IdenTrust, RBS, Entuity and Oracle.

“Organisations have increasing volumes of low-latency data that need to be tailored to their customers’ needs,” McCarthy said. “Diffusion can help speed up those projects. I am looking forward to introducing Diffusion to new customers over the coming months and help them deliver their business objectives.”

Ashan Willy

New Relic last month appointed Ashan Willy as its new CEO. Willy, who previously held leadership positions at Webex, Juniper, Polycom, and Cisco, brings 25  years of experience to the chief executive suite at the observability company.

“I have long admired New Relic as a true pioneer in the observability market, and am honored to have the opportunity to lead the company as it embarks on the next phase of its journey,” Willy said. “The opportunity ahead of us is significant, and I believe New Relic is uniquely positioned to address customers’ evolving needs and expectations.”

Tom Rabaut

Redis has appointed Tom Rabaut to be its new Chief Customer Officer. Rabuat joins the NoSQL database maker from Zscaler, where he was the senior vice president of customer engagement for the security firm. He also spent eight years at AppDynamics until it was acquired by Cisco for $3.8 billion.

“Redis presents a unique and exciting opportunity because it not only has a far-reaching customer and developer community, but it’s also widely loved by users because of a commitment to simple, smart technology principles,” Rabaut said. “Rowan [Trollope, Redis CEO], the company’s go-to-market leaders, and the entire company have established a foundation for us to create and align behind innovative programs and services that will delight and expand the Redis customer and developer community.”

To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.