Software Industry Leadership Update: Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce & Others

Adobe CAO Retires    

Richard Rowley retired from his position as the Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of Adobe Systems following ten years of service. Mark Garrett, EVP and CFO of Adobe, will serve as the interim principal accounting officer while Adobe completes its search for Rowley’s replacement.

WSJ Senior Special Writer Joins Salesforce as EVP, Global Strategic Affairs

Salesforce announced that Senior Special Writer for The Wall Street Journal Monica Langley will join the company as EVP, Global Strategic Affairs. She will work with the company executive team to develop strategies that will continue to accelerate the company's unmatched growth in the industry. Prior to the company, Langley spent 27 years at The Wall Street Journal, where she wrote many page-one profiles, particularly of newsmakers such as CEOs and presidential candidates.

VMware Announces Middle East and North Africa Region Appointments   

VMware has announced several new appointments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, appointing Mohammed Darras as the new country manager for the UAE, Ahmed El Saadi to country manager, for North Africa, Levant, and Egypt, and promoting Ossama Eldeeb to senior manager, MENA Partner Organisation. This announcement comes at a time when customer demand for public cloud infrastructure, applications, and services, is expected to double in the region with market research firm Gartner, predicting a rise from $743 million in 2015 to $1.73 billion in 2020.

Mohammed Darras brings more than 19 years’ sales experience in the region, most recently serving as regional sales manager for Cisco UAE.

Ahmed El Saadi has more than 12 years’ experience to his role at VMware, most recently serving as regional sales manager in Cyber Security for North Africa for Palo Alto Networks.

With over 22 years’ business and IT experience, Ossama Eldeeb has been promoted internally from senior partner business manager, VMware MENA.

Paychex Expands Board, Appoints Successful Entrepreneur as New Member         

HCM Solutions firm Paychex appointed Thomas F. Bonadio, CPA, to fill a newly created board position. Bonadio is CEO and managing partner of the Bonadio Group, the largest certified public accountant firm in New York State outside of Manhattan. He founded Bonadio & Co. in 1978.

Citrix Systems’ Couple of Executives Leave

Each of Klaus Oestermann, SVP and General Manager, Delivery Networks, and Jesse Lipson, Corporate VP and General Manager of Cloud Services, of Citrix Systems announced and informed Citrix that he will be leaving the company.

First Data Launches First Data Integrated Solutions Group; Appoints SAP Exec to Head ISG       

First Data is launching First Data Integrated Solutions Group, or ISG, a new business segment focused on expanded software developer tools for integration with First Data's platforms. First Data has hired EJ Jackson to head up ISG. He comes to First Data from SAP, where he served as SVP and GM of SAP Anywhere. Prior to his role at SAP, Jackson was the president and founder of Provade, a leading VMS SaaS provider in the market.

Red Hat Promotes Finance and Accounting VP to Acting CFO Role           

Red Hat appointed Eric R. Shander to serve as the company's acting CFO and principal financial officer, pending a decision on a permanent replacement. Shander replaces Frank Calderoni, whose resignation was previously disclosed by the Company. Shander joined the company in November 2015 and currently serves as the Company's VP, Finance and Accounting and principal accounting officer. Prior to joining the company, Shander spent over twenty years in a variety of business and finance roles at IBM.

Seagate Technology Appoints Micron Technology’s Worldwide Sales VP to Board  

Seagate Technology named Mark W. Adams to the company’s Board of Directors. From 2006 to February 2012, Adams served in a number of positions at Micron Technology, including as VP of Worldwide Sales and VP of Digital Media. Prior to joining Micron Technology, he served as COO of Lexar Media in 2006 and as VP of Sales and Marketing of Creative Labs from 2002 to 2006.  He has served as a director of Cadence Design Systems since 2015.

ServiceNow Announces Executive Changes 

ServiceNow announced that Daniel R. McGee stepped down from his role as COO. The company appointed Chirantan CJ" Desai, 46, as the company's Chief Product Officer, to take effect upon his commencement of employment, which occurred in December 2016. Most recently, Desai served as the President of the Emerging Technologies Division at EMC.

Arista Networks Announces Resignation of Worldwide Sales Operations Leader    

Mark Smith, the SVP, Worldwide Sales Operations of Software Driven Cloud Networking company Arista Networks, informed the Company that he will voluntarily resign from his position. The sales function for the Company will continue to report to Anshul Sadana, the Company's Chief Customer Officer.

Micro Focus International Announces Reverse Takeover of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s Software Unit and Leadership Changes

Micro Focus International, provider of software and consultancy services for clients updating legacy systems to more modern platforms, appointed a new CEO for the enlarged business it will become after the reverse takeover of the software unit of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. When announcing the deal, Micro Focus said Executive Chairman Kevin Loosemore and CFO Mike Phillips would continue in those roles after the deal. Chris Hsu, who is currently the COO of HP Enterprise and the EVP of HP Enterprise Software, will become the CEO of the enlarged business.

Stephen Murdoch will remain CEO of Micro Focus until completion of the deal, and Loosemore will remain executive chairman until at least 2018.

Fortinet Appoints Former NSA Cyber Task Force Executive as CISO     

Fortinet named Phil Quade as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Prior to Fortinet, Quade was the NSA Director’s Special Assistant for Cyber and Chief of the NSA Cyber Task Force with responsibility for the White House relationship in Cyber. Previously, he served as the COO of the Information Assurance Directorate at the NSA.

SAIC Sees CHRO Changes    

SAIC announced the departure of its CHRO, Kimberly Admire. Karen Wheeler will become SAIC’s new CHRO. Wheeler will succeed Kimberly Admire, who has been the company’s CHRO since 2014. Wheeler has been a SVP and SAIC’s chief procurement officer since 2013.

Proofpoint Announces Resignation of Imperva CEO from Board     

Imperva’s Chair, CEO & President Anthony Bettencourt informed the company of his resignation from the Board of Directors of Proofpoint, leader in advanced cybersecurity solutionsHis resignation was not due to any disagreement with the company or its management.

Tableau Software Appoints Hilarie Koplow-McAdams to its Board  

Tableau Software, the business intelligence and analyticsfirm, appointed Hilarie Koplow-McAdams to its Board of Directors. Koplow-McAdams is President at New Relic. Her leadership has helped New Relic perform as a high-growth company, extend its product portfolio, and bolster its enterprise sales force.

Ellie Mae Promotes SVP, Finance as CFO    

SVP of Finance Matthew LaVay has been appointed as CFO. Prior to his current role, he was VP and Corporate Controller at Ellie Mae. Prior to Ellie Mae, he served as VP and Corporate Controller for Taleo and Corporate Controller and Senior Director of Finance for Scientific Learning Corporation.

Pegasystems Appoints Financial Services Business Line Leader from Citi    

Pegasystems appointed Michael Haney as business line leader for financial services. Haney joins Pegasystems from Citi, where he was most recently a director of customer segment management for U.S. retail banking and wealth management. Prior to that, he was Citi's director of technology product management for global retail banking.

LogMeIn and GetGo Announce New Board of Directors for Combined Company 

LogMeIn named the nine directors who will serve on the Board of Directors for the combined company effective upon the close of its proposed merger with Citrix Systems’s GetGo subsidiary, a wholly owned subsidiary consisting of Citrix’s GoTo family of service offerings.

The Board will be comprised of four directors designated by Citrix and five members of LogMeIn’s current Board of Directors. As previously announced, the four Citrix designees are Bob Calderoni, Jesse Cohn, and Peter Sacripanti, all of whom also serve as current Citrix directors, as well as Citrix’s COO and CFO, David Henshall.

Joining them from LogMeIn’s current Board will be LogMeIn’s president and CEO, Bill Wagner, LogMeIn’s Chairman of the Board, Michael Simon, as well as Steven Benson, Michael Christenson and Edwin Gillis.

Software AG Appoints SAP SVP as New Chief R&D Officer

Software AG has appointed Stefan Sigg as new chief R&D officer. Prior to joining Software AG, Dr. Sigg held a leading R&D management position at SAP SE. Most recently, Dr. Sigg was SVP and head of the SAP Analytics product portfolio.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Announces Executive Appointments          

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions announced two additions to its executive team. Lisa Khorey joined Allscripts in the newly created role of Chief Client Delivery Officer, and Alan Fowles was named President of Allscripts International.

Khorey and her team will focus on all aspects of delivering Allscripts product and solution suites to clients. These efforts underscore Allscripts renewed focus on delivering top-notch, highly coordinated service to clients. Khorey joins Allscripts from Ernst & Young, where she was the Executive Director of E&Y’s National Provider Practice, specializing in analytics.

Fowles will lead the Allscripts team as the company continues its growth internationally; working with clients to effectively deploy technology to improve the health of the populations they manage.

HubSpot Appoints President of Atlassian Jay Simons to its Board of Directors        

Inbound marketing & sales software firm HubSpot announced that Jay Simons, president of Atlassian, joined the HubSpot Board of Directors. Jay joined Atlassian in 2008 as VP of sales and marketing to lead the company's pioneering efforts to develop a high-velocity, low-touch sales model. Jay has more than 18 years of experience in the software industry. He began his career at Plumtree Software and held a variety of senior marketing and sales roles.

Jerry Rulli to Step Down as COO of Progress Software; to Cut Jobs

Progress Software announced that Jerry Rulli, COO, will be leaving the company at the end of the fiscal first quarter of 2017. Rulli served as the President of Openedge Business Unit at Progress Software from 2014 to mid 2015 and served as its SVP of Business Line Executive. Rulli served as an EVP of worldwide sales at Iron Mountain before Progress. In addition, Progress intends to reduce headcount by approximately 450 employees, totaling over 20% of the Company's workforce.

BroadSoft Appoints Dino Di Palma as Chief Revenue Officer          Dino Di Palma

Communication software and service provider BroadSoft appointed Dino Di Palma as Chief Revenue Officer. In this newly created position, Dino will lead the BroadSoft global sales organization and continue to drive revenue growth, with the new, expanded BroadSoft Business portfolio and the ‘Powered by BroadSoft’ branding and partner initiatives. Prior to joining BroadSoft, Mr. Di Palma was the CEO of Benu Networks.

Callidus Software Announces Board Changes

Global enterprise software and SaaS company Callidus Software appointed Nina Richardson, a renowned business executive, to its board of directors. Richardson has over 30 years of experience ranging from start-up environments to multi-billion dollar corporations. Most recently, she served as the COO at GoPro. The company announced the retirement of Michele Vion Choka from its board. Michele has served on CallidusCloud’s board of directors since 2005 including holding the role of chairperson of the Compensation Committee.

SecureWorks Announces Couple of Executive Appointments           

Intelligence-driven security solutions provider SecureWorks added Jason Capitel and Alexandra Gobbi to its executive leadership team. Capitel joins SecureWorks as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer. He most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer for Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content Management Division.

Gobbi joins SecureWorks as Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining SecureWorks, Gobbi was SVP of Corporate Marketing and Communications for EarthLink. She has also previously served as VP of Marketing and Communications at PRGX Global and Director of Global Market Intelligence for Enterprise Services at Hewlett-Packard. Gobbi is a member of the advisory board of the National Technology Security Coalition.

Monotype Imaging Announces Management Changes         

Text and imaging solutions company Monotype Imaging appointed Anthony Callini as the company's new CFO and EVP. Prior to joining Monotype, Callini served as the SVP of Finance at Avid Technologies. From 2004 to 2013, Callini held a number of financial leadership positions at Open Solutions, most recently as the SVP-Finance and Treasurer.

Blucora Appoints Amazon Executive as President of TaxAct           

Blucora, a leading provider of technology-enabled financial solutions, appointed Sanjay Baskaran has been named President of TaxAct, to grow its position as a leading provider of affordable digital and downloadable tax software for individuals, business owners and tax professionals. He succeeds JoAnn Kintzel who resigned in October 2016. Baskaran recently served as General Manager, North America Credit Cards at Amazon.

Hortonworks Appoints COO from TIBCO   

Open and connected data platforms company Hortonworks appointed Raj Verma president and COO. Verma is an experienced enterprise sales veteran, most recently being the COO of TIBCO Software. He also held various other executive roles during his 12-year tenure at TIBCO, including EVP of worldwide sales and chief marketing officer.

Date Range: December 12, 2016 - January 29, 2017