Career Notes for May 2024

(metamorworks/Shutterstock)

In this monthly article, we will keep you up to date with the latest career developments of people in the Big Data community. Whether it’s a promotion, a new hire or even an award, we have the details. Check the current list every month and you might even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!

Matt Garman

Matt Garman

AWS announced that Matt Garman will be the company’s new CEO effective June 3, replacing Adam Selipsky, who announced his resignation earlier this month. Garman joined AWS as a college intern in 2005 while he was still in college and was most recently senior vice president of AWS sales, marketing and global services at Amazon.

“When I joined AWS as a full-time employee, our global sales team consisted of three people. We did everything. I was a product manager and wrote product detail pages, developed pricing plans, held product naming meetings – whatever was needed,” Garman wrote in an Amazon blog post. “We all saw there was something to it, but we didn’t really know how big AWS would be. We were just really excited to go out and build new things and see what we could do.”

Julien Le Dem

Julien Le Dem

Datadog, a developer of application performance management (APM) and DevSecOps tools, has a new chief engineer: Julien Le Dem, an open data architect who co-founded Apache Parquet and Apache Arrow and who was a lead technician on Twitter’s data analytics pipeline.

“I am happy to announce that I have started a new position!” Le Dem wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The cat is out of the bag, but one question remains… Who let the dogs out? Thread! Thread! I am currently a Principal Engineer at Datadog. Who could resist the puppy eyes of this data platform?”

Anthony Lee-Masis

Anthony Lee-Masis

ThinkSpot, a provider of BI and analytics tools, has announced the appointment of Anthony Lee-Masis as its new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Lee-Masis joins ThinkSpot from her position as CISO and Data Protection Officer at Xactly Corp.

“It’s an honor to join a market leader like ThinkSpot, which is consistently at the forefront of data analytics and artificial intelligence,” said Anthony Lee-Masis, chief information security officer at ThinkSpot. “As more companies begin migrating to GenAI-powered analytics tools, they need confidence that their most valuable assets will remain safe, secure and private. ThinkSpot has been guided by this ethos since its inception, and I am excited to contribute to this proactive culture of security awareness and enable our customers to safely apply our innovative solutions.

Marcello Gallo, Sean Hughes and Chad Peets

Cloud analytics provider Sigma has made several executive appointments in its latest $200 million Series D round, including Marcello Gallo as chief revenue officer, Sean Hughes as vice president of sales for the Americas, and Chad Peets as new member of the management board and directors.

Hughes comes to Sigma with 20 years of experience in the technology industry, including at Braze, QlikTech and Tableau. Gallo most recently served as Executive-in-Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures and previously served as CRO at Moveworks and Vice President of Sales at MongoDB.

“We are thrilled to welcome Marcello Gallo as CRO and Sean Hughes as Vice President of Americas Sales,” said Mike Palmer, Sigma CEO. “I am confident that these world-class sales executives will help us continue to drive the triple-digit growth we have enjoyed over the last several years.”

Meanwhile, Peets is currently managing partner of Riverpoint Capital. Previously, he served for five years as managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures, one of the venture capital firms that participated in the recent Series D round.

“Chad brings relevant experience in building world-class go-to-market organizations and is uniquely qualified to help Sigma maintain its position as the fastest-growing, intuitive business intelligence solutions provider,” said Palmer. “His enthusiasm and drive for success are met with an unstoppable energy that Sigma continues to focus on maintaining.”

Brooke Cunningham

Brooke Cunningham

Observability platform provider LogicMonitor recently announced the hiring of Brooke Cunningham as its new chief marketing officer. Cunningham joins LogicMonitor after holding senior marketing roles at SAP, Qlik and Splunk.

“From the first time I met LogicMonitor, I knew it was a special place,” Cunningham said. “With cutting-edge technology and an enviable clientele, I saw an opportunity to work with this brilliant team and make an impact. I am focused on strengthening this incredible brand, driving its growth trajectory and expanding our global reach.”

Craig Martell

Data management services provider Cohesity has announced that it has appointed Craig Martell as its new chief technology officer. Martell brings extensive industry and public sector experience to Coheity, as well as expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Craig Martell

Immediately prior to joining Cohesity, Martell was the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) at the U.S. Department of Defense, where he was the senior official responsible for accelerating the deployment of data, analytics, digital solutions, and artificial intelligence capabilities to generate a “decision advantage” in entire department. Prior to working at the Department of Defense, Martell held senior positions at Lyft, Dropbox and LinkedIn and was a tenured professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he specialized in NLP.

“The speed and scale Cohesity has achieved over the last few years is a testament to the incredible technology platform the company has built at the intersection of multi-cloud, security and artificial intelligence for the future of data protection,” said Martell, who holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. “My role will be to accelerate innovation internally and support Cohesity’s unparalleled AI-powered innovation externally.”

Ramina Sayar

Ramin Sayer

Data observability provider Acceldata announced the appointment of Ramin Sayar, former CEO of Sumo Logic, to the company’s board of directors, where he joins fellow executives Dev Khare, partner at Lightspeed; Ken Elefant, partner at Sorenson Ventures; George Mathew, partner at Insight Partners; and Rajan Mehra, partner at March Capital.

“Acceldata has established itself as a leader in enterprise data observability, driving innovation and excellence in data management,” said Sayar. “As data volumes grow exponentially and the era of artificial intelligence places new and immediate demands on data teams, proactively maintaining peak data health is critical to organizational success. I am honored to be part of the team that is tackling today’s most challenging data operations problems. I look forward to contributing to the next phase of our growth.”

Mike Sevanov

Mike Sefanov

Vector database maker Pinecone announced that it has hired Mike Sefanov as its first director of communications. Sevanov joins Pinecone from IBM, where he previously led press relations at Power, IBM i and System Z.

Prior to IBM, Mike managed communications for Verizon and Yahoo, covering areas such as Yahoo Mail and Search. His career began on CNN and MTV when MTV focused on music videos.

Sevanov “will play a key role in leading global communications, analyst relations and corporate events at Pinecone,” the company said.

Jitesh Ghai

Hyland Software, a provider of enterprise content management systems, announced the appointment of Jitesh Ghai as its new president and CEO, replacing Bill Priemer, who was CEO for 11 years. Ghai comes to Hyland through Informatica, where he led a 2,000-person team as chief product officer and executive vice president.

“I am extremely excited and honored by this unique opportunity to lead the next chapter for Hyland employees, customers and partners around the world,” said Ghai. “I congratulate Bill on his success at Hyland, and my goal is to build on the foundation he established, grow our culture of innovation and continue to strengthen our position as an industry leader in intelligent content solutions. We’re just getting started, and our Hyland team members and stakeholders can be excited about what our future holds.

Ross Dempsy

Ross Dempsey, Monika Öberg and Victoria Welvaert

Stratvito, the Swedish user analytics platform provider, has announced the appointments of three executives, including Ross Dempsey, new director of analytics engagement, Monika Öberg, new vice president of human resources, and Victoria Welvaert, new chief customer officer.

Monika Oberg

Dempsey most recently worked in data science at Burberry, where he worked with Stravito, while Öberg joined the company after working at ClimateView and SilverRail Technologies. Welvaert joins Stravito after 14 years of global commercial experience in the market research industry and over 10 years at Mintel.

Victoria Welvaert

“Stravito is in a period of rapid growth, and Ross, Monica and Victoria join us at an exciting stage in our trajectory,” said Stravito founder and CEO Thor Olof Philologène. “I am excited to leverage their outstanding industry experience and am confident that their expertise will help more of the world’s largest organizations discover and integrate critical business information to make informed decisions.”

Josh Kanagy

Geospatial data platform provider Foursquare announced that Josh Kanagy has joined the company as its new senior vice president of global sales. Prior to joining Foursquare, Kanagy spent over a decade in various senior-level sales and revenue roles at well-known technology companies, including Salesforce and Sprinklr.

Josh Kanagy

“I am excited to join Foursquare’s mission to deliver maximum value to customers while continuing to shape the state of location technology,” said Kanagy. “Businesses have a huge opportunity to accelerate decision-making with geospatial data, and I look forward to seeing these results materialize at scale.”

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