Here are some of the latest executive hirings, promotions, and staff changes that happened in May. If you’d like SDxCentral to report on your company’s movers and shakers, or if you’ve got a tip about layoffs and restructuring, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya ([email protected]) for inclusion in the monthly headcount column.

Nutanix Furloughs 25% of Workforce Citing COVID-19

About 26% of Nutanix’s global workforce will have to take two, one-week long unpaid furloughs as the tech company attempts to weather the COVID-19 economy. This includes almost 1,500 San Francisco Bay area employees, according to a notice filed with the California Employment Development Department.

The bulk of these employees (1,434) work at Nutanix’s headquarters in San Jose. Another 11 are in San Francisco, 12 in San Mateo, and eight in Redding. Although the official notice lists these as “temporary layoffs,” a Nutanix spokesperson said they are furloughs and called them “proactive steps to minimize the long-term impact on our team members and our customers.”

Nutanix employs more than 5,700 people globally, according to its website. The rolling furloughs began the first week of May and will continue over the next six months.

SAP Cloud CFO Set to Jump Ship

SAP will lose the CFO from its cloud business, which the German-based firm has repeatedly described as an important cog in its recently revamped organizational structure.

Todd McElhatton, who currently serves as SVP and CFO of SAP’s Cloud Business Group, will join cloud-based subscription management platform provider Zuora on June 22. McElhatton’s departure comes two months after SAP extended the contract of its current CFO Luka Mucic for five years, which now runs through March 2026.

The executive change continues what has been a hectic year for SAP. The company in April eliminated a dual-leadership structure with long-time executive and short-time co-CEO Jennifer Morgan leaving the company. That allowed Christian Klein to remove the “co” from his title and assume lone leadership of SAP.

IBM Reportedly Cuts Thousands of Jobs

IBM will reportedly slash jobs as it braces against operational challenges tied to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The cuts were first reported in mid-May by Bloomberg. That report indicated that the cuts impact jobs across different IBM divisions with a specific mention of its Global Technology Services division. That division, which includes IBM’s Infrastructure and Cloud Services and its Technology Support Services businesses, posted a 4% year-over-year drop in revenues for IBM’s most recent first quarter.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reported that “several thousand” jobs were cut.

Headcount Movers and Shakers

Customer engagement software company Freshworks hired Tyler Sloat as its new CFO.

Qumulo named Craig Bumpus to a newly created role as the company's chief revenue officer.

Zoom hired VMware veteran Velchamy Sankarlingam as president of engineering and product.

Honolulu-based DRFortress expanded its leadership team with the appointment of Eric Yeaman to the DRFortress board of directors.

Involta promoted James Buie from CFO to president.

Teradata's board of directors selected Steve McMillan to serve as the company's new president and CEO. Prior to joining Teradata, McMillan served as EVP of global services at F5 Networks.

Jared Haleck was named Mavenlink's new SVP of product.

Aiven added two new names to its executive leadership team with the additions of Emma Paajanen as VP of marketing and Jani Asikanius VP of sales.

CommScope appointed Jeff White as its new CCO.

Cloud-based monetization and billing service provider BillingPlatform hired Kurt Andersen to serve as the company's CMO.

Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) enterprise strategist Candace Worle  joined Ping Identity as global chief product officer.

Autonomous IT operations platform provider BigPanda named Scott Stradley and Jason Walker as its first field CTOs.

PROS announced the appointment of Les Rechan as COO.

Senet CTO Dave Kjendal was appointed to the board of directors of the LoRa Alliance.

Siklu welcomed Ilana Lurie as COO and CFO and Itzik Marcovich to serve as VP of operations.

WhiteHat Security expanded its leadership team with addition of Tanya Gay to VP of operations and business strategy, and the promotion of Judy Sunblade to VP of revenue growth and enablement.

Kurt Sievers took over the helm at NXP Semiconductors where he will serve as the company's CEO, executive director, and remain NXP's president – a position he has held since 2018. Former NXP chief Richard Clemmer will continue serving as a strategic adviser to the company.

FatPipe Networks announced Praveen Shinde as the company's VP of India sales.

Former Capgemini Group COO and executive Thierry Delaporte was named Wipro's new CEO and managing director, effective July 6.

Nokia welcomed Raghav Sahgal to its leadership team where he will replace former president Kathrin Buvac who left to pursue a new opportunity.

After five years as CEO of Colt, Carl Grivner relinquished his title to Keri Gilder who previously served as COO for the company.