Here are some of the latest executive hirings, promotions, and staff changes. 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 Wyatt Carlson ([email protected]).

AT&T Mobility President and CEO and long-time wireless industry veteran Glenn Lurie is retiring in September. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said that the company announced Lurie’s retirement to employees on Aug. 1, which was the first day the company’s new management structure went into effect.

Lurie, a long-time AT&T veteran, was instrumental in securing exclusive rights for AT&T to carry the first iPhone a decade ago. He also was a driving force behind AT&T’s emerging devices business, which was the precursor to the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) efforts. He was a visionary who oversaw the launch of AT&T’s Digital Life home automation product and was a key player in the company’s connected car leadership, negotiating deals with all the top carmakers to get AT&T LTE modules embedded in vehicles.

AT&T embarked on a major reorganization in July that was intended to separate its telecom business from its media business in preparation for AT&T’s closing of its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner.

The reorg named John Donovan CEO of AT&T Communications giving him oversight of the company’s phone business as well as DirecTV. John Stankey was named CEO of AT&T’s Media Group. He’s in charge of integrating AT&T and Time Warner and will work with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes on that transition. Global Marketing Officer Lori Lee will expand her job to include oversight of AT&T’s international operations.

Nokia appointed Gregory Lee as President of Nokia Technologies, the carrier’s licensing business that focuses on digital media, digital health, patent licensing, and consumer technology. Lee was also brought on as a member of the company’s Group Leadership team, effective immediately.

Lee joined Nokia after a 13-year career at Samsung Electronics where he most recently served as President and CEO of its North America business. In this role he managed a portfolio of products including mobile phones, consumer electronics, as well as new areas for the company like digital health, virtual reality, and digital content.

The news of his appointment comes nine months after former head of Nokia’s licensing business, Ramzi Haidamus, stepped down, Reuters reported. Interestingly, the exec stepped down after announcing the second of two successful patent licensing agreements with Samsung. Nokia also said that as part of its resolution of a multiyear patent dispute with Apple, it would become a supplier of IP networking gear to the company and would receive a cash payment from the company.

Apparently these deals paid off for the company. During Nokia’s second quarter 2017 earnings, Rajeev Suri, Nokia CEO, said Nokia Technologies’ sales were up 90 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a Seeking Alpha earnings transcript.

Lee has held several executive roles during his tenure at Samsung. He has also led product development, sales, and other executive positions for global consumer brands including Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg’s, and Procter & Gamble.

Equnix appointed former VeriSign exec Charles Meyers to the newly created position of president of strategy, services, and innovation effective Aug. 1. Meyers will be responsible for helping the company through its next phase of growth as it focuses on new technologies.

Equinix is forming a number of new business units focused on cloud services with the newly created Strategy, Services, and Innovation business team being the overarching unit.

Meyers joined Equinix in 2010 as president of the Americas region. In 2013, he was promoted to the role of COO, where he oversaw global sales, marketing, operations and client services. The company said he was a driving factor in helping the company expand its services globally. Meyers’ prior responsibilities will fall under common leadership reporting to Equinix CEO Steve Smith.

Equinix’s Cloud Exchange Platform is based on software-defined networking (SDN) and connects customers to most of the leading cloud service providers in the world. Additionally, both AT&T and Verizon use Equinix to connect their MPLS to public clouds.

IP Optical Networking provider Sedona Systems hired David Amzallag, former leader of network virtualization at Vodafone, as a special strategic advisor. Bringing 25 years of experience with carrier networks, Amzallag will help the company grow its NetFusion product line.

NetFusion is an SDN product that discovers and visualizes a carrier’s IP/MPLS and optical network layers. As SDN controllers are added to the network, NetFusion evolves into a network controller, abstracting the network to service orchestrators.

At Vodafone, Amzallag was group head of network virtualization, SDN, and network functions virtualization (NFV). He led the company’s Vodafone Ocean project, which was one of the biggest network transformations in the company’s history. Since, he has worked with a few carriers in helping them build out their next-gen network architectures.

Prior to Vodafone, Amzallag served as the VP for virtual telecommunications and NFV at Alcatel-Lucent. He helped with the company’s strategy for network virtualization and NFV management and orchestration (MANO). He has also served as chief technical officer at Amdocs and chief scientist at BT.

Microsoft’s Chief Information Officer Jim DuBois left the company after 24 years, Business Insider reported. The news followed a massive reorganization of the company's sales teams, resulting in thousands of potential layoffs.

VMware appointed former eBay executive Claire Dixon to SVP and COO where she’s responsible for public relations, analyst relations, stakeholder engagement, and though-leadership campaigns.

Quick Base added Dan Freund to its senior leadership team as senior vice president of sales.

Software-defined storage provider PropetStor Data Services is expanding into the EMEA region with new sales and marketing appointments. Specifically, the company hired Guillaume Imberti as EVP and general manager of EMEA. It also appointed Thomas Barret and Guy Berlo as VPs of North EMEA and Central EMEA.

Cedexis named Tony Esposito as its new vice president of worldwide sales.

Security company Cyber64 announced that Dan Massey joined the company as chief scientist.

Service provider Windstream brought on former GTT Communications exec, Layne Levine, as president of the company’s enterprise business unit.

TM Forum announced three senior appointments in innovation, collaboration, and marketing. Paul Wilson is now chief marketing officer; Andy Tiller joined as EVP of collaboration and innovation; and Naveen Suri was appointed to VP of global member engagement. 

Cloud content management provider Box Inc. announced that President and COO Dan Levin stepped down after seven years with the company. Levin will be succeeded by former Apple and Cisco executive Stephanie Carullo. However, Levin will remain on the Box board of directors.

VMware appointed Amy Fliegelman Olli to the position of vice president and general counsel.

Cisco bumped Ali Amer to managing director for global service provider sales in Middle East and Africa. He most recently served as managing director for Cisco’s service provider business in Middle East and Turkey.

 Nils Rix joined Netronome as SVP of sales. Before joining the company, he served as VP of sales and technical sales, as well as market area CTO with Alcatel-Lucent EMEA. 

Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) security executive, Tim Jefferson was brought on as Barracuda’s new VP of Cloud to help develop the company’s cloud business.

Spanish Telco operator Telefonica named Angel Vila Boix as its new COO. He was formerly chief strategy and finance officer with the company.

MegaPath’s Dan Foster is expanding his current role of president to include chief operating officer.

On-premises cloud computing company Cloudistics added three new members to its executive team. Steve Conner joined the company as VP of worldwide sales; David Friend is serving as CFO; and Joseph McNulty is VP of manufacturing, customer support, and IT.

Security vendor Bricata brought on former McAfee executive Druce MacFarlane as VP of product marketing and former Cybereason sales exec Randy Fallis as VO of sales and customer strategy.

HP Inc. announced that its board of directors elected Chip Bergh to the board, replacing Meg Whitman who stepped off. Whitman remains CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

Security company Privoro appointed Brian Marlier, SVP of global architectures and enterprise transformation at Cisco, to its board of directors.

MEF released the results of its 2017-2018 board of directors elections, adding four new members to the team. The company added Shawn Hakl, VP of product and new business innovation at Verizon; Kevin O’Toole, SVP of product management at Comcast Business; Gabriel Kerner, VP of network products and offerings at Amdocs; and Rami Yaron, strategy and business development at Telco Systems.

Citrix Systems’ President and CEO Krill Tatarinov left the company and was replaced by David Henshall, the company’s former CFO and COO. This is the second CEO the company has had in a little over a year.

Juniper Networks named Bikash Koley as its new chief technology officer, reporting to CEO Rami Rahim. Koley was formerly the head of network architecture, engineering, and planning at Google.