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 Ali Longwell ([email protected]).

Dish Co-Founder Steps Down from CEO Role

Charlie Ergen, the co-founder and CEO of Dish Networks stepped down from his role as CEO to devote more time to the company’s wireless business. This is not the first time Ergen has moved out of a role at the company. In 2011 he left the CEO position to Joe Clayton, returning in 2015 when he stepped down as president. In the most recent shift, he will remain Dish’s chairman.

The company’s current President and Chief Operating Officer Erik Carlson will take over the CEO position and continue to report to Ergen. In addition to this change, Dish announced that the organization will assume a group structure, and it reorganized a number of other roles.

Aryaka Names New CRO

Mike Hoffman was named chief revenue officer and senior vice president of global sales for software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) vendor Aryaka. Most recently, Hoffman was Big Switch Networks' chief revenue officer. Before that, he was VP of worldwide sales at Gigamon.

At Aryaka, Hoffman will further scale the provider’s global sales and channel organizations to expand its market footprint in the coming year. The SD-WAN company reported in 2016 that it was planning a $1 billion IPO in 2018. The announcement about Hoffman’s new role noted that he has experience in executing IPOs.

Nutanix Appoints Ex-IBM Exec as SVP

Nutanix appointed Sherry Lautenbach as its senior vice president of American sales. In this role, Lautenbach will lead Nutanix’s sales execution and strategy in its largest region.

Lautenbach spent 23 years at IBM most recently as the VP of industry solutions and strategic business development in North America. In this role she focused on blockchain, cognitive computing, and digital transformation.

Nutanix this month also named a new chief marketing officer and a new chief legal officer. Ben Gibson, Nutanix’s new CMO, comes from F5 Networks, and Tyler Wall, who served as general counsel at Red Book Connect, will become the chief legal officer.

Movers and Shakers

According to a LinkedIn update, Christine Heckart, formerly Brocade's chief marketing officer, joined Cisco as SVP.

Network security provider Clavister recruited Przemek Sienkiewicz from IBM and Google to serve as its chief strategy officer.

Vexata, a data management and storage startup, appointed two new VPs. Rick Walsworth was named the VP of product and solutions marketing and Farzad Haghighi joined as VP of worldwide support and professional services.

Juniper recruited its new VP of the Contrail business unit, Morgan Dollard, from Google. Dollard replaces Contrail Systems founder Ankur Singla.

Masahiro (Mark) Ikeno was named president and CEO of NEC Corporation of America. Ikeno was the VP of the global business unit and general manager of NEC’s Americas and EMEA divisions.

Hyperconverged networking company, Plexxi hired Denis Vilfort as its VP of marketing.

John Swainson, previously president of the Dell Software Group, joined private equity firm Siris Capital Group as an executive partner. Siris invests in data, telecom, technology, and technology-enabled business service companies.

Sprint’s COO, Gunther Ottendorfer, tweeted that he was leaving the company at the end of the year. His role will be taken over by CTO John Saw.

Additionally, as Fierce Wireless confirmed, Sprint’s wholesale and MVNO President Jim Hyde will be leaving the service provider.

Michael Mak was appointed as F5 Networks’ general manager of Hong Kong and Macau, to expand business in the region.

Internet of Things (IoT) company Globetouch named Alfredo de Cárdenas as its COO.

Bricata, a network security vendor, added a CFO and VP of engineering to its executive team. Phil Salopek assumed the role of CFO, and Orville Pike became the VP of engineering.

The enterprise application provider Kony appointed Kathy Crusco as EVP and CFO.

Colt promoted Louisa Gregory, formerly its head of HR operations in Asia, to its chief of staff.

Long-time Intel executive, Diane Bryant joined Google Cloud as the firm’s COO. Bryant had been on leave from Intel since last May.

Talari, an SD-WAN vendor, hired Patrick Sweeney as its CEO. The former CEO Mark Masur will remain as the vendor’s chairman.

Joerg Erlemeier was named COO of Nokia, replacing the current COO Monika Maurer after only eight months in the role.