PowerMoves by Simon Bloch
October 2012
Before jumping into this month’s leadership changes among Silicon Valley technology firms, I would like to share with you some insights about mistakes executives make when working with executive recruiters. Often executives don’t realize how executive recruiters operate and lose site that they work for companies, not candidates; avoiding errors can increase chances of landing the next job through an executive recruiter.
Some of the common mistakes include: 1. Holding back information, 2. Providing a vague description of accomplishments, 3. Assuming that a headhunter will do all the work, 4. Being vague about compensation, or 5. Poor online reputation. To read the article that goes into more detail — click here to read it in full!
Thanks for reading and as always email me anytime to share your thoughts or insights.
Simon Bloch, Partner at TowerHunter executive search, (650) 937-9150 or [email protected].
Executive Appointments
Leaves and Compensation
Board Appointments and Leaves
About Simon Bloch
TowerHunter and Executives on Lookout
Executive Appoinments, Leaves and Compensation
Agilent Technologies named Lars Holmkvist as president of its Diagnostics and Genomics Group (DGG) and a SVP of Agilent. Mr. Holmkvist joined Agilent when Dako was acquired by Agilent. He has been president and CEO of Dako since 2009. Holmkvist will continue to report to Bill Sullivan, Agilent president and CEO.
Advanced Micro Devices announced that Thomas Seifert, SVP and CFO, informed the company of his decision to resign as senior vice president and chief financial officer to pursue other opportunities. The company appointed Devinder Kumar, age 57, SVP and Corporate Controller, to serve as interim CFO. Mr. Kumar joined the AMD in 1984.
Applied Micro Circuits announced that the services of Mark Wadlington as VP Worldwide Sales were terminated. Such termination was by mutual agreement and coincided with Mr. Wadlington’s agreement to continue as a sales consultant through November 2012. Mr. Wadlington will receive a severance payment of $50,000 and a base fee of $7,500 per month during the period of his consulting term.
Audience announced that it has appointed Craig Factor as vice president, general counsel and secretary. Prior to joining Audience, Mr. Factor served as vice president and general counsel at Nanosolar. Prior to his time at Nanosolar, he served as vice president of legal affairs and general counsel at Innovative Silicon, Inc., a semiconductor memory company. Mr. Factor also served as general counsel at RITA Medical Systems, Artisan Components and Immersion Corporation.
Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers may retire in two to three years and he and the company’s board have identified as many as 10 potential successors, according to a media report. In an interview Chambers said the list of candidates includes Robert Lloyd, executive vice president of worldwide operations, Chuck Robbins, senior vice president of the Americas, and Edzard Overbeek, senior vice president of global services.
Cypress Semiconductor announced that it has named Hassane El-Khoury EVP of its Programmable Systems Division. El-Khoury has run Cypress’s automotive business since 2007. Dinesh Ramanathan, the Programmable Systems Division’s current EVP, will leave Cypress this month to pursue an opportunity as the chief executive officer of a Silicon Valley startup.
Equinix announced that it has appointed Sara Baack as Chief Marketing Officer. Baack joins Equinix from Level 3 Communications, where she was Senior Vice President of Voice Services, in charge of a $1 billion business unit. During her 13-year tenure at the company, Baack held a variety of positions. She began her career at Level 3 as Director of Corporate Strategy.
Exar announced that Tim Lu joined the company as Asia VP of Sales. Mr. Lu will will report to Steve Bakos, Exar’s SVP of Sales and Marketing. Prior to joining Exar, Mr. Lu served as General Manager and VP of Asia Sales for Wolfson for twelve years, and most recently as Executive Director of Greater China for Conexant.
Extreme Networks hired Nancy Shemwell as EVP, Global Sales. Previously, Ms. Shemwell was president and chief executive officer of Multi-Link from 2009-2011. Prior to Multi-Link, Ms Shemwell was executive vice president, global sales & service at Symmetricom from 2004-2008. Ms. Shemwell will be entitled to a base salary of $325,000 and will be eligible to participate in the Sales Compensation Plan with an annual compensation target of $487,500.
Extreme Networks announced resignation of Diane Honda as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. In connection with her resignation, Ms. Honda entered into a consulting agreement, under which Ms. Honda agreed to assist the company as a consultant during a transition period of two months.
Extreme Networks entered into a modified compensation agreement with Oscar Rodriguez, the Company’s President and CEO. Mr. Rodriguez’s annual salary will be decreased from $550,000 to $524,000 and the annual bonus target will be increased from 100% to 110%.
Facebook lost Annie Ta, a corporate communications executive to Pinterest.
Fairchild Semiconductor appointed Vijay Ullal as president and COO. Mr. Ullal, 54, was previously group president, consumer solutions division, for Maxim Integrated Products. Mr. Ullal’s base salary is $450,000 per year, with an opportunity to earn an annual incentive bonus of between 0% and 180% of his base salary depending on the achievement of financial and other performance goals.
Fortinet announced resignation of Ken Goldman as Chief Financial Officer, to join Yahoo! as Chief Financial Officer. The company has appointed Nancy Bush, the current Vice President, Worldwide Corporate Controller, as interim Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately, and is initiating a search for a Chief Financial Officer, considering internal and external candidates.
GigOptix hired Victor Tu, as new Vice President of Sales for the Asia Pacific Region. Prior to joining GigOptix, he served as VP of Sales (APAC) at Gennum Corporation, which was acquired by Semtech Corporation in March of 2012.
HP appointed Robert Youngjohns as SVP and General Manager of Autonomy/Information Management Business Unit. Mr. Youngjohns will report directly to George Kadifa, executive vice president, HP Software. Mr. Youngjohns joins HP from Microsoft where he was president of the North American region. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was president and CEO of Callidus Software. Before that, he spent 10 years at Sun Microsystems, where he had a variety of leadership positions in sales and general management both regionally and globally.
Ikanos Communications named Robert Dunnigan as the company’s new VP of Operations. Dunnigan will report directly to CEO Omid Tahernia. Dunnigan held senior management and vice presidential positions at Cypress Semiconductor. Prior to joining Cypress, Dunnigan served as a vice president of design services for Sigmatel, and before that, spent 22 years in Motorola’s Memory and Baseband Semiconductor Divisions.
Infoblox announced the promotion of Chris Andrews to EVP of Worldwide Field Operations. He succeeds Mark Smith, who submitted his resignation. Andrews joined Infoblox in 2006 and most recently held the position of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Prior to his tenure at Infoblox, Andrews held senior positions at Fortinet, Inc., and NetScreen Technologies (acquired by Juniper Networks, Inc.).
Infoblox approved the FY 2013 Bonus Plan for certain executive officers, including Robert Thomas, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer ($327,250); Remo Canessa, Chief Financial Officer ($140,000); and Chris Andrews, EVP ($300,000).
Inphi Corporation announced the appointment of Charlie Roach as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Prior to Inphi, he served as Vice President of Sales for Integrated Device Technologies. Before IDT, Mr. Roach was in charge of Worldwide Strategic Accounts at Applied Micro Circuits, the Central and Southeast U.S. Sales Manager at MMC Networks and Managing Partner and Sales Engineer at Electro Source.
Intel Corporation announced that Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president and chairman of Intel China, plans to retire in January. Maloney, 56, is a veteran of the semiconductor industry. He joined Intel in 1982 and has held a number of senior management positions with the company during his career.
Lam Research entered into new employment agreements with Ernest Maddock, SVP, and Richard Gottscho, SVP. Mr. Maddock will receive a base salary of $485,000 and Mr. Gottscho will receive a base salary of $438,000, subject to annual adjustment at the discretion of the company. The company also entered into new Change in Control Agreements with Mr. Bultman, Dr. Hemker, and Ms. Kemble.
Maxim Integrated Products approved cash bonuses for performance in FY2012 and new base salaries to Tunc Doluca, President and CEO Chief of $1,569,433 and $560,000, Bruce Kiddoo, CFO, of $794,453 and $385,000, Chae Lee, SVP of $1,000,000 and $375,000, Matthew Murphy, SVP, of $903,495 and $375,000, Pirooz Parvarandeh, CTO, $763,298 and $427,500 respectively.
Natus Medical notified William Mince, Vice President North American Operations, that his position will be eliminated.
Nvidia confirmed Mike Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia’s mobile business unit, resigned to take a role at Micron to manage its expansion of memory chips for tablets and smartphones. Nvidia had not identified a replacement yet, but plans to appoint “an outstanding successor” to head its mobile business.
OCZ Technology Group announced it has appointed Alex Mei, EVP and CMO as Interim CEO. Mr. Mei’s appointment follows the Board’s acceptance of Ryan Petersen’s resignation as President, CEO and a director of the company. Mr. Mei will also maintain his current responsibilities as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer until a permanent CEO has been selected.
Responsys announced the appointment of Steve Krause as SVP of Product Management and Kyle Christensen as VP of Product Marketing. Krause was Co-Founder and CTO of Personify and Co-Founder and CEO of ExactChoice, that was acquired by CNET in 2004. Krause reports to Antonio Casacuberta, Chief Product Officer at Responsys. Christensen most recently was the Senior Director of Product Marketing and Management at Zuora. Prior to Zuora, Christensen ran product marketing for several Salesforce.com product lines. Christensen reports to Scott Olrich, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Responsys.
Riverbed announced Ian Whiting joined the company as SVP of sales for the Americas. Whiting joins Riverbed from Brocade Communications Systems where he served as EVP of worldwide sales. Whiting will report to Dave Peranich, EVP, global field operations.
Salesforce.com announced that Patrick Pelata has joined the company as EVP and chief automotive officer. Prior to joining salesforce.com, Pelata served in multiple leadership positions at Renault and Nissan.
SanDisk approved changes to Sumit Sadana’s compensation, in connection with Mr. Sadana’s promotion to EVP and Chief Strategy Officer. Mr. Sadana’s revised compensation package includes a base salary of $475,000 and a cash incentive opportunity equal to 90% of his base salary.
Synaptics’ David Long tendered his resignation as SVP of World Wide Sales and agreed to provide transition services until February 12, 2013.
TeleNav approved the calendar year 2013 compensation arrangements of base salary and target bonus to certain executive officers. Dr. HP Jin, President and CEO, $280,000 and 70%, Michael Strambi, CFO, $270,000 and 50%, Dariusz Paczuski, VP, $255,000 and 60%, Hassan Wahla, VP, 255,000 and 60%, respectively.
Tessera Technologies announced an executive transition at DigitalOptics Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary. In connection with the executive transition, the employment of Farzan Bob Roohparvar, the former president of DOC, was terminated. A search for a new president of DOC is underway. DOC’s COO, Logan Saverimuthu, is taking over on an interim basis.
TiVo approved terms of a new three-year employment package for Thomas Rogers, President and CEO. The approved terms include an annual base salary of $1.15 million and a target annual bonus equal to 100% of his annual base salary, with a potential for 0 – 200% of the target.
VMware announced election of Patrick Gelsinger as the company’s CEO. Mr. Gelsinger will be paid an annual base salary of $850,000 and be eligible to earn a performance-based cash bonus with an annual target of 135.3% of his base salary. Mr. Gelsinger is being provided with a relocation package to move his residence from Massachusetts to the San Francisco Bay area.
Xilins’s VP of Platform Marketing Bruce Kleinman moved to join GlobalFoundries as VP of Marketing. He will report to Mike Noonen, EVP of worldwide marketing and sales.
Yahoo! appointed Kenneth Goldman, 63, to serve as CFO. Prior to joining the Yahoo!, Mr. Goldman served as CFO of Fortinet. Prior to that, he served as CFO of Dexterra and Siebel Systems. Mr. Goldman will receive an annual base salary of $600,000 and will be eligible for an annual bonus with a target amount of 90% of base salary. Timothy Morse will no longer serve as CFO of the company.
Yahoo! Inc. announced that Jacqueline Reses has been appointed EVP of people and development. Reses will report directly to Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. Reses led the U.S. media group at Apax Partners. While at Apax Partners, Reses served on the board of directors or led the investments in Cengage Learning, Intelsat, Nelson Education, Hit Entertainment, and NEP Broadcasting.
Yahoo! marketing head Mollie Spillman will be leaving the company.
Zynga hired Maytal Olsha, a former online-gambling executive, as its COO of new markets. Olsha, was previously a senior vice president at 888 Holdings.
Zynga is losing more of its C-level executives. Chief security officer Nils Puhlmann resigned. Jeff Karp, chief marketing officer, has also left for undisclosed reasons. CTO of infrastructure Allan Leinwand left the company for cloud services company ServiceNow.
Board Appoinments and Leaves
Cisco Systems notified of Jerry Yang’s decision to retire from the board to more fully pursue new personal and business interests and not to stand for re-election. The Board has reduced the size of the Board to thirteen members effective with Mr. Yang’s retirement.
Electronic Arts announced retirement of Geraldine Laybourne from the board of directors. Ms. Laybourne has served as a director of the Company since 2008.
iGATE Corporation appointed Naomi Seligman to the Board. Naomi O. Seligman, 74, has been a senior partner at Ostriker von Simson, a consulting firm focusing on information technology, since June 1999. Previously, Ms. Seligman served as a co-founder and senior partner of the Research Board, Inc., a private sector institution sponsored by one hundred CIOs from major corporations.
Intersil Corporation named Donald Macleod to its Board of Directors. Mr. Macleod, 63, served as President and CEO of National Semiconductor prior to its acquisition by Texas Instruments in September 2011. Mr. Macleod currently serves on the Board of Directors of Avago Technologies.
Palo Alto Networks appointed John M. Donovan to serve as a member of the Board. Mr. Donovan, age 51, has worked at AT&T since 2008, first as Chief Technology Officer and currently as Senior Executive Vice President – AT&T Technology and Network Operations. Before joining AT&T, Mr. Donovan was executive vice president of product, sales, marketing and operations at Verisign, Inc.
VeriFone Systems announced appointment of Wenda Harris Millard, President and Chief Operating Officer of MediaLink LLC, to serve as a director. Millard was a key driver at DoubleClick, Ziff Davis, Yahoo!, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia before assuming her current role with MediaLink, an advisory firm that provides critical counsel and strategic direction to the media, marketing, advertising, entertainment and technology industries.
About Simon Bloch and TowerHunter
Simon leads the Technology practice with focus on C-Level, Vice Presidents, Directors and critical individual contributors across all functions of an organization and works with public, private, startup and international companies. Simon is passionate about connecting great leaders with opportunities and operates on the principals of delivering value, easy to do business with, authenticity, and simply being the best. He can be reached at [email protected] or (650) 937-9150.
TowerHunter is a retained executive search firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Phoenix and Boston with hundreds of searches completed over the 10 years of firm’s history. The top reasons firm’s clients value TowerHunter’s services are:
Track record – we have an outstanding track record of 96% placement rate with 99% over one year stay
Business model – pay per performance fee structure with a stay guarantee
Expertise – all partners experienced operational executives and lead all searches Resources – a comprehensive candidate database with research staff to uncover passive candidates
Communications – we listen, plan, execute and communicate throughout the search process
Executives on Lookout
We constantly receive inquiries from our network of executives that are passively interested in new opportunities. Although, we do not represent individual candidates, from time to time, we facilitate connections between great leaders and opportunities. If interested, contact us at [email protected] or (650) 937-9150.
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