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It’s that time of month again–time for Big Data Career Notes, a monthly feature where we keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the big data community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!
John Morris
Ocient, which is reimagining the data warehouse on NVMe underpinnings, has hired John Morris to be its new CEO. Morris replaces Ocient Founder Chris Gladwin, who remains with the company as its executive chairman.
Ocient CEO John Morris
This is the second go-around for Morris with a Gladwin-founded company. In 2013, he was brought in to lead Gladwin’s object storage firm, Cleversafe, as CEO and helped guide the $1.4 acquisition by IBM in 2014. Morris, who joined Ocient as a board observer last year, held positions at IBM as well as Juniper Networks.
“Ocient’s solutions-based approach to solving customers’ large-scale data challenges is a true differentiator in a crowded market,” Morris stated. “I’m thrilled to join this expert team at a time when we are seeing tremendous customer validation that underscores the immediate impact of our solutions and drives forward our mission to transform data challenges into strategic advantages for enterprises around the globe.”
Michelle Huff
Alteryx continued its recent executive overhaul in June with the appointment of Michelle Huff to be its new chief marketing officer (CMO). Huff most recently served as the CMO at UserTesting and joins Alteryx with more than 25 years of experience driving marketing and go-to-market strategies for high-growth tech companies.
Alteryx CMO MIchelle Huff
Huff will oversee all aspects of global marketing initiatives for Alteryx, which was acquired by Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners last year for $4.4 billion, including product marketing, brand positioning, customer advocacy, and demand generation.
“I am energized to join Alteryx at such a pivotal moment for both the company and the broader industry,” Huff said. “What sets Alteryx apart is its commitment to empowering enterprises around the world to get more value from their data through analytics, AI-driven automation, and true data democratization. With a customer-first mindset and a passion for building high-performing marketing teams, I am ready to help shape the next phase of growth at Alteryx.”
Mike Kourney
Telemetry data management provider Cribl announced that Mike Kourney has joined Cribl’s board of directors as the chair of the audit committee. The former Dialpad CFO and current member of Dialpad’s board will be tasked with helping to shape Cribl’s strategic growth as it helps customers manage telemetry data for security and IT needs.
Cribl board member Mike Kourey
“Having worked in the tech industry for over three decades, I recognize firsthand the immense value Cribl delivers to enterprise customers, as evidenced by becoming one of the fastest-growing infrastructure software companies of our time,” Kourey stated. “What sets Cribl apart is not just its customers first mindset and visionary product strategy, but the operational discipline and execution behind it. That combination is what drives durable value, and I’m excited to support the company during this next phase of growth.”
Meini Heuberger
Data platform provider WEKA this month appointed Meini Heuberger to be its new chief financial officer. Heuberger will report to CEO Liran Zvibel and lead the company’s Finance, Operations, Legal, and IT functions with.
WEKA CFO Meini Heuberger
Heuberger joins WEKA from Cohere, where he was head of revenue and customer experience and part of the executive leadership team. Prior to Cohere, Heuberger worked as SVP of sales operations and virtual sales at Cisco, and as managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a company that changes the affordability and accessibility of artificial intelligence, the most disruptive technological innovation of our lifetimes,” Heuberger stated. “WEKA’s ultra-powerful data platform slashes the time-to-first-token and dramatically increases the amount of tokens generated per GPU, making AI more accessible, usable and affordable. I’m thrilled to be joining such a talented team operating at the forefront of AI and helping customers to capture the full value of AI.”
Paul Fitzpatrick
Solace, the provider of event meshes for real-time data integration, has hired Paul Fitzpatrick to be its new chief marketing and business development officer. In his second go with Solace, Fitzpatrick will be instrumental in helping Solace President CEO Denis King to develop and execute the company’s business.
Solace CMBDO Paul Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick joins Solace from Shopify, where he led the development of the company’s enterprise partner ecosystem. Prior to that, Fitzpatrick held senior leadership roles with IBM, Cognos, and Halogen Software.
“Enterprises worldwide are embracing AI into their everyday workflows and processes, and with that comes the critical need to move data in real-,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’m looking forward to helping further establish Solace as the digital nervous system for the real-time, event-driven agentic world.”
Shayan Mohanty
ThoughtWorks, a provider of AI-powered business intelligence and analytics software, has appointed Shayan Mohanty to the position of chief data and AI officer. In the CDAIO role, Mohanty will be tasked with helping ThoughtWorks customers to operationalize AI.
ThoughtWorks CDAIO Shayan Mohanty
Mohanty arrived at ThoughtWorks via the 2024 acquisition of Watchful, which developed advanced tools for automated data labeling and which Mohanty founded and led. Mohanty also had stints at Facebook, where he led the stream processing team, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he served as a guest scientist.
“I’m honored to take on this role at such a critical moment for our clients and the industry,” Mohanty stated. “From my startup days to our research today, I’ve seen how organizations struggle to operationalize AI. At Thoughtworks, we have the talent and reach to close that gap and I’m excited to help lead that charge.”
Amit Choudhary
In addition to hiring Mohany, ThoughtWorks has hired Amit Choudhary to be its new chief operating officer. Choudhary has more than 30 years of experience in IT, and most recently was the COO of Wipro. Before that, he worked at Capgemini and Boston Consulting Group.
ThoughtWorks COO Amit Choudhary
“I’m excited to join Thoughtworks at such a pivotal time,” Choudhary said. “The company’s strong values, impressive brand positioning, deep engineering talent and commitment to innovation are truly inspiring. I look forward to contributing to Thoughtworks’ ability to scale its impact while supporting clients in navigating increasingly complex business and technology challenges.”
Alan Davidson
AI data platform provider Databricks has hired government veteran Alan Davidson to be its new head of government affairs.
Databricks Head of Government Affairs Alan Davidson
Davidson arrives at Databricks following decades of experience in the public and private sectors, including most recently as assistant secretary of commerce and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Additionally, he led public policy and trust at Mozilla and launched Google’s Washington, D.C. office, overseeing government relations across the Americas.
Databricks says that Davidson “is an advocate for innovation and open, fair and trusted use of technology and AI.” The company looks forward to having Davidson on the team and helping to serve more than 400 public sector organizations, including about 80% of U.S. Federal agencies.
Brian Hamel
Data prep and analytics provider Qlik has hired Brian Hamel to be its new chief revenue officer. Hamel brings more than a quarter century of experience from enterprise technology companies including IBM, Lenovo, Oracle, and most recently Veritas, where he led global sales transformation and accelerated the company’s shift to cloud and subscription models.
Qlik CRO Brian Hamel
“I’m thrilled to join Qlik at this defining time,” Hamel said. “Enterprises are under real pressure to move faster and make smarter decisions with their data—and Qlik has the platform and momentum to help them do it. My focus from day one will be listening to our teams, engaging with customers and partners, and building on the strong foundation already in place. I believe great outcomes come from aligned teams who believe in the mission—and Qlik has that.”
Rob Schilling
C3 AI, the $3.3 billion enterprise AI firm founded by Tom Siebel, announced the appointment of tech industry veteran Rob Schilling to the position of executive vice president and chief commercial officer. As EVP and COO for C3 AI, Schilling will be tasked with driving AI customer success in complex enterprise environments.
C3 AI EVP and CCO Rob Schilling
Schilling joins C3 AI from Oracle, where he held a senior leadership position focused on growing the company’s cloud enterprise sales applications unit in North America. Prior to Oracle, Schilling served as general manager of Nokia’s IoT, applications, and analytics division, and formerly as CEO of SpaceTime, which was later acquired by Nokia. He also worked for AP and Siebel Systems, which was sold to Oracle.
“The opportunity to return to a pure play AI company at such a pivotal moment in the industry is exciting. I’m proud to join a company that has been at the forefront of Enterprise AI for over 15 years,” Schilling said. “Together with our customers, we will redefine how organizations operate and grow in the AI era.”
To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.
