September 2024: People on the Move


A number of companies have announced major changes to their executive leadership last month. Here are a couple of highlights:

Veeam appoints Niraj Tolia as new CTO

Tolia is joining the company after being CEO and co-founder of the data management startup, Alcion, which was acquired by Veeam earlier this month. Before co-founding Alcion, he also founded Kasten, which was previously acquired by Veeam as well.

At Veeam, he will lead the product strategy for Veeam Data Cloud and will work closely with the company’s chief product officer, Anton Gostev.

“Niraj is one of those rare individuals who not only understands where the market is headed but also possesses the skills and vision to bring that future to life for our customers,” said Anand Eswaran, CEO of Veeam. “He has already demonstrated this with the creation of Kasten, which has become the #1 solution for Kubernetes data resilience since being acquired by Veeam in 2020. His proven track record, combined with the explosive growth of Veeam Data Cloud – the fastest growing product in Veeam’s history – creates a tremendous opportunity for Veeam to redefine the market once again for data resilience.”

HackerOne announces appointment of Kara Sprague as new CEO

Kara Sprague will be replacing the current CEO of HackerOne Marten Mickos, who will be transitioning into a strategic advisory role. 

Sprague brings with her over 20 years of experience leading technology companies, most recently as executive vice president and chief product officer of F5. She’s also worked at McKinsey & Company, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard. Additionally, from 2016 to 2022 she served on the board of Girls Who Code and now is on the board of Trimble

“As CEO, I plan to expand our platform capabilities in service to enterprise customers, invest in and grow our community of security researchers, and continue to foster trust with customers, partners, and the researcher community,” said Sprague. “I was drawn to HackerOne because of its market leadership position in addressing evolving cyber threats. I look forward to joining forces with HackerOne and its community of researchers in the mission to empower the world to build a safer internet.”

Baran Erkel joins UserTesting as chief strategy officer

Leveraging over 20 years of experience driving corporate strategy, including mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships, Erkel will work to develop UserTesting’s long term strategy and expand its market presence. 

Previously, he was the senior vice president of corporate development and strategy for Nintex, where he led the company through five acquisitions over a seven year period. Before that he also worked at companies like Citrix and Accenture. 

Eric Brüggemann named new CEO of Code Intelligence

Brüggemann has been at the company for the past year, first joining as managing director and chief operating officer. As CEO he will lead the company through its next phase of growth, which will entail expanding into more markets and working with leadership to shape product vision.

The previous CEO and co-founder Sergej Dechand will now take on the role of chief evangelist for the company. 

Before joining Code Intelligence, Brüggemann was the chief of staff at Thinkproject and prior to that he was a project leader at Boston Consulting Group. 

Entrust makes several key leadership changes

The identity and security company Entrust announced the appointment of Michael Klieman as global vice president of product management for digital security solutions and Parag Patel as global vice president of sales for digital security solutions. 

“Michael and Parag join us at a critical time in the digital security solutions landscape, where the threats, risks, and opportunities have never been higher for our customers and partners,” said Bhagwat Swaroop, president of digital security solutions at Entrust. “Entrust solutions are designed to foster trust through strong identities so that enterprises can securely connect customers and partners to their ecosystems. Parag and Michael bring decades of tech leadership and deep cybersecurity experience in cybersecurity and cryptography-centric solutions. Their drive for growth, precision, and collaborative styles are a great fit for our people-first culture at Entrust. We’re excited to welcome both leaders to the Entrust community.”

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