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!
Ben Canning
Ben Canning
Alteryx announced the appointment of Ben Canning as chief product officer this month. Canning will lead product vision, strategy, and design for Alteryx data analytics and AI solutions.
Canning brings decades of experience to Alteryx, having recently served as senior vice president of product experiences at Smartsheet. During his 22-year tenure at Microsoft, he held various product leadership roles, including head of product for Microsoft Teams.
“Throughout my career, my passion has always been helping customers drive business impact,” Canning said. “Joining the Alteryx team is an incredible opportunity to help our customers realize the full potential of their data at such a pivotal time. Together, we will deliver AI-ready solutions that prepare them for the future.”
Micheline Nijmeh
ThoughtSpot, which bills itself as the AI-native intelligence platform, has hired Micheline Nijmeh to be its new chief marketing officer (CMO). Nijmeh joins ThoughtSpot from JFrog , where she helped drive the company’s post-IPO growth as CMO. Prior to that, she held positions at ZScaler, Salesforce, and Xactly.
Micheline Nihmeh
Nijmeh joins ThoughtSpot after the company posted significant fiscal growth in 2024, closing with 40% year-over-year SaaS growth and more than doubling its monthly active users, the company said. ThoughtSpot also bolstered its AI capabilities with the launch of an agentic AI product called Spotter and the launch of Analyst Studio.
“I am thrilled to join ThoughtSpot at this pivotal moment,” Nijmeh said. “In today’s dynamic market, leveraging data and AI is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. Yet, many organizations are still grappling with fragmented data and limited access to actionable insights. ThoughtSpot’s complete intelligence platform sets it apart as a democratizing force, empowering everyone from the data analyst building models, to the C-Suite executive preparing for board meetings. I look forward to amplifying ThoughtSpot’s impact of bringing this transformative power to every customer.”
Philip Brittan
Bloomfire, a provider of AI-powered knowledge management software, has hired former Google executive Philip Brittan to be its new CEO.
Philip Brittan
Brittan brings more than 30 years of experience to Bloomfire, including a stint as vice president of engineering and product at Google for the Google Workspace offering. Prior to Google, Brittan founded and led Crux Informatics, a cloud-native data management startup, and was CTO and global head of platform for Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk division.
“Leaning into enterprise intelligence can transform the way businesses think, act, and compete–it’s not just about storing knowledge, but dynamically surfacing the right insights at the right moment,” Brittan stated. “Companies that embrace this shift will move faster, innovate more effectively, and make smarter decisions. Bloomfire has already established itself as a trusted partner in helping organizations harness knowledge and eliminate information silos. I’m excited to lead the next chapter of Bloomfire because, in a world that’s drowning in data, the true winners will be the companies that master Enterprise Intelligence.”
Krish Vitaldevara
Data intelligence software provider Informatica announced the appointment of Krish Vitaldevara to be its new executive vice president and chief product officer (CPO). Vitaldevara is also joining the company’s Executive Committee.
Krish Vitaldevara
Vitaldevara, who holds more than 30 patents, most recently worked at NetApp, where he led a team of more than 2,000 people as an SVP and GM. He also held roles at Microsoft and Google during his career.
“I am excited to join Informatica at such a pivotal time in the technology landscape. Together, we will drive innovation, leverage data-driven insights and enhance our product offerings to empower our clients with cutting-edge AI capabilities and cloud solutions,” Vitaldevara stated. “I look forward to collaborating with the exceptional teams to further elevate our impact on the industry.”
Leo Brunnick
Hybrid cloud data platform provider Cloudera has appointed IT industry veteran and Marine Corps officer Leo Brunnick to be its new chief product officer.
Leo Grunnick
Brunnick most recently served as the COO of Naviga, where he spent six years leading a team of more than 600 workers. Brunnick also was an executive at Vignette before its acquisition by OpenText in 2008. Before that, Brunnick served as an officer in the Marine Corps and earned his MBA from Georgia State University after graduating from Harvard University with his bachelor’s degree in general engineering.
“Not many companies today understand that enterprises require flexibility to successfully deploy new solutions, but Cloudera clearly has that down,” Brunnick stated. “Cloudera is the only data platform provider that offers both robust on-premises and cloud-native data and AI services to enable a truly hybrid experience behind customer firewalls. These capabilities, combined with the incredible AI talent and growing ecosystem of partners, are what drew me to the company.”
Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman
GPU cloud provider CoreWeave announced the appointment of Meg Whitman as an independent member of the company’s board of directors. The former tech CEO joins the cloud company during a period of intense growth and AI activity, including the pending acquisition of Weights & Biases and a strategic deal with OpenAI valued up to $11.9 billion.
Whitman has had a decorated career across tech and public sectors. She was the president and CEO of eBay Inc from 1998 to 2008, a period that saw the company’s revenue grow from $47 million to $7.7 billion. After losing the election to be governor of California in 2010, she went on to be the president and CEO of HP from 2011 to 2015. Whitman also served as ambassador to Kenya from 2022 to 2024.
“Meg has led some of the greatest businesses in tech–breaking barriers along the way,” said Michael Intrator, co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave. “Her deep expertise in scaling these businesses will be invaluable to CoreWeave as we continue on our mission to power the world’s AI innovations.”
Sven Oehme and Jas Khaira
Sven Oehme
High-end storage provider DDN appointed two executives to its board of directors, including CTO Sven Oehme and Jas Khaira, the founding members of the Tactical Opportunities Group at Blackstone and its head of Americas.
Oehme brings to the board more than 30 years of expertise in high-performance computing, AI data infrastructure, and cloud solutions. He was the architect behind DDN’s Infinia platform, its object storage system.
Khaira, meanwhile, will bring his track record of identifying opportunities to DDN from Blackstone, the private equity group that recently invested $300 million in DDN at a $5 billion valuation.
Jas Khaira
“By welcoming Sven and Jas to our Board, we are making a bold statement about the future of DDN,” said Alex Bouzari, CEO and co-Founder of DDN. “Their visionary leadership and deep industry expertise will be key to our mission of empowering organizations with scalable, high-performance data intelligence solutions, and will propel DDN to the forefront of the global economic pivot toward AI.”
Mike Gannon
Snowflake has hired Make Gannon to be its chief revenue officer (CRO), replacing Chris Degnan, who was Snowflake’s first salesman and who is retiring.
Mike Gannon
Gannon joins Snowflake from VMware (which is owned by Broadcom), where he was recently served as president of Americas sales. Prior to VMware, Gannon spent time at EMC and Isilon Systems.
“We’re thrilled to bring Mike on board,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, Snowflake’s CEO. “His experience developing world-class organizations in highly-competitive markets, and scaling operations during high-growth periods, makes him the right leader to drive Snowflake’s next phase of innovation and scale.”
To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.
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