To kick this blog space off, let me give you a quick background on who I am. I am responsible for marketing, strategy, and operations for HP StorageWorks. I have been in this role since April of 2010. I joined HP in the fall of 2009; just before the acquisition of 3Com. Initially my role was to help manage the integration of 3Com into HP. The initial plan was that once the acquisition was completed I was going to have a role in managing the new HP networking organization. I had previously worked for Dave Donatelli at EMC for a number of years in marketing, operations and corporate development roles, and I saw this as a really unique opportunity to be part of changing an industry. The idea of taking on Cisco in the networking space, with the power of HP behind you, was very intriguing to say the least. Then, in the spring of last year, once Dave Donatelli had direct management responsibility for HP StorageWorks, I was asked to take on this role in storage instead....once again, a very intriguing opportunity. There was no question that HP StorageWorks needed to be changed in some fundamental way and that if we could get the power of HP engaged, we could make a huge difference. The question was how.
Prior to joining HP, I spent some time in startup-land, as VP of marketing and CEO for a software company in the storage resource management/virtualization management space. I learned a tremendous amount there, but ultimately we ran into the wall when the economy cratered in late 2009 early 2010, and we never fully recovered. What is left of that company is now part of NetApp, who acquired the assets.
Before that adventure, I spent 10 years at EMC. In chronological order, I was a product manager for backup software, working on the Epoch technology. Next I spent four years in mergers and acquisitions, and executed about 20 transactions, Data General and Legato being the largest. The most of what I did there, and what I love to do, was smaller private company software acquisitions. As EMC built out its software business we did a lot of that through acquisitions. I got a great understanding of how the venture-backed game works, and how high-risk that business is. One time I estimated the hit rate for startups in our space to be approximately 1 in 30. Despite that, I did my next startup anyway... I've done two startups in my career and have a hit rate of one out of two, so I consider myself lucky. Next at EMC I was responsible for NAS product marketing, and then was VP of marketing for all the storage platform products with the exception of Centera. I started a business called EMC Select, which grew to about $200 million in two years. And my last gig at EMC was VP/co-GM of the Celerra NAS business at the time when we drove over the top and got to number one market share in NAS.
Prior to EMC I ran the East Coast region for a startup services company that did document imaging and data conversion services. That company was acquired by a public company. Before that I worked for Anacomp, which at the time was a Fortune 500 company and dealt with document management and archiving systems and services. Along the way I got my MBA in finance from Bentley College in Massachusetts, and previously went to Middlebury College in Vermont, where I majored in hiking, cycling, drinking and screwing around.
What else? I live in Massachusetts, married 20 years, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 4 guitars, and 1 Ford Mustang. Lifelong Patriots football fan, and love karate, Mixed Martial Arts, and classic British rock and roll. So what does it all add up to? I have had the good fortune to have a widely varied set of career experiences, including two startups and three Fortune 500 companies, across software, services and hardware. I have had some big wins and I've also had my fingers blown off a few times. I think if there's any one thing I do better-than-average, it's to connect dots between apparently unrelated factors. My first boss told me, “Some people can't connect the dots and figure out what's going on. Some people can. But the really great ones can figure it out without all the dots.” That's what I still aspire to; to find the answer in an uncertain set of circumstances, without perfect information. Also, to quote JT Kirk, “I don't believe in the no-win scenario.”
So with the introductions out of the way, let's get on with it…
Tom
