Strategic hires include former Quantum, NetApp and AT&T executives to further fuel product and sales growth increasing total headcount by 70% in Q1
OpenDrives, Inc., the global provider of enterprise-grade, hyper-scalable network-attached-storage (NAS) solutions, announced several strategic hires to its sales and product divisions amid broad expansion across the company and emergence into new verticals. These hires include: Ethan Cole (formerly AT&T) as director of product management and Tim Chunn (formerly NetApp) as director of business development. In addition, two new channel account managers, Mike Novoselac (formerly Dell) and Eric Zappia (formerly Quantum), and four regional territory managers, Daniel Hatch and Jason Matousek (both formerly Quantum), Craig Alger (formerly Dell EMC) and Chesed Patt (formerly Qumulo) have joined the company.
Recommended ITech News: InterDigital and Anritsu Showcase Smart Factory Use Case for 5G Network Slicing and Multi-Access Edge Computing
Today’s announcement comes amid a period of significant growth for the company following its latest $20M funding round announced in January 2021, and product advancements and recent partnerships including a channel partnership with Spectra Logic and debut of its containerization marketplace in March 2021.
OpenDrives has solved some of the most demanding workflows in media and entertainment, from workstation-level to enterprise-level whether on-premise or in the cloud, for hundreds of media and entertainment heavyweights, including HBO, CBS Sports, Spotify and Sony Interactive Entertainment, in addition to healthcare diagnostics, for customers including Steadman Clinic, and advertising with Deutsch.
Through building customizable NAS solutions, which are powered by a centralized software platform that is fully flexible and open, OpenDrives’ technology is designed to meet and exceed the performance needs of other industry verticals, such as security and surveillance, enterprise backup and recovery, and genomics.
Recommended ITech News: Latest Release of InterSystems IRIS Data Platform Provides Next Step in Data Fabric Adoption
“OpenDrives’ continued momentum would not be possible without adding talent to our already strong team. Our new and existing team members are the heart-and-soul of our business,” said David Buss, CEO at OpenDrives. “As the company has grown, so has the number of industries we’re able to serve. I’m thrilled to bring on so many talented people to our team this year. Their collective knowledge will be extremely valuable as we continue to further strengthen our position in media and entertainment while expanding into new business segments.”
The company is scaling its team to meet product demand by new customers in emerging verticals, while also growing its channel strategy, adding new partners such as Foto, DVE, AVC, SVC and Valient since its Insight announcement, building on existing partnerships with Diversified, Chesapeake and CMSI with over 65 authorized partners signed to-date. OpenDrives is projected to exceed revenue by 200% through the end of 2021 and it has increased employee headcount by 70% in the first quarter alone.
Ethan Cole, who joins as director of product management, will help lead product strategy and management. Previously, Ethan was lead product manager, next gen video at AT&T, and held a product leader position at NBC Universal. Tim Chunn, who joins as director of business development from NetApp, will oversee the company’s expansion strategy and help expand market reach.
Recommended ITech News: Nokia Accelerates Telenor and Telia Joint 5g Network Rollout in Denmark
The sales team additions will help OpenDrives continue to grow, expand market share and build channel partnerships. These new hires include:
- Mike Novoselac joins as global channel account manager. He is the former senior channel account manager at Dell and has held senior partner manager roles at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and EMC.
- Craig Alger joins as senior account executive. Most recently, he worked at Dell EMC as an account executive for over two years. He’s based in Atlanta.
- Eric Zappia joins as senior channel manager – media and entertainment channel sales. He most recently worked at Quantum where he managed channel relationships in large East Coast markets for over four years.
- Daniel Hatch joins as eastern territory sales manager. He is the former regional sales manager (Northeast) for Quantum, a position he held for over seven years.
- Chesed Patt joins as senior account manager – west coast. Most recently, he handled area sales for Qumulo throughout Southern California.
- Jason Matousek joins as senior account executive – east coast. Previously, he was regional sales manager – media and entertainment (Northeast) at Quantum and enterprise account manager at T2 Computing.
Recommended ITech News: An Expert Discussion on Zero Trust
