Who’s In And Out At VMware A Year After Broadcom Deal Announced?

As some executives raced for the exit once Broadcom said it intended to buy VMware, others have stepped up leading the virtualization all star through months of unknown with the outcome of the deal still in the hands of global regulators.

Broadcom said that it would acquire VMware more than a year ago, and since that time executive talent inside the virtualization all star has ebbed and flowed, with notable departures among senior channel leaders and in the C-suite.

But, like nature, VMware’s leadership structure doesn’t tolerate a vacuum.

VMware board member Karen Dykstra was named as the new CFO in a May 25 announcement and storming in from across the Atlantic Ocean new channel talent has risen, with Ricky Cooper championing a new channel program, while leaping to the finals in his first-ever Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs this March.

VMware unveiled the next evolution of the VMware Partner Connect program, a unified program for all partner types to accelerate the migration of their customer’s applications to the right cloud, automate and better secure the software supply chain, and manage spending on private and public cloud infrastructures.

In its most recent earnings VMware said its first quarter earnings came in at $3.28 billion, up six percent from last year. Net income for the quarter was $224 million, for earnings per share of .52 cents down 9-percent.

Looming over the momentum of VMware’s channel and the deal with Broadcom, are commercial regulators in the U.S., U.K., and the EU, whose protracted look at the merger has only deepened since Broadcom announced it in May 2022.

The deal cannot close in those regions until it clears regulators. The wait has caused both sides to push the outside date from February to August, with a final outside date possible as far out as November, after the deadline set by Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.

Amid that tumult, CRN has made this guide to who is in and who is out at VMware:

Out: Sandy Hogan, Channel Chief

Departure: June 2022

Destination: SADA, CRO

In: Ricky Cooper

VMware’s erstwhile channel chief was among the first to jump ship after Broadcom announced that it would buy the company. Hogan left to become chief revenue officer at SADA, a massive solution provider and top Google Cloud partner.

Hogan, was senior vice president, worldwide commercial and partner sales. She won numerous awards for her stewardship of VMware’s channel, frequently appearing on CRN lists for Most Influential Channel Chiefs, Top 100 Executives, Women of the Channel Power 100.

Ricky Cooper has stepped in and made a splash both in leading the introduction of VMware’s revamped partner program, but also winning his way to the finals in CRN’s Channel Madness 2023.

“I truly believe this is the age of the partner,” he told CRN in February. “Look at edge, look at AI, look at all of the trends that we’re seeing throughout the IT industry. There’s just so much opportunity, where do you focus? The way to do it is by partnering together.”

Out: Bill Swales, VP Channel Chief VP Americas

Departure: August 2022

Destination: Lenovo, VP Commercial Sales

In: Tara Fine

Swales worked as VMware’s vice president and channel chief of the Americas. He left two months after Hogan. Swales wrote that he was “beyond proud” of the work his VMware Americas partner team accomplished.

Swales was named vice president of commercial sales at Lenovo.

Moving into the role is Tara Fine. Her commitment to the partner ecosystem has been at work since then. Fine told CRN she promises to be “the voice of the partner” whether or not Broadcom’s $61 billion plan to buy the company comes to fruition.

“Over the last six years that I’ve been at VMware, I’ve worked with my predecessor to really deeply understand this business, and where the challenges are,” she told CRN in her first interview since being named to the job. “I know where we need to improve. That being said, at the core, I’m a partner advocate, internally, externally I am committing to being the voice of our partners to influence our strategy. With or without Broadcom, that doesn’t change.”

Out: Tom Kellerman, Head of Cybersecurity Strategy

Departure: August 2022

Destination: Contrast Security, Chief Security

In: Unknown

It’s not clear how Tom Kellerman’s role as a security advocate inside VMware has been filled since he departed for Contrast Security. Kellerman was previously chief cybersecurity officer for Carbon Black Inc., which was acquired by VMware in 2019 in a $2.1 billion deal. He has also been appointed to a board that advised the U.S. Secret Service in 2020 as well as the Commission on Cyber Security in 2008 for President Barack Obama United States.

Out: Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager of networking and advanced security

Departure: December 2022

Destination: Cisco

In: Umesh Mahajan

Gillis had been senior vice president and general manager of networking and advanced security. Prior to his role at VMware, Gillis founded Bracket Computing. He was also previously named vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Security Technology Group. Gillis has an electrical engineer degree from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard University.

Mahajan is responsible for VMware’s flagship NSX software defined virtualization platform that encompasses L2-L7 integrated networking services for on-prem, public cloud and cloud native deployments, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was previously at Cisco where he was general manager of data center switching.

Out: Mark Lohmeyer, senior vice president and general manager of the cloud platforms business

Departure: December 2022

Destination: Google Cloud, VP, General Manager of Compute And Cloud

In: Krish Prasad

Lohmeyer led VMware’s cloud infrastructure business group. He had been at VMware for about eight years arriving from Veritas Software and previously working Sarnoff Research Labs where he was awarded patents for his work on digital imaging research and hardware design. Lohmeyer, who received his bachelor’s and master’s at MIT in electrical engineering and computer science, went to work as the VP and general manager of compute and cloud for Google Cloud.

Prior to the new role, Prasad was senior vice president and general manager, of VMware’s cloud Infrastructure platform group, where his responsibilities involved leading the business unit responsible for “VMware‘s Cloud platform products that power Private Clouds, the VMware Cloud on AWS and the VMware solutions for IoT/Edge.” It was Prasad, VMware said, who drove the strategy and delivery of the SDDC cloud platform that powers VMware Cloud.

Out: Ajay Patel, general manager for VMware’s Modern Applications and Management Business

Departure: December 2022

Destination: Apptio, COO

In: Purnima Padmanabhan

Patel was the general manager for VMware’s Modern Applications and Management Business, responsible for strategic planning product and portfolio management, oversight of delivery. He has more than 30 years of enterprise software experience with prior stints at Oracle, Apigee and BEA Systems, and management consulting work with Price Waterhouse Cooper.

Padmanabhan has been with VMware for six years. She is now the senior vice president and general manager, cloud management. She graduated USC with a degree in computer engineering and has an MBA from Stanford University.

Out: Zane Rowe, executive vice president and CFO

Departure: May 2023

Destination: Workday, CFO

In: Karen Dykstra

Rowe handled accounting and finance at VMware for seven years, until he resigned last month. He had previously worked as CFO at both EMC and United Airlines prior to his job at VMware.

Rowe, 52, will receive an annual base salary of $700,000 and a one-time signing bonus of $2 million payable in two installments, when he reports to his new job at Workday.

Replacing Rowe is Karen Dykstra, a VMware board member and former CFO technology stalwart AOL, where she was also a board member.

Dykstra was previously the CFO of AOL from 2009 until September 2012.

Prior to her work for AOL, Dykstra worked as both CFO and chief operating officer of Plainfield Asset Management between 2006 and 2010. Additionally, Dykstra was CFO for ADP from 2003 to 2006.