VMware Hires Google Cloud VP As New CMO To Drive Kubernetes

‘Containers are the operating system of the future, and I am excited by what VMware is doing with Kubernetes and Tanzu to help customers accelerate development and run securely at scale,’ says VMware’s new Chief Marketing Officer Carol Carpenter.

VMware, the virtualization kingpin and hybrid cloud star, has hired Google Cloud’s former vice president of product marketing as its new chief marketing officer as well as former Cisco veteran Sandy Hogan to lead the company’s renewed channel charge.

Carol Carpenter is now VMware’s new global CMO, bringing more than 25 years of experience to the company. Over the past three years, Carpenter led the transformation of Google Cloud from its early stage to a leader in public cloud by helping build the team, brand and sales campaign efforts at Google as VP of product marketing.

“I believe that containers are the operating system of the future, and I am excited by what VMware is doing with Kubernetes and Tanzu to help customers accelerate development and run securely at scale,” said Carpenter in a LinkedIn post. “Customers are seeking container-based solutions with all the benefits of cloud-native development and operations.”

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Stephen Ayoub, president of AHEAD, a Chicago-based VMware partner, said Carpenter’s hiring shows VMware vision and product roadmap of the future. “The hiring of Carol from Google Cloud reinforces VMware’s commitment to both cloud and modern applications as the main pillars of the company’s digital infrastructure portfolio going forward,” he said.

Carpenter said VMware’s strategic market position is “unique.”

“In my role at Google Cloud, I spent a lot of time talking to customers, analysts and influencers. Our customers’ work lives are challenging, and a global pandemic just made them more so. In this multi-cloud world, enterprises are seeing the complexity of management, compliance, security -- become more and more unwieldy,” said Carpenter. “With its broad and deep portfolio, VMware offers customers an opportunity to simplify all that complexity. Enterprises need a trusted business partner who will meet them where they are and take them where they want to go.”

Prior to Google, Carpenter was CEO of ElasticBox, which was acquired by CenturyLink. She has held multiple leadership and marketing roles at companies such as Trend Micro, Keynote Systems and ClearSide. “Now I’m ready to be part of another iconic company’s next chapter. VMware has a long history of innovation, and they are trusted by the largest enterprises in the world to transform their business,” she said.

In addition to the hiring of Carpenter, VMware hired former longtime Cisco veteran Sandy Hogan as the company’s new senior vice president of worldwide commercial and partner sales.

Hogan will lead the company’s renewed partner ecosystem strategy and commercial go-to-market. AHEAD’s Ayoub said the appointment of Hogan demonstrates VMware’s “commitment to the channel and its expanding partner ecosystem.”

Hogan held various top executive roles at Cisco from 2002 to 2017, including global vice president of Digital Transformation Group and vice president of Business Transformation. Most recently, Hogan was executive vice president and the Americas managing director for Rackspace.

“I’ve been blessed to work for some amazing companies and with amazing people - and have learned a great deal from the lesser-than experiences,” said Hogan in a recent LinkedIn post. “And now, the best is yet to come with world-class VMware. Ready to realize what's possible.”