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Ken, our visionary CEO, comes to VDURA with a wealth of experience from esteemed tech companies and a deep understanding of the HPC and storage ecosystem. Having served as a key member of the senior executive teams at Seagate, Xyratex, Adaptec, and Eurologic, Ken has played a pivotal role in shaping the storage industry landscape.
Ken’s strong track record of success across the storage and HPC markets is evident in his executive roles at those companies, where he demonstrated strategic leadership and innovation prowess. During his tenure at Seagate, he led the Enterprise storage division to transformative growth by driving full stack product innovation and market insight, effectively addressing emerging customer needs across Cloud and Enterprise markets. While on the executive team at Xyratex, Ken was integral in scaling the company to become the leading OEM provider of Storage systems. There, he built the ClusterStor HPC storage business from the ground up, a platform which ultimately powered 40% of the top supercomputers in the world and was later acquired by Cray/HPE. Ken played a pivotal role in the subsequent sale of Xyratex to Seagate, and he also held leadership positions across product, operations, sales and engineering at other storage companies, including Adaptec and Eurologic.
As our new CEO, Ken leverages his diverse experience to guide our company toward unprecedented success. His energy, strategic insight, and ability to translate vision into tangible results redefine our approach to innovation and market leadership. Ken’s passion for innovation-led growth, combined with his hands-on expertise, is propelling us to the forefront of the HPC and AI industry’s evolution.
Paul Hiemstra is a seasoned financial expert driving profitability, growth, and value creation. With over 15 years of experience, Paul brings a deep understanding of both financial expertise and the intricacies of the HPC and AI market to VDURA. As Chief Financial Officer, he is responsible for managing financial operations, guiding investments, and providing strategic guidance to the executives and board of directors.
Prior to joining VDURA, Paul served as the CFO of HPE’s HPC & AI division, where he played a pivotal role in revenue growth, margin improvement, and the division’s expansion into AI initiatives. Before his tenure at HPE, Paul served as Treasurer at Cray for a decade, contributing to its market-leading position in supercomputing prior to its acquisition by HPE. Paul’s career spans various roles within the technology sector, including his tenure at Silicon Valley Bank, where he worked with technology companies ranging from early-stage startups to late-stage enterprises across Southern California and the Pacific Northwest.
Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with an Accounting Emphasis from Westmont College and a Master of Business Administration in Business and Economics from the University of Washington.
Hanish Vaghela leads the revenue generation efforts at VDURA, overseeing sales, business development, and partnerships. With a distinguished career spanning over two decades in the enterprise and HPC storage sector, he has a proven track record in sales and sales operations, having worked in both startup and global/public environments. Hanish is known for his exceptional ability to build customer trust, form effective global teams, and scale revenue.
During his tenure at Xyratex, Hanish led OEM sales, managing a revenue engine exceeding $1 billion. In the realm of HPC, Hanish established a worldwide go-to-market model for ClusterStor from the ground up. This innovative approach synergistically combined end user and OEM/partner-focused sales professionals, successfully capturing a significant share of the HPC storage market.
Hanish earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Studies from Oxford Brookes University.
Erik Salo has over 30 years of leadership experience in data centers and enterprise storage. Before joining VDURA, he was of Vice President of Products and Markets at Seagate, overseeing the management of Seagate’s multibillion-dollar Enterprise product portfolio. During Erik’s 11-year tenure there, he propelled the company to the 8th largest direct branded storage systems brand globally by establishing a direct branded systems channel. Notable achievements include the successful launch of the CORVAULT product line, contributions to the creation of the IT4.0 initiative, and active involvement in the strategic acquisitions of Xyratex, Dothill, and Evault.
Erik previously served as Chief Strategist for AMD’s computing group, Business Unit leader for AMD’s embedded computing group, and Business Unit leader for National Semiconductor’s Information Appliance division. His diverse experience also includes roles as Director of Technical Marketing for National Semiconductor and Cyrix Corporations.
Erik earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of California at San Diego.
Vice President, Channels and Partnerships
Samantha Clarke is the Vice President of Channels and Partnerships at VDURA, bringing a wealth of experience as a global sales executive known for driving growth and enhancing profitability. Her career has been characterized by a strategic mindset, unwavering customer-centricity, and a remarkable ability to foster enduring and mutually beneficial business relationships.
In her early career, Samantha made significant contributions at AppZero, Xyratex, Regus, and Fisher and Paykel. With a solid engineering background, Samantha’s experience at Seagate Technology spanned various key positions – including director of strategic cloud sales, global director of partnerships and ecosystems, and edge global director of sales – where she played pivotal roles in bolstering revenue streams, fostering technology partnerships, and advancing the company’s channel business. Samantha is primed to leverage her extensive experience and innovative mindset to forge mutually beneficial relationships and drive growth and profitability for VDURA.
Samantha holds a Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering with Honors from the University of Canterbury.
Pete brings over 25 years of enterprise storage software leadership to VDURA, with a proven track record of developing best-in-class products. He is passionate about shaping the future of software development at VDURA by leveraging the power of our parallel file system technologies to solve new storage challenges in the evolving HPC and AI landscape. Prior to VDURA, Pete held leadership positions at Seagate Technologies, Dot Hill Systems, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.
At Seagate, Pete led the development of subscription-based SaaS products, radically improving customer delivery and ease of use for IoT data mobility solutions. This experience honed his ability to drive innovation within established frameworks. He also led large development teams of over 230 engineers to deliver industry-leading enterprise SAN and DAS systems. Before Seagate, Pete played a pivotal role as the technology roadmap leader at Dot Hill Systems, resulting in the successful 2015 Dot Hill acquisition by Seagate Technologies. Pete spent his early storage career at Hewlett-Packard where he drove software design and architecture for several generations of NAS and SAN solutions.
Pete holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mike leads the operations team at VDURA, overseeing critical functions including manufacturing, supply chain management, cost control, supplier relationships, quality assurance, order fulfillment, logistics, and global customer support. Mike’s successful track record of driving business acceleration and increasing operational efficiencies spans nearly three decades in the industry. He is a strategic leader with a career marked by significant contributions to startups, emerging technology firms, and established companies.
Prior to joining VDURA, Mike held director and executive roles at Data Domain, StorSimple, Tintri, Datrium, and RIOS Intelligent Machines.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from UC Santa Barbara.
Rex Tanakit is the Vice President of Technical Services at VDURA, where he leverages his extensive experience in high-performance computing and storage to enhance customer satisfaction and optimize system performance. Throughout his career, Rex has specialized in application engineering, writing codes and developing algorithms for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and signal processing.
His deep technical expertise enables him to comprehensively address the interconnected aspects of compute, network, and storage, ensuring that no component becomes a bottleneck in system performance.
After beginning his career as an Application Engineer, Rex has continually focused on helping customers achieve the best possible outcomes from their technological investments. His career includes significant experience with Lustre, Weka, and the CPU/GPU space.
Rex holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from UC San Diego and UCLA, respectively.
Harry has more than 20 years of Silicon Valley field leadership experience and currently is Chief Revenue Officer at DataStax leading Worldwide Field Operations of data architecture, sales, open source consulting, and partner ecosystem development.
Prior to DataStax, Harry held executive positions at Elementum, a Lightspeed backed SaaS company, and also led the Server & Storage division at Broadcom. Bringing a track record and passion for execution of successful go to market strategies and ecosystem development, he has managed multiple $1 billion+ enterprise revenue engines to growth, repeatability and scale.
Harry holds a graduate degree in Computer Information Systems and Corporate Strategy from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University. He, his wife and three children reside in San Francisco and are active supporters of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
Rob Cihra has more than 20 years of experience as a senior Wall Street technology analyst and investor focused on the computing and storage markets. Rob was most recently a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, previously a Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI, and partner at Brompton Cross Capital.
Rob earned his BA, Economics and MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
Andre Hakkak has served as co-portfolio manager and investment committee member of White Oak Global Advisors since 2007. He was previously the founder and chief investment officer of Alpine Global, a multistrategy investment management firm that focuses on alternative fixed income and real estate investments. He was also the founder and portfolio manager at Suisse Global Investments, an investment management firm that develops investment strategies customized to meet the risk-adjusted return requirements of bank clients in more than 30 countries.
Andre previously served at Robertson Stephens as an investment banker and principal in its Investment Company Act platform. He has been a co-founder and board member of several financial platforms that facilitate the distribution of philanthropic and financial products, and has served as a limited partner, general partner, or board member of various investment funds and companies.
Andre received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and marketing from Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, and has held Series 7, 63, and 24 designations from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority since 1991.
Board of Directors
Peter Ungaro is a distinguished leader in High Performance Computing and mission-critical solutions with a track record of driving innovation and growth. As the former President and CEO of Cray, Ungaro transformed the company, generating over 361% shareholder return and earning accolades such as CEO of the Year from Seattle Business Monthly and Bloomberg’s “Top Tech Turnaround Artists.”
Following Cray’s acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager, overseeing key areas like HPC, AI, and Edge Computing. Ungaro’s career also includes leadership roles at IBM, where he led global sales for HPC, life sciences, and business intelligence markets.
In addition to his corporate achievements, Ungaro was named to Corporate Leader Magazine’s “40 under 40” and appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Manufacturing Council, where he advised on the competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing sector. He holds a B.A. in business administration from Washington State University.
Garth Gibson is a renowned expert in data infrastructure and storage systems, best known for founding Panasas and co-authoring the pNFS IETF rationale, pivotal in the development of parallel file systems. Garth was also instrumental in the creation of RAID, a foundational technology in data storage. Most recently, Garth served as the President and CEO of the Vector Institute, a leading AI research institute. As a member of VDURA’s Technical Advisory Board, Gibson’s expertise will help shape VDURA’s future, building on its legacy in parallel NAS technology to meet the evolving needs of AI and HPC applications.
Jorge Titinger is the chief executive officer and founder of Titinger Consulting, and the former chief executive officer of SGI, a global leader in high-performance computing that was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Jorge has more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry with a focus on strategic development and driving growth.
Prior to his role as CEO at SGI, Jorge served as chief operating officer and then as president and CEO of Verigy, Ltd. Other appointments include several senior executive roles at KLA-Tencor Corporation, Applied Materials, and Insync Systems as well as senior management roles at MIPS and Hewlett Packard.
Jorge holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering Management and Business from Stanford University.
