Huge Knowledge Profession Notes for Could 2025

It’s that point of month once more–time for Huge Knowledge Profession Notes, a month-to-month function the place we hold you recent on the newest profession developments for people within the massive information neighborhood. Whether or not it’s a promotion, new firm rent, and even an accolade, we’ve bought the small print. Examine in every month for an up to date listing and chances are you’ll even come throughout somebody you realize, or higher but, your self!

Tyler Akidau

Redpanda, the streaming information platform that’s API-compatible with Kafka, introduced it has employed Tyler Akidau to be its new CTO. In his new position, Akidau can be chargeable for overseeing all features of product improvement for the Redpanda merchandise.

Tyler brings greater than 20 years of expertise as an information streaming architect to Redpanda. Throughout his dozen years at Google, Akidau led improvement of the Apache Beam product and was named a Google Distinguished Engineer. Since January 2020, Akidau labored at Snowflake, the place he was a distinguished software program engineer and skilled adventures in “the batchier facet of streaming.”

At Redpanda, Akidau will report on to CEO Alex Gallego, who based Redpanda in 2019 to make streaming out there to a wider array of developer. Gallego is worked up to bolster the “mental horsepower” of his Redpanda staff with the hiring of Akidau.

“[Akidau’s] confirmed management in architecting probably the most advanced information techniques at Google and Snowflake and vital affect within the information streaming ecosystem are simple,” Gallego mentioned. “His work even served as a key reference level once I was constructing Redpanda. Tyler is ideally positioned to assist form our product platform and execute on our agentic AI roadmap. I’m thrilled to welcome somebody so deeply aligned with Redpanda’s mission to construct breakthrough merchandise for builders.”

Akidau, a 2018 Datanami Particular person to Watch, says that Redpanda represents the way forward for streaming and agentic AI.

“Having spent the vast majority of my profession centered on stream processing, I deeply admire the modern platform that Alex and his staff have constructed – which powers probably the most subtle streaming purposes on the planet,” Akidau acknowledged. “I’m honored to hitch Redpanda throughout such a pivotal time and stay up for accelerating extra information expertise transformation.”

Peter Bailis

Cloud-based ERP supplier Workday has a brand new expertise chief who needs to be acquainted to BigDATAwire readers. Peter Bailis, the founding father of the Stanford College DAWN analysis program and former head of Sisu Knowledge, which was acquired by Snowflake in October 2023, has been employed to be Workday’s new chief expertise officer.

Bailis, who was a Datanami 2021 Particular person to Watch, joins Workday from Google, the place he was a vice chairman of engineering accountable for growing Google Cloud’s information analytics and Looker merchandise. Bailis joined Google in December 2023; he by no means labored at Snowflake, regardless of promoting Sisu Knowledge to the corporate for an undisclosed sum of money months earlier.

Bailis’ transfer was hailed by Gerrit Kazmaier, who in March left his job as Google’s VP and GM for database, information analytics, and Looker to hitch the cloud ERP firm.

“At Workday we’re going ALL IN on AI! That’s why I’m completely thrilled to announce that Peter Bailis is becoming a member of the Workday household at this time as our new Chief Know-how Officer!” Kazmaier wrote in a LinkedIn submit this month. “Peter is a real visionary, a frontrunner who understands methods to harness the facility of frontier expertise to ship real-world affect.”

Frank Nagle

Harvard Enterprise College assistant professor Frank Nagle has been employed to be the brand new advising chief economist for Linux Basis, the non-profit basis that leads various open supply initiatives, together with Ceph, Delta Lake, Presto, and Valkey.

In his work within the Technique Unit at Harvard Enterprise College, Nagle’s follow areas embody the way forward for work, the economics of IT, and digital transformation. Nagle co-authored the landmark 2024 paper “The Worth of Open Supply Software program,” which discovered that with out OSS, the worldwide financial system would wish to spend 3.5 occasions extra on software program, representing roughly $9 trillion in worth. Different analysis by Nagle has revealed that firms actively contributing to OSS see productiveness features twice as giant as those that don’t.

In his position as advising chief economist at TLF, Nagle will construct on current analysis and lead new discoveries into the financial, societal and modern affect of OSS; spearhead efforts to quantify how open supply communities generate worth and help innovation; and lead efforts to measure the financial affect of OSS in rising fields like AI and develop frameworks to help development within the business OSS startup ecosystem.

“The information gathered to date suggests we’re solely simply starting to grasp the complete financial and societal worth of open supply software program,” Nagle acknowledged. “As Advising Chief Economist on the Linux Basis, my focus can be on increasing the open supply market place by way of partnerships, analysis and advocacy, notably within the space of open supply AI.”

John Ederer

Teradata has a brand new chief monetary officer (CFO). John Ederer can be in cost accounting, reporting, company improvement, monetary planning and evaluation, inside audit and controls, investor relations, tax, and treasury on the storied San Diego information warehousing and analytics agency.

Previous to being employed at Teradata, Ederer held a number of different monetary roles, together with being the CFO of Mannequin N, a supplier of cloud income administration options, and the CFO of K2 Software program, a supplier of course of automation options. Previous to that, Ederer had stints at TIBCO Software program, SAP, Enterprise Objects, and Ariba. Ederer will report on to Steve McMillan, the president and CEO of Teradata.

“Teradata’s power in information analytics is particularly compelling on this new period of AI,” Ederer acknowledged. “I imagine the alternatives for the Firm are substantial and I’m excited to hitch an trade chief with an extended historical past of innovation. I stay up for working with Steve and the management staff to capitalize on the dynamic market alternative for AI, whereas on the identical time persevering with to drive monetary efficiency and profitability.”

Monica Ohara

Cloud ETL/ELT supplier Fivetran this month introduced it has employed Monica Ohara to be its chief advertising and marketing officer. As CMO, Ohara will report back to COO Taylor Brown and function a member of the Fivetran government staff, overseeing model, buyer, associate, area and product advertising and marketing, public relations, analyst relations, and occasions.

Ohara involves Fivetran with greater than 20 years of expertise in advertising and marketing, development, and management roles at expertise firms. Earlier stops on Ohara’s tour embody Shopify, WordPress, and HackerRank. She additionally co-founded the expansion advertising and marketing startup DataScore, which was acquired by Lyft, the place she later led rider and driver acquisition by way of the corporate’s IPO.

“All through my profession, I’ve been drawn to firms that make advanced expertise accessible and allow transformative outcomes for his or her prospects,” Ohara acknowledged. “Fivetran’s skill to automate information motion and allow real-time decision-making is essentially altering how companies function. I’m excited to assist amplify Fivetran’s affect globally and construct deeper connections with the purchasers and companions who depend on us every single day.”

Frank Weigel

Frank Weigel has been appointed as the brand new chief of product (CPO) for information integration supplier Matillion. In his new gig, Weigel can be accountable for growing the Matillion merchandise, that are instrumental in transferring and shaping information because it strikes from transactional and operational techniques into cloud-based information warehouses, reminiscent of Snowflake and Databricks.

Weigel joins Matillion following stints at Google, the place he was a VP and GM of the Google Cloud Enterprise Software Platform, in addition to Microsoft, the place he was a VP accountable for the Dynamics 365 Insights Apps group. Weigel additionally labored at NoSQL database supplier Couchbase and virtualization layer supplier Transitive, which was

“I’m delighted to welcome Frank Weigel to the Matillion government staff,” mentioned Matillion CEO and co-founder Matthew Scullion, including that Weigel’s area expertise and years working within the coronary heart of Silicon Valley make him “completely positioned to form the Knowledge Productiveness Cloud.”

Stephen Orban

Databricks has employed Stephen Orban to be its new SVP product ecosystem and partnership. In his new position, Orban can be accountable for main the partnership program that helps Databricks convey ISVs and information suppliers into the Databricks Market, in addition to broadening entry to third-party datasets.

Orban has 1 / 4 century expertise within the tech sector, together with serving as an engineer at Bloomberg and CTO at Dow Jones. He spent greater than a decade at AWS and Google Cloud. At AWS, he invented and launched AWS Knowledge Alternate, and whereas at Google, Orban helped to develop the Google Cloud Market by shepherding dozens of partnerships with firms like Anthropic, Dun & Bradstreet, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, and Salesforce.

Orban is hitting the bottom operating at Databricks, as he plans to satisfy with at the very least 90 prospects and 90 companions in his first 90 days, based on Adam Conway, SVP of Merchandise at Databricks. “Stephen can be instrumental in increasing our ecosystem to tens of hundreds of companions,” Conway writes in a weblog. “He’ll even be concerned in our product improvement, guaranteeing that our companions’ roadmap and strategic plans are aligned with our personal.”

Lane Sullivan

Concentric AI, a supplier of AI-enabled information discovery, classification, and monitoring software program, has named Lane Sullivan to be its new chief info safety and technique officer. Within the CISO position, Sullivan will lead the corporate’s cybersecurity program, which entails sustaining Concentric AI’s safety posture and guaranteeing its alignment with the companies’ real-world safety wants.

Sullivan has a observe report of success within the safety enterprise. He was the SVP and CISO at Magellan Well being, the place he led the cybersecurity, bodily safety, and information governance applications. He additionally served as director of the data safety and compliance (CISO) program at Ingram Content material Group, and as VP of infrastructure at C&S Wholesale Grocers. He holds a Grasp of Science diploma in Laptop and Info Techniques Safety/Info Assurance from Western Governors College in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah.

“Concentric AI’s speedy development and expertise management make this a pivotal second to return on board,” Sullivans acknowledged. “I’m excited to guide our cybersecurity program and form our technique round information safety, insider threats, and accountable AI.”

Jim LoDestro

Jim LoDestro has been employed to be the brand new chief income officer at GridGain, which develops a platform for information storage and real-time processing for transactional, analytical and AI workloads.

LoDestro brings greater than 30 years of government and consulting expertise to GridGain, together with a stint because the CRO of NoSQL database firm Aerospike. Previous to that, LoDestro held related roles at Responsys and Hyperion Options. he was additionally the SVP of worldwide gross sales at Janrain, a consumer administration platform supplier.

“GridGain’s unified platform is uniquely positioned to deal with the demanding information challenges of recent enterprises, enabling them to leverage real-time information processing and AI for his or her essential purposes,” mentioned Jim LoDestro, Chief Income Officer at GridGain. “I’m thrilled to hitch the proficient GridGain staff and contribute to the corporate’s subsequent part of development.”

To learn final month’s version of Profession Notes, click on right here.