In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the high-performance computing community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!

Doug Ahrens

Mellanox Technologies has announced that Doug Ahrens has been appointed as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Ahrens joins Mellanox from GlobalLogic, where he served as chief financial officer. Prior to his role at GlobalLogic, Ahrens served as chief financial officer of Applied Micro Circuits.

“I am excited to join Mellanox and look forward to partnering with the leadership team to advance our growth strategy and further enhance our profitability,” said Ahrens. “The insatiable appetite for data is creating significant opportunities for Mellanox’s leading portfolio of interconnect solutions, which makes this an exciting time to join the company.”

Dana Brunson

Internet2 has announced that Dana Brunson has joined the company as its new executive director for research engagement. Brunson recently served in three capacities at Oklahoma State University: assistant vice president for research cyberinfrastructure; director of the OSU High Performance Computing Center; and adjunct associate professor in the departments of mathematics and computer science.

Brunson is also a leader and member of the Campus Research Computing Consortium Council and serves on multiple national advisory committees. She earned her doctorate in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mathematics from OSU.

Sandeep Chennakeshu

AMD has announced that Sandeep Chennakeshu will join the company is a new position: executive vice president of Computing and Graphics. Chennakeshu will be responsible for AMD’s high-performance PC, gaming and semi-custom businesses. Prior to AMD, he spent thirty years serving in multiple senior engineering and executive roles at Ericsson, Freescale, Sony and Blackberry.

Chennakeshu earned his doctorate in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University, as well as a postgraduate diploma in industrial management from the Indian Institute of Science. He is an IEEE fellow and a named inventor on 170 granted patents.

Kelvin Droegemeier

The Senate has confirmed a director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Droegemeier is a meteorologist from the University of Oklahoma specializing in severe weather events. He served on the National Science Board for 12 years and was vice-chair for the last four of those years.

France A. Córdova, Director of the National Science Foundation, said: “NSF is pleased to welcome Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier as the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), an action taken by the 115th Congress on the last day of its session. […] He is a strong and articulate champion of science and the work of NSF. We look forward to working closely with him in his new role.”

Ken Dyer

CoolIT Systems has announced that Ken Dyer has joined the company as chief intellectual property counsel. Dyer has over 20 years of experience in private practice and was most recently vice president of IP Licensing at Silicon Valley-based Tela Innovations. Previously, Dyer spent several years with Intellectual Ventures in senior IP legal and business roles.

“I am excited to join CoolIT at this point of inflection in the data center liquid cooling market place,” said Ken Dyer. “The Company has created and continues to develop a significant IP portfolio that can be strategically leveraged to support the company’s strategy and growth.”

Forrest Norrod

AMD has also announced that Forrest Norrod, current vice president and general manager for the Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Group, will now have responsibility for all AMD datacenter products across both CPUs and GPUS. Prior to his current role, Norrod was vice president and general manager of Server Business at Dell for five years.

Norrod holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech. He also holds 11 US patents in computer architecture, graphics and system design. He serves on the board of directors of Intersil Corporation.

Mark Papermaster

AMD has also announced that Mark Papermaster will be promoted to executive vice president and CTO. Before joining AMD in 2011 as CTO and senior vice president, Papermaster was the leader of Cisco’s Silicon Engineering Group. He also served as Apple Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering.

Papermaster received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and master’s degree from the University of Vermont, both in electrical engineering. Most recently, he was appointed to the CTO Forum Advisory Board and IEEE Industry Advisory Board.

Masha Petrova

OnScale has announced the appointment of Masha Petrova as vice president of marketing. Petrova will oversee global marketing and communications with a focus on driving revenue and brand recognition. Prior to joining OnScale, Petrova led the marketing initiative for a new line of Additive Manufacturing products at ANSYS, Inc.

“OnScale is redefining the engineering experience. Whether its building technology that will extend human life, architecting the future of transportation, or developing sensors that will make 5G phones an everyday reality, OnScale arms engineers with the tools they need to do their most important and innovative work,” said Petrova. “I have always gravitated towards companies that disrupt markets and deliver the most value to customers and am looking forward to helping OnScale do just that.”

Arjen van Rijn

EGI has announced the election of Arjen van Rijn as council chair. Arjen was involved in preparing the Amsterdam bid to host the EGI Foundation headquarters and was a key member of the team that defined the statutes of the foundation. Arjen has represented the Netherlands in the EGI Council and served two terms as a member of the EGI Executive Board.

“EGI federates hundreds of data centers, operating as a remarkably smooth whole, to serve pan-European research,” says Arjen. “The future of this federation is our collective responsibility as EGI Council. We all have a role to play here: in our local context, in our national context and in the future European Open Science Cloud. For my part, I will do everything I can to contribute to the best possible future for EGI.”

Robert Swan

Intel has announced the promotion of former CFO Robert “Bob” Swan to CEO. Swan held the CEO post on an interim basis for seven months. Prior to joining Intel, Swan served as an operating partner at General Atlanta LLC and served on Applied Materials’ board of directors. Previously, he spent nine years as CFO of eBay, Inc.

“In my role as interim CEO, I’ve developed an even deeper understanding of Intel’s opportunities and challenges, our people and our customers,” Swan said. “When I was first named interim CEO, I was immediately focused on running the company and working with our customers. When the board approached me to take on the role permanently, I jumped at the chance to lead this special company. This is an exciting time for Intel: 2018 was an outstanding year and we are in the midst of transforming the company to pursue our biggest market opportunity ever. I’m honored to have the chance to continue working alongside our board, our leadership team, and our more than 107,000 superb employees as we take the company forward.”

Daniel Verwaerde

Teratec has announced the appointment of Daniel Verwaerde as its new president. Verwaerde was elected by Teratec’s General Assembly. He acted as general administrator of the CEA until last spring. Verwaerde is an engineer and graduated from the Ecole Centrale de Paris.

“I am particularly happy to be back with Teratec,” Verwaerde said.” I actively participated in its creation and followed its development. So, I am keen to continue this success by extending it to new areas, particularly extending its reach witin SMEs, and by making Teratec the European reference center for all digital technologies, from simulation and supercomputers to quantum computing and artificial intelligence”.

To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.

Do you know someone that should be included in next month’s list? If so, send us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.