COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 7, 2020 — The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announces the appointment of Dr. J Michel Metz to serve as Interim Chair of the SNIA Board of Directors. Dr. Metz succeeds David Dale, who is retiring from NetApp and stepped down from his role as SNIA Board Chair, after serving in that leadership role for the past seven years. This appointment is effective June 25, 2020, through SNIA’s Annual Members’ Meeting in October 2020, when annual officer elections will be held.

“On behalf of the entire SNIA Organization and the Storage Industry, we would like to thank David for his leadership, steadfast dedication, and commitment as the Board Chair and an active SNIA Board member for the past 13 years,” said Michael Oros, SNIA Executive Director. “We look forward with optimism and excitement to J’s leadership in the important work that’s underway and the new projects recently undertaken by SNIA in several areas.”

“It has been a great honor to work with the SNIA Board, volunteers, and staff during a time of tremendous change in the computer industry,” said David Dale. “I will treasure the experience for the rest of my life. Meanwhile, the Association is in good hands with J as Interim Chair, an engaged Board, and expert enthusiastic staff to help drive its member companies’ collaborative agenda forward.”

Having served as a member of the SNIA Board of Directors since 2013, J’s 25 years’ experience in academic, corporate, and industry positions make him ideally suited for this position. During that time, he has been a leader in several key industry standards groups, formerly sitting on the Boards of Directors for Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVM Express) and the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA). He currently works for Rockport Networks, sits on the SNIA Computational Storage Technical Working Group and the Networking Storage Forum and has held previous roles at Apple, QLogic (now Marvell), and Cisco Systems. J received his Ph.D. in Mass Communication Technology from the University of Georgia.

“The SNIA organization is stronger than ever,” said Metz, “and this is due in no small part to David Dale’s excellent leadership. I feel honored and privileged to accept the responsibility of carrying the banner forward. This is a very exciting time for SNIA as we explore new technology standards for the emerging storage and memory technologies to help transform the industry.”

About SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of member companies spanning the global storage market. SNIA’s mission is to lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information. To this end, the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market.

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Source: SNIA