HP Loses Another Top Channel Executive To Oracle

Gary Koopman, former vice president of U.S. distribution at HP, is now group vice president of North America hardware, alliances and channel sales at Oracle, CRN has learned.

Neither Oracle nor HP responded to multiple requests for comment, but a source familiar with the matter confirmed that Koopman accepted Oracle's offer earlier this week.

[Related: HP Shuffles Autonomy Leadership, Departed Execs Cite Stifling Bureaucracy ]

A 27-year IT industry veteran, Koopman has been with HP since 2007. Prior to joining HP, he spent two years as senior director of channel sales at Pillar Data Systems, the Larry Ellison funded storage vendor that Oracle acquired last July.

Koopman's background also includes three years as vice president of U.S. sales at Quantum Corporation and 14 years at Western Digital, where he was director of marketing, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Koopman follows a path blazed by Tom LaRocca, vice president of worldwide product strategy and alliances at Oracle, who jumped ship in January. LaRocca spent 12 years at HP and was one of the key architects of the company's PartnerOne program.

Oracle and HP are headed to trial to settle their dispute over Itanium software development, and jury selection for the Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, Calif., was set to begin Thursday.

HP last week announced it will cut 27,000 jobs by the end of 2014 -- roughly 8 percent of its workforce -- as part of an ongoing restructuring that it expects will save up to $3.5 billion.