EMC Names New Storage CEO: Inside Track To Replace Tucci?

EMC this week named David Goulden, an 11-year veteran of the company, as its new CEO for its core information infrastructure business, a move likely to solidify his position as a top candidate to replace EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci when he retires.

As EMC CFO for the last seven years, Goulden has been the voice of the Hopkinton, Mass.-based company at its quarterly financial conference calls.

Goulden also served recently as EMC president and COO of EMC's Information Infrastructure Business Units, where he managed sales and customer operations, services, marketing, and general and administrative functions since mid-2012. He was instrumental in over 70 acquisitions EMC made over the past 10 years, EMC said this week.

[Related: EMC Hires Former Symantec, Oracle Exec To Head New Emerging Technology Division ]

Several key EMC executives currently already report to Goulden, including Brian Gallagher, president of EMC's Enterprise and Midrange Systems Division; Guy Churchward, president of EMC's Data Protection and Availability Division; and Chirantan "CJ" Desai, president of EMC's new Emerging Technology Products Division.

Channel sources also say Rich Napolitano, in charge of EMC's emerging technology programs, also reports to Goulden.

The storage industry has been speculating for years who would eventually succeed Joe Tucci as EMC chairman and CEO. Tucci stated in September of 2012 that he plans to remain in charge of EMC through early 2015 even though he has already passed age 65, which is when he had been originally expected to step down.

In addition to Goulden, other potential candidates include Howard Elias, president and COO in charge of global enterprise services at EMC; Bill Scannell, EMC's president of global sales and customer operations; Pat Gelsinger, VMware CEO; and Paul Maritz, Pivotal CEO. Both VMware and Pivotal are majority owned by EMC.

Jamie Shepard, regional vice president at Lumenate, a Dallas-based solution provider and longtime EMC channel partner, said he is not surprised to see Goulden get promoted to head EMC's core information infrastructure business.

"Goulden's a treat choice," Shepard said. "No surprise here. He has a great track record and an amazing reputation."

Shepard said Goulden is the perfect complement to EMC's other top executives. "He's very methodical," he said. "The industry needs that kind of guy. Joe [Tucci] did the best job that anyone could have done handling EMC during the most crazy time in IT. And Goulden was a big part of that, but didn't get a lot of the credit."

PUBLISHED JAN. 10, 2013