Commvault Sales, Channel Execs Out As New CEO Makes His Mark

Storage and data management software vendor Commvault on Wednesday said its top sales and channel executives have left the company, clearing the way for an executive reorganization that new CEO Sanjay Mirchandani says will bring him closer to the channel.

Ron Miiller, senior vice president of worldwide sales, and Owen Taraniuk, global head of partnerships and market development, have both left Commvault, the Tinton Falls, N.J.-based company said.

Miiller has been with Commvault for over 19 years. Taraniuk joined Commvault in 2015 to head the company's Singapore operations, and in late 2017 became the top channel executive.

[Related: Commvault Hires Former Puppet Master Sanjay Mirchandani As New CEO]

The departure of Miiller and Taraniuk comes just a couple months after Mirchandani joined Commvault as its new CEO after its former CEO of over 20 years, Bob Hammer, stepped down in February.

The shakeup also comes after the December departure of Scott Strubel, Commvault's former vice president of worldwide sales.

Mirchandani joined Commvault from software maker Puppet, where he served as CEO for nearly three years. Prior to that, he spent over two years heading VMware's operations in the Asia Pacific and Japan areas. He also spent over 7 years at EMC, over half of which serving as that company's chief information officer. Mirchandani told CRN that the past 60 days since his arrival at Commvault have seen him in a listen and planning mode.

"It's clear the opportunity in front of us is big," he said. "We're in day three of our new fiscal year, and want to be in line with partner and customer needs."

The last 18 months have seen Commvault pivot to be a partner-centric company, and had done so in part by restructuring is channel resources into a centralized function, Mirchandani said.

"But I want to bring the resources closer to the theaters and geographies, and so now our theater leaders report to the geographies," he said. "Companies do this kind of thing every day."

For Commvault's Americas business, former Cisco executive Anthony Faustini is the theater vice president. Reporting to him is former Veritas Technology executive Rick Fairweather, vice president of Americas channels.

Mirchandani said he also wanted to make sure that Commvault has a deeper focus on its alliance partners, cloud partners, and channel and distribution partners. The company is in the process of hiring a new executive to manage the channel and distribution partners, he said.

"The leaders of these functions are coming closer to me," he said. "The decision-making is coming closer to me. And the field team is moving closer to the partners."

The departures of both Miiller and Taraniuk were done by mutual decisions, and the two are departing as friends, Mirchandani said.

"If anything, this is me doubling down and moving closer to things in the channel," he said. We are focused on getting deeper with channel partners."

Mirchandani's last 60 or so days has been spent meeting employees, management, and partners and customers as he made his evaluation of channel, said Glenn Dekhayser, field chief technology officer at Red8, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based solution provider and longtime Commvault channel partner.

"By all accounts, I've never seen anyone work harder to get started that Sanjay has," Dekhayser told CRN. "He obviously has been working on strategy. He replaced someone who was CEO of Commvault for 20 years. trying to take over a ship that has seen only one captain in 20 years is not an enviable task."

The rumblings from inside Commvault have been positive, Dekhayser said.

"I look forward to hear his strategy," he said. "Anything to get more resources to the channel is good news. And a new fiscal year is a good time to hear about it."

Miiller's resignation was originally unveiled on March 31 in an SEC filing. Commvault’s stock price originally fell from $65.81 per share on Monday to a low of $60.71 per share on Tuesday, but recovered to close at $63.19 per share on Wednesday.