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Tod Nielsen named VMware COO


By Jeff Feinman
January 7, 2009 — 
VMware may have gotten a much-needed boost in leadership by bringing in former Borland Software president and CEO Tod Nielsen to serve as chief operating officer.

Nielsen, 43, will work with Paul Maritz, VMware’s president and CEO, to help VMware battle Microsoft and its Hyper-V hypervisor in the virtualization market. Nielsen and Maritz worked together in the past at Microsoft.

“In this newly created role, Tod brings unique skills and capabilities that will help us improve our operational focus and enhance our execution across all areas of the business,” Maritz said. “With Tod on board, I will be able to devote more of my time to the product strategy and development, while Tod focuses more on business, marketing and operations. Having worked closely with Tod in the past, I know that we will work effectively together and complement each other.”

Named to the position yesterday, Nielsen joins VMware after the company parted ways with cofounders Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum in the late 2008. Richard Sarwal, executive vice president of research and development, and Paul Chan, vice president of product development, also resigned, giving the impression that some high-level figures at the company were jumping ship.

However, Charles King, president and principal analyst with Pund-IT, said that Nielsen’s marketing and leadership experience will benefit VMware greatly.

“On first glance, he looks like he’ll be a terrific fit over there,” King said. “He’s got both the technical and sales experience that should serve him and VMware very well. From a long-term standpoint, I think bringing in Nielsen as COO should ensure that VMware has a very steady hand on the day-to-day operational tiller, which should allow Maritz a bit more latitude in product development and company strategy.”

Multiple analysts have criticized VMware’s marketing efforts in recent months, saying the company has great technology but only mediocre marketing ability. King said he wasn’t sure about how Nielsen would tie in with VMware’s marketing organization in his role as COO, but his previous experience in marketing should help create some synergies between the two.

Prior to being an executive with Borland, Nielsen was a senior vice president of marketing and sales for Oracle, and the chief marketing officer for BEA Systems. He joined BEA after it acquired Web services provider Crossgain, for which Nielsen served as CEO. Additionally, Nielsen spent 12 years at Microsoft, serving in such roles as general manager of database and developer tools, and vice president of Microsoft’s platform group.

Related Search Term(s): Microsoft, VMware


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