In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the high-performance computing community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!
Ryan Adamson, Scott Pakin, and Haritha Siddabathuni Som
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) announced the addition of Ryan Adamson, Scott Pakin, and Haritha Siddabathuni Som within the Hardware and Integration (HI) group. Adamson has been leading efforts within HI’s Software Deployment project since late 2019. The Software Deployment project works with the DOE HPC facilities to deploy and integrate the appropriate ECP software stack to meet users’ needs. Adamson currently leads the OLCF’s HPC Core Operations group. Pakin, a research scientist on the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Programming Models team, also joined the HI team in 2019. He heads HI’s Hardware Evaluation project, which aims to guide application development on hardware advances and to identify hardware technologies that offer the most significant advantage to ECP applications.
Lastly, Som, currently the team lead at Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s (ALCF) user experience team, now leads the Facility Resource Utilization subproject for HI. Under this new role, Som is responsible for managing the ECP’s user program, hosts the ECP Resource Allocation Council monthly calls, and coordinates ECP’s requests for allocations. She replaces Julia White, who is taking over the responsibilities of the ECP risk manager.
Robert Calderoni and Ravi Vijayaraghavanto
Ansys, Inc. appointed Robert Calderoni and Ravi Vijayaraghavanto to the company’s board of directors. Calderoni brings over 30 years of executive experience, spearheading multinational software, technology and service companies. Currently, he is chairman of Citrix Systems, Inc., and before Citrix, he was the chairman and chief executive officer of Ariba, Inc.
Ravi Vijayaraghavan is a senior partner at Bain & Company, Inc. Vijayaraghavan is credited for playing a leadership role in establishing and expanding Bain’s technology and telecommunication practice across the Asia-Pacific region. He is a senior member of Bain’s mergers and acquisitions, private equity and telecommunications, media and technology practices. Ravi is also a member of the board of overseers for WGBH.
Quantum Computing, Inc. selected Dr. Nicholas Chancellor to serve on its advisory board. Chancellor is a research and teaching fellow at Durham University within the department of physics. He is also an EPSRC UKRI innovation fellow for his work on energy landscape based on hybrid quantum/classical computing. In addition, he is a member of the PLOS One editorial board and has held public speaking roles at quantum computing workshops.
“Quantum computing is seeing tremendous growth as both industries and nations realize its potential in revolutionizing multiple disciplines,” Chancellor said. “As development continues to accelerate, the promise of quantum computing may represent the next computing and technological revolution. I’m excited to join this team of thought leaders and executors to help deliver near-term quantum computing performance.”
SoftIron’s co-founder, Mark Chen, returned to the company as chief security officer. Chen, who served as SoftIron’s chief scientist before taking a professional sabbatical, will now lead the company’s secure provenance strategy. Before SoftIron, Chen was a senior engineer and security architect for Intuit, where he designed and built the security system for an online retail banking system.
“Protecting our critical technology base against a growing and diverse array of adversaries becomes ever more important as society’s reliance on technology increases,” Chen said. “The industry’s constant drive to minimize production and material costs through outsourcing has created a situation where complex supply chains with opaque, multi-tier relationships are the norm. This environment offers deep shadows in which spies and hackers can thrive and invites root-level exploits in both hardware and software. A compromised technology base, in turn, threatens industries such as energy, financial services, health care, and government. As I return to SoftIron as CSO, I am resolved to help drive our approach to secure provenance and to lead the industry in a new direction where root-level security becomes a planned priority, not a reaction to events that have already threatened lives and fortunes.”
Tachyum announced the addition of Stephen Dilbeck under the role of senior director, system on chip. Dilbeck has been with the company under contract since 2019 and under this new full-time role, he is responsible for customer owned tooling physical design and SoC of the company’s data processing chip. He will work with engineers to achieve timing, area, performance and power goals of the company’s Prodigy Universal Processor Chip.
“Having been with Tachyum for a while, it is abundantly clear that they are not only developing a revolutionary product but a revolutionary approach to the semiconductor market as a whole,” Dilbeck said. “I am looking forward to working full time with the engineers at Tachyum to ensure that their task remains on track and that they are able to achieve their goals of providing unprecedented performance, power efficiency and cost savings to the industry.”
Michael Liebman
Quantum Computing Inc. appointed Dr. Michael Liebman to serve on its technical advisory board. Liebman’s research focuses on computational models of disease progression that stress risk detection, disease processes and clinical pathway modeling, as well as disease stratification from the clinical perspective. He utilizes systems-based approaches and design thinking to represent and analyze risk/benefit analysis in pharmaceutical development and healthcare.
“Billions of R&D dollars are being invested by pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for specific populations with specific diseases. Based on my research, I believe quantum computing techniques will have a significant impact on positive outcomes, resulting in better drug treatments and greater return on investment,” Liebman said. “The combination of Quantum Computing Inc.’s talented technical team and my knowledge of the pharma and medical research industry will allow QCI to make a significant contribution to this field.”
DUG appointed former Western Australian Chief Justice Wayne Martin as chairman. Martin was selected to serve to the Queen’s Counsel in 1993 serving as chief justice from 2006 to 2018. Since retiring, Martin has taken roles in arbitration and mediation, and for the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts, he serves as a judge.
“I’m very pleased to be joining DUG for the next phase of its development,” Martin said. “It is such a great Australian story. Having started 16 years ago in a shed in Matt’s backyard, DUG now has four global offices and is using cutting-edge technology to compete internationally. It is exactly the sort of success Australia ought to be celebrating.”
Lois Curfman McInnes and Sherry Li
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) announced that Lois Curfman McInnes will replace Jonathan Carter, who will be moving to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as associate lab director for Computing Sciences. McInnes is a senior computational scientist in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory. She has been collaborating with ECP since it was established as a PI and a technical area lead for the software technology group’s Math Libraries.
Sherry Li will fill the team lead position for Math Libraries. She is a senior scientist in the Computational Research Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Li is recognized internationally as a mathematician and computer scientist. In addition, she was the lead developer of SuperLU.
Intel’s vice president and general manager of its AI Platforms Group, Naveen Rao, announced he is leaving the company. Rao will be replaced by Gail Signer, who was been with the company for 36 years running the Inference Products Group under Rao. Rao and the AI Platforms Group were responsible for artificial intelligence product development and strategy. His group was also responsible for deploying hardware architectures built to advance deep learning in the datacenter and at the edge.
“It has been a remarkable experience building a new brand within Intel and sharpening the focus around AI at the company! I wish all of my colleagues well as the field of AI matures,” Rao said in a tweet.
One Stop Systems, Inc. tapped David Raun for the role of interim president and CEO. He is succeeding Steve Cooper, who will continue as a member of the board of the directors. He has held a number of senior management roles over the past 24 years, including serving on the OSS board since 2016 and the OSS audit committee since 2018.
Before OSS, he served as president and COO at ASSIA. He holds a B.S. in computer and electrical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Raun will serve in an interim capacity until the board selects a new president and CEO.
Qumulo appointed Barry Russell as senior vice president (SVP) and general manager (GM) of cloud. As SVP and GM, Russell will spearhead Qumulo’s cloud strategy across business development, alliances and market execution. Before Qumulo, Russell led cloud field sales, solution architecture and the overall alliance strategy at F5. He is credited with growing the company’s cloud software revenue by over 90 percent within his first year. He also executed a global strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“Qumulo is a perfect fit for uniting my passion for disruptive technologies with customer-obsessed solutions,” Russell said. “Qumulo is enabling enterprise customers around the world to digitally transform and create impactful, data-driven outcomes. From producing animated films to crucial health research, Qumulo’s innovative approach is disrupting old-guard storage technologies that don’t run natively in the cloud, failing to meet the needs of distributed workloads or the large volumes of data used by cloud-based applications. I am super excited to join the Qumulo team and to help customers turn data into business outcomes.”
Altair tapped Gilma Saravia for the role of chief people officer. Under this new role, Saravia will oversee all aspects of Altair’s HR functions globally and will support strategic company initiatives to ensure Altair’s goal to continue to cultivate a culture that attracts the best talent.
“I am energized and honored to help shape the future of Altair,” Saravia said. “What I admire most about Altair is its outstanding culture and the leadership team’s commitment to its people. Those two essential elements create a culture of innovation that delivers ground-breaking technologies for our customers.”
Amir Yacoby, Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University since 2006, joined Quantum Machines’ Scientific Advisory Board. Yacoby is a leading researcher in the field of quantum science, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He holds a Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
“There are so many teams and companies around the world working to build quantum computers based on different platforms and architectures. QM is the first company that is developing the hardware and software which allows us to actually use quantum processors and to realize their potential.” Yacoby said. “All the research teams I’m in contact with are either using QM’s systems or are eager to. There is tremendous global enthusiasm for what they have created.”
Atos Group Management Committee
Atos announced the new members of the Group Management Committee comprised of the company’s executive leadership team. The committee aims to execute the group’s strategy initiated in 2020, which is focused on reshaping its portfolio offerings, reinforce its market approach, and setting up an industry-led organization to ensure value is delivered to customers and stakeholders alike.
Members include: CEO Eli Girard; Eric Grall, who leads the manufacturing segment and is chief operating officer; and Adrian Gregory, who leads the financial services and insurance and is also head of Atos|Syntel. Jean Phillippe Poirault, head of public sector and defense as well as big data and cybersecurity, is also part of the committee. To see the full committee list, click here.
To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.
Do you know someone that should be included in next month’s list? If so, send us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.
