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!
Rob Beard
Micron Technology, Inc., a memory and storage solutions provider, welcomed Rob Beard as its senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Beard will be responsible for leading Micron’s global legal, intellectual property, and compliance and ethics functions, comprising a team of lawyers, paralegals and other professionals across Micron’s global footprint.
Prior to this appointment, Beard led teams supporting Micron’s corporate and global operations functions. Before joining Micron, he worked at international law firms Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Shearman and Sterling LLP, where he led mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions in complex, cross-border capital markets.
Atos announced that effective January 1, 2022, Rodolphe Belmer assumed office as the company’s new chief executive officer. Belmer was formerly chief executive officer of satellite operator Eutelsat Communications and he is also a Netflix board member.
“On behalf of the Atos Board and all its employees, I am very happy to welcome Rodolphe Belmer and look forward to working closely with him as he leads our Group forward, accelerating our transformation and enabling the return to growth,” said Bertrand Meunier, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Atos SE, Chairman of the Nomination and Governance Committee.
Barry Behnken and Chester Kennedy
ColdQuanta, a provider of cold atom quantum technology solutions, appointed Barry Behnken as its executive vice president of engineering. Behnken will be responsible for leading and developing engineering teams across ColdQuanta’s three divisions: Quantum Computing, Quantum Research as a Service, and ColdAtom Technologies.
In addition, ColdQuanta appointed Chester Kennedy as its president of research and security solutions. Kennedy will focus on driving sustainable growth for the company’s security solutions including sensors, quantum RF, and services that enable new applications of quantum derived technologies.
Ariel Braunstein and Dean Kassmann
IonQ, Inc., provider of trapped-ion quantum computing solutions, appointed Ariel Braunstein as its senior vice president of product management. In addition to co-founding Pure Digital Technology, a company that generated over $1 billion in revenue with the Flip video camcorder solution, Braunstein previously led Cisco’s consumer product portfolio and Google’s AR and VR product management group.
In addition, IonQ appointed Dean Kassmann as its vice president of research and development. Kassmann comes to IonQ from Blue Origin, where he held the role of senior director of advanced technology. He established and led the team responsible for company-wide applied research in the support of Blue Origin’s launch vehicle engines for in-space product lines.
Hans-Werner Braun
Hans-Werner Braun, a research scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame. He was among the engineers, physicists, mathematicians, academics and others from 11 nations recently recognized for their outstanding contributions to the Internet’s global growth. Braun was specifically inducted for his role in the design, development and operation of the National Science Foundation Network and the network’s subsequent growth in speed, coverage and reliability, which served as a model for Internet networks around the world and paved the way for large-scale routing.
“I appreciate being included in the Internet Hall of Fame, however, there are many others who played key roles as well who seem to be all but forgotten by now,” Braun said. “I cannot even start to inclusively credit people for working with me or helping me, as there were literally at least hundreds.”
The Computing Research Association appointed Dr. Tracy Camp as the organization’s fourth executive director. Camp, currently the Department Head of Computer Science at Colorado School of Mines, brings to the role strong experience as a leader in the computing research community at the national level, a history spearheading diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in computing, and a detailed vision for leading the organization into the future.
“I’m extremely excited to become the next CRA Executive Director, following in the footsteps of three impressive former CRA leaders,” said Camp. “Several major issues exist in the computing research world today, which has created many opportunities for positive transformative change. I look forward to working with CRA’s exceptional staff, board members, and the broader community for the benefit of computing research and society at large.”
Altair, provider of software and cloud solutions in the areas of simulation, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence, appointed Sandy Carter to its board of directors. Carter currently serves as senior vice president and channel chief of Unstoppable Domains, Inc., a software company building domains on blockchains.
“I am proud to join the Altair board of directors and bring my multidisciplinary experience to help the organization accelerate its global partnership, sales, and marketing efforts,” said Carter. “Altair is making great strides in helping forward-thinking companies accelerate their digital transformation efforts.”
Frank Colich and Mark Fieldhouse
Rescale, provider of the cloud high performance computing platform enabling digital R&D and engineering, appointed Frank Colich as its chief financial officer. Colich will lead all aspects of the company’s finance organization, including legal and investor relations. Colich brings over 20 years of experience in private and public companies in the cloud transformation industry.
In addition, Mark Fieldhouse joined Rescale as its general manager of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Fieldhouse will oversee all aspects of the company’s growth in EMEA. Fieldhouse joined Rescale with more than 25 years of enterprise software leadership experience in sales, marketing, operations and strategy.
Laura Gagliardi, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, was elected a foreign member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences. Gagliardi is the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Chemistry and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, with a joint appointment at the James Franck Institute. She is also the director of the Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry and the Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center.
“I’m very honored by this recognition,” Gagliardi said. “For one, the Accademia is a very prestigious intuition, but I also feel honored because it is in my country of origin. I’ve had tremendous opportunities abroad, but I’ve always felt grateful to my country for the education I received there.”
Claudine Hagen
Kitware, Inc., a provider of artificial intelligence and scientific computing software solutions, appointed Claudine Hagen to its board of directors. Hagen brings to the board more than twenty years of experience in financial reporting, internal controls assessment, and complex business transactions. She has been with Kitware for nine years, and has served as its chief financial officer since March 2017.
Hagen led the effort to convert Kitware to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan and was able to bring together the right mix of external experts to guide Kitware smoothly through the process. She also spearheaded the effort to bring in an external firm to guide Kitware in creating a strategic plan for the company.
Jong-Hee Han and Kyehyun Kyung
Samsung Electronics promoted Jong-Hee Han to vice chairman and chief executive officer. He will be responsible for leading the newly merged SET Division as he continues to head the visual display business. Samsung Electronics named President Kyehyun Kyung chief executive officer and will lead the DS Division.
Han is a leading expert in TV research and development and has played a major role in the company achieving the top position in global TV sales for the 15th consecutive year. He is expected to strengthen the synergies among the different businesses in the SET Division and help drive new businesses and technologies. Kyung, who has been the CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics and has previously served as the head of Samsung Electronics’ Flash Product & Technology Team as well as part of the DRAM Design Team.
Quantum Computing Inc., a quantum computing company headquartered in Leesburg, Va, has appointed William J. McGann, Ph.D. as chief operating and technology officer (COO/CTO) responsible for technical and product engineering. McGann will lead QCI’s ready-to-run quantum software initiatives as the company enhances its quantum optimization software. He previously served on QCI’s board of directors.
Phil Holtberg and Lara Kisielewska
Phil Holtberg joined Tabor Communications Inc. [publisher of HPCwire, Datanami and EnterpriseAI] as its account director, focusing primarily on sales for two of its publications (Datanami and EnterpriseAI). Holtberg, a 19-year veteran of NewBay Media, has held multiple sales roles at the company, including serving as group publisher of the Pro AV family of publications and advertising representative on all NewBay publications and digital properties. Most recently, he was account manager of Springer Nature, handling accounts across pre-clinical and life sciences categories.
In addition, Lara Kisielewska joined TCI as its first chief marketing officer to both expand TCI’s footprint and oversee expanded client services programs that are now available for companies looking to engage with the audiences of all three TCI publications. Kisielewska has dual backgrounds in publishing and high-tech marketing, and has been part of the open source and HPC communities for more than 20 years. She co-founded Linux Magazine (among others) and has been running Xand Marketing, which solely services the technical computing market, since 2005.
Susan Hubbard was named Deputy for Science and Technology at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hubbard joined ORNL from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she most recently served as associate laboratory director of Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area.
“It is a profound honor and privilege to be named as the Deputy for Science and Technology at ORNL,” Hubbard said. “ORNL has a stunning breadth, depth and history of transformational fundamental science discoveries, technological advances and innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing our nation. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help shape the lab’s future and its contributions to the DOE mission.”
Kenneth Klingenstein was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for helping lead the expansion of the internet in the Western United States and playing an early and important role in the development of the internet’s identity and trust layers. Klingenstein is among 21 inductees from 11 countries being recognized for their contributions to building, optimizing, and strengthening the foundational infrastructure of the network for reach, access, security, and scale.
“While this commendation is a personal recognition, it must be noted that most of my professional life has been associated with Internet2,” said Klingenstein. “Much of the body of work being noted by the Internet Society was done within the context of the Internet2 middleware activities. Given the passionate community participation in the work, the Internet Hall of Fame recognition is as much for the organization and community that creates it as it is for me.”
Casey Morrison and Aleksandr Oysgelt
Astera Labs, a provider of purpose-built connectivity solutions for intelligent systems, promoted Casey Morrison to chief product officer. Morrison will drive product strategy and bolster the company’s customer engagement programs across all engineering teams with an overarching goal to deliver an exceptional product experience for its customers and partners.
In addition, Astera Labs appointed Aleksandr Oysgelt as its vice president of hardware engineering. Oysgelt will spearhead Astera Labs’ hardware engineering operations to complement its silicon development team for cloud connectivity solutions.
The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre has announced Tim Shanahan, a recipient of the Australian Public Service Medal and the Centenary Medal, has been appointed its new Chair. Shanahan currently serves on the boards of RAC WA, the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre, Zetta Group and FORM.
“I feel privileged to play a part in this pivotal time in Pawsey’s history with the introduction of the Setonix supercomputer and its work accelerating discovery,” Shanahan said.
IonQ, Inc., provider of trapped-ion quantum computing solutions, appointed Inder M. Singh to its board of directors. Singh is the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Arm, where he leads the global finance organization as well as corporate IT operations, procurement and enterprise security teams.
“It is an incredibly exciting time to join IonQ’s Board, having watched the company grow from a startup to the quantum computing industry leader it is today,” said Singh. “Government, business and society as a whole are quickly recognizing quantum’s ability to solve previously impossible problems, and they are turning to IonQ for counsel and strategic partnership. I could not be more excited to be joining the Board and helping the team potentially shape the next frontiers of technology.”
Groq Inc., an innovator in compute accelerators for artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high performance computing, appointed Dr. Ford Tamer to its board of directors. Prior to joining the Groq Board, Tamer served as president and chief executive officer of Inphi for nine years until its recent acquisition by Marvell.
“I am excited to join Groq as a board member and Senior Advisor to support Jonathan Ross, and the global Groq team, board, and investors, in growing the company into a successful leader in its field,” said Tamer. “Groq is unique at providing predictable low latency at scale for real-time AI, ML, and HPC applications. The team has a deep heritage and proven track record in developing large-scale solutions to address the data center needs of tier-1 customers and partners.”
Rajeev Thakur, a senior computer scientist and deputy director of the Data Science and Learning Division at Argonne National Laboratory, was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was cited “for contributions to high-performance interfaces for scalable computing systems.”
“I am truly honored to be named an IEEE Fellow. I thank my colleagues, collaborators and mentors who have helped me throughout my career,” Thakur said.
ACM Names 2021 Distinguished Members
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has named 63 Distinguished Members for outstanding contributions to the field. All 2021 inductees are longstanding ACM members and were selected by their peers for a range of accomplishments that advance computing as a science and a profession.
“Each year we are excited to recognize a new class of ACM Distinguished Members for their professional achievements, as well as their longstanding membership with ACM,” explains ACM President Gabriele Kotsis. “The Distinguished Members program is a way both to celebrate the trailblazing work of our members, and to underscore how participation with a professional society enhances one’s career growth. This award category also emphasizes how ACM’s worldwide membership is the foundation of our organization.”
Duality’s Technical Advisory Committee Members
Duality announced the members of its technical advisory committee, which will support participating startups with business know-how as well as deep expertise in quantum science and technology. TAC members will provide guidance, technical recommendations, mentorship, and expertise to startups participating in Duality. As part of this role, they also will help select Cohort 2 of the accelerator.
“We are excited to welcome these distinguished Technical Advisory Committee members to Duality,” said Juan de Pablo, vice president for national laboratories, science strategy, innovation, and global initiatives at the University of Chicago and chair of the Duality Governing Board. “The accelerator has already fueled an impressive first cohort of quantum startup companies, and the Committee will contribute its expertise in selecting the next cohort. We look forward to celebrating these companies’ successes as the region continues to solidify its reputation as a hub for quantum science and technology.”
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.
