Jeff Benck President and COO, Emulex

Emulex Corporation announced that Jeff Benck has been promoted to the company’s president and chief operating officer (COO). In this position, Benck will focus on delivering growth and diversification of products and technologies that drive the adoption of Emulex products in the data center.

 Benck will continue to report directly to Emulex chief executive officer (CEO), Jim McCluney. This promotion brought forth by McCluney, has been unanimously approved by the board of directors.

"Jeff Benck has been promoted to president and COO based on his successful execution on key original equipment manufacturer (OEM) design wins and his leadership as the company transformed itself in order to compete in the emerging 10Gb Ethernet network convergence market," said Jim McCluney, CEO, Emulex. "Based on Jeff’s effectiveness at Emulex and his previous leadership roles across the industry, I am confident that he will help us fully realize the tremendous growth opportunities in front of us."

"I would like to thank Jim and the Board of Directors for their confidence in our ability to execute and lead in the rapidly growing 10Gb/s Ethernet network convergence market," said Jeff Benck, president and COO, Emulex. "I look forward to continuing my work with Jim and the rest of the executive team as we expand our data center footprint and strengthen our position as a key technology provider to server and storage OEMs."

Jeff Benck joined Emulex in May 2008 as executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO) and was subsequently appointed to the position of president and COO in August 2010. Benck oversees the company's engineering, marketing, business development, operations and sales organizations. Benck also plays a key role in contributing to the corporate strategy and is focused on diversifying the Emulex product portfolio and delivering growth through the deployment of converged networking.

Previously, Benck served as president and chief operating officer at QLogic. Prior to joining QLogic, he spent 18 years at IBM, most recently serving as vice president of xSeries, BladeCenter and Retail Store Solutions development. While at IBM, Benck's focus included growth initiatives, product development, marketing and strategy, portfolio management and customer relationships. Benck is widely known for his role in establishing IBM's blade server product line. His BladeCenter team received IBM's highest honor with the IBM Chairman's Award for Client Excellence.

Benck holds a Master of Science degree in management of technology from University of Miami and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. Benck is also a distinguished inventor in the computer systems field and holds 6 US patents.

Jeff Benck resides in Southern California with his wife Nina and two daughters, Gabrielle and Gracyn. He continues to enjoy sports after playing NCAA Div III Varsity Basketball for Rochester Institute of Technology, including basketball and golf.