Russell Johnson COO, Connected Data

Connected Data, Inc. announced that Russell Johnson has been named COO and Gene Spies has been named CFO, as demand for Transporter private cloud appliances gains traction over public cloud and legacy NAS offerings.

The two C-level executive appointments reflect continued growth in the technology industry’s file synchronization and sharing (FSS) market.
 
International Data Corporation forecasts that the FSS market will grow at a 23.1% five-year CAGR through 2018 to $2.3 billion. The healthy growth rate through 2018 will continue to be driven by the shift to cloud, mobile use of FSS, and the ability to share and collaborate with others effectively.
 
In February, Connected Data released two new private cloud file sync and share appliances-the Transporter 15 and 30 storage devices-designed to deliver critical business-class file sharing features, performance, and capacity to small businesses, departments, and remote offices. ZDNet recently called the Transporter “a great alternative to less secure public cloud offerings” and “a perfect solution for businesses that want to allow collaboration and file sharing between remotely located users, but that also want to maintain some control over their assets.” (ZDNet Review: The Transporter Beams You Into the Future of Private Cloud)
 
Russell Johnson brings over 20 years of sales, marketing, and general management leadership to the organization. In his new role, he will be responsible for global sales, manufacturing, and operations; customer service and support; and channel marketing. Before joining Connected Data, he served as SVP with Barracuda Networks, in which capacity he managed international sales and marketing as well as global business workflow and optimization of the customer experience, ultimately leading to an IPO. He also previously held the position of president for the semiconductor division of e2v. Prior to e2v, he held sales and general management executive positions at Adaptec and Applied Micro and was involved in the sale of the storage division of Applied Micro to LSI Corporation.
 
Gene Spies brings over 20 years of financial, accounting and leadership experience specifically in the technology industry. In his new role he will be responsible for finance, accounting, tax, legal, human resources and sales operations. He Spies was previously Nexsan Corporation‘s CFO where he was involved in their acquisition by Imation for $120 million. Before joining Nexsan, he held numerous finance roles at Xylan Corporation, which was acquired by Alcatel, and as a senior manager at KPMG LLP.
 
“We are pleased to announce the appointments of Russell and Gene to our executive team as we execute on the next phase of rapid growth,” said Geoff Barrall, CEO. “They have incredible track records in building companies from early stage to successful acquisitions and IPOs. Their talent will be instrumental as we expand our footprint and deliver the Transporter suite of private cloud appliances that provide the performance, privacy and security controls that enterprises demand – and that public cloud solutions can’t deliver.”