Jon Benson VP and GM Emerging Markets, Spectra Logic

Spectra Logic Corp. announced that two former StorageTek (STK)/Sun Microsystems executives have joined Spectra Logic in leadership roles.

 Jon Benson has been appointed vice president and general manager of emerging markets.

David Trachy was named senior director of emerging storage system technologies.  

At Spectra Logic, Benson and Trachy will focus on developing a new line of storage systems to complement Spectra’s current product portfolio. During their tenure at STK and Sun, the pair led the product and business development of numerous tape library, drive, software and disk system platforms.

Benson hailed from STK in its glory days of tape market dominance. He was employed for more than 19 years and was serving as vice president and general manager of its tape business when the company was purchased by Sun in 2005. During his tenure at StorageTek, Benson directed the business initiatives that led to tape market leadership throughout the 1990s and into 2000-2005 with the PowderHorn, SL8500 and 9840/9940/T10000 tape drives. After the acquisition of STK by Sun, he served as senior vice president of worldwide storage, tape and disk divisions; leading the multibillion dollar storage business.

"I am excited to join the Spectra Logic team. Not only is the company a technology leader, financially secure and growing, but it also fosters a deep corporate culture of continuous innovation and close customer relationships," said Jon Benson, Spectra’s new vice president and general manager of emerging markets. "I look forward to contributing to Spectra Logic’s success moving forward."

David Trachy formerly served as the director of innovation for Sun‘s storage group.Trachy joined STK in 1979, and held various engineering/firmware development and leadership positions while at STK and Sun. He also oversaw several future product development and cutting-edge initiatives.

"Spectra is pleased to announce the addition of Jon Benson and David Trachy to our leadership team," said Nathan Thompson, Spectra Logic’s founder and chief executive officer. "Their depth of customer and industry relationships, technology expertise, and proven success launching new technologies, including more than eight tape library platforms, gives us confidence that they will be valuable assets as we expand Spectra’s market reach and position the company for continued success going forward."