Three Sales Executives From NetApp Join Nimbus

Nimbus Data Systems, Inc. announced the expansion of its sales management team with the hiring of three executives:

• Jim Choumas: VP, US Sales
• John Harechmak: VP, Systems Engineering
• Michel Schipperijn: VP, Central Europe

These storage industry veterans, will lead Nimbus’ global sales expansion for S-Class and E-Class flash memory systems.

"I am delighted to welcome Jim, John, and Michel, all veteran team-builders, to the rapidly expanding Nimbus organization," stated Thomas Isakovich, CEO of Nimbus Data Systems. "Individuals of their caliber are rare finds, and I look forward to their contributions to our future growth."

Jim Choumas brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise sales management and business development. He joins from NetApp, where his career spanned 13 years during which the company grew from $200 million to $6 billion in revenue. He recently led Global Major Accounts responsible for over $200 million in sales to NetApp’s largest customers in high technology and web infrastructure, including Apple, Yahoo!, Oracle, and News Corporation. Prior to NetApp, Choumas held senior sales positions at Silicon Graphics where he was responsible for sales to major entertainment customers such as Pixar and Dreamworks.

"I am very excited to be at Nimbus Data Systems and to have the opportunity to be part of something really special," stated Choumas. "Nimbus resembles the NetApp I joined 13 years ago: an innovative company pioneering a new approach to storage with boundless opportunity to make a significant impact on the enterprise storage market. Flash is certainly the future of the datacenter, and Nimbus is well positioned to become the leader in this space."

John Harechmak brings over 20 years of experience in building and managing worldwide storage system engineering and professional services teams. He joins from NetApp, where he was senior director of System Engineering, leading technical initiatives around HPC, server and desktop virtualization, and big data. Prior to NetApp, He managed software development for 3PAR, which was acquired by HP in 2010, overseeing both US and UK-based development teams. Harechmak began his career at Silicon Graphics where he focused on HPC implementations for Federal customers, including NASA, NOAA, and Department of Defense agencies.

"What attracted me most to Nimbus was the completeness of the platform," stated Harechmak. "When I started at NetApp in 1999, the tagline was Fast, Simple, Reliable. As the company matured, Multiprotocol/Unified Storage became the emphasis. At Nimbus, we offer all of these attributes, today, in an all-flash solution at disk array prices. It’s not often that a new technology fundamentally changes the way businesses solve their IT problems, and Nimbus Sustainable Storage does exactly that."

Michel Schipperijn brings 20 years of experience building European sales teams and channels in network infrastructure and storage systems to Nimbus. He joins from NetApp, where his career spanned nine years, originally joining NetApp as one of the first employees in the Netherlands. He was mostly recently sales director for the Netherlands, one of the company’s most profitable European divisions, supporting over €100 million in revenue. Before NetApp, Schipperijn worked at Cisco Systems and 3Com, leading partner development for the Netherlands and the broader Benelux region.

"Nimbus delivers a new and innovative solution in data management," stated Schipperijn. "I am very excited to be at Nimbus and to bring this technology to Europe. After 9 years at NetApp, I am thrilled to be part of this ambitious team to set the stage for SSD in Europe."