Frank Slootman, Board’s Advisor, Nutanix

Nutanix, Inc. announced the addition of three industry veterans to its advisory board.

The new members – Frank Slootman, president and CEO of ServiceNow, Ben Gibson, CMO of Aruba Networks and B.V. Jagadeesh, managing partner of KAAJ Ventures – will help support growth and provide strategic counsel as it continues to disrupt the datacenter market with its approach to software-driven converged infrastructure.

With experience from successful enterprise storage, infrastructure and software companies, the advisors have the background to advise the company, which has seen growth and announced in May it had achieved an annualized sales run rate exceeding $80 million after only six quarters of selling. The company aims to continue this trajectory by more than doubling in size in the next 12 months and continue delivering its converged infrastructure solution on the market.

“We are honored to welcome such dynamic and revered professionals to our board of advisors,” said Dheeraj Pandey, founder and CEO, Nutanix. “By leveraging their combined expertise in helping high-growth, disruptive companies excel, we can reshape the datacenter infrastructure market for years to come.”

The new advisors augment the existing Nutanix advisory board which includes industry luminaries and entrepreneurs such as Alan Boehme, chief of enterprise architecture, business innovation and emerging technologies at Coca-Cola, Dr. Willy Zwaenepoel, professor and dean of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lane Bess, COO of Zscaler and David Schneider, SVP of worldwide sales and services at ServiceNow.

 Frank Slootman, advisor, is a veteran of enterprise storage and software with a track record of building enterprise companies. He is currently president and CEO of ServiceNow and is credited for turning the company into one of the most valuable cloud companies on the market. Previously, he served as president and CEO of storage company Data Domain, Inc., where he blazed new trails creating a high-growth enterprise storage company that went public on NASDAQ in 2007 and was later acquired by EMC in 2009.

“Nutanix is at the forefront of a monumental shift in the datacenter industry,” said Slootman. “Like the early days at Data Domain, there is a huge opportunity for Nutanix to continue innovating and establish a robust business. I am looking forward to advising the team during this exciting time.”

 Ben Gibson, advisor has led marketing campaigns for networking and datacenter companies including Cisco and Aruba Networks. In his current role as CMO of Aruba Networks, he leads global marketing strategy, including product and solution marketing, corporate communications, brand development, demand generation, theater and channel marketing. He brings 20 years of experience honing marketing strategy for datacenter companies.

“Nutanix is disrupting the datacenter industry not only with its pioneering converged infrastructure solution, but also with its channel-centric approach to sales,” said Gibson. “Similar to Aruba, this go-to-market strategy will enable the company to maximize sales coverage and scale as it continues to build momentum.”

 B.V. Jagadeesh, advisor, a renowned angel investor and serial entrepreneur, has decades of experience leading industry-disrupting companies. As the founder and CTO of Exodus, he helped pioneer the concept of Internet DataCenters. He seed funded NetScaler, later serving as the company’s president and CEO before its acquisition by Citrix in 2005. Currently he is a managing partner at KAAJ Ventures, where his investments include Ocarina Networks (acquired by Dell), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Valence Energy (acquired by Serious Materials), Cloud Velocity, ScaleArc, Nutanix, Fonemine and Whodini.

“I see tremendous parallels between Nutanix and NetScaler – from revolutionizing their respective industries to sustaining rapid growth and innovation,” said B.V. Jagadeesh. “My experience building Exodus and NetScaler from concept to full-fledged company will serve Nutanix well as the company continues to scale and accelerate growth.”