Storage Head David Scott to Leave HP

SVP and GM of HP storage David Scott, former CEO of 3par, will be “retiring” effective March 6, 2015.

In addition, Peter Slocum, VP engineering of the Utility Development Unit (UDU – Core 3PAR Engineering), will also retire, effective February 28, 2015

 Bill Philbin, VP of storage engineering for the Virtual Development Unit (VDU), will replace Scott on an interim basis as acting GM, while the company conducts a search of both external and internal candidates to succeed Scott. He is already responsible for a significant portion of HP storage portfolio including entry-level storage, object storage, NAS, data protection, and software-defined products. Prior to joining HP, he was SVP andGM of the core storage business at NetApp. 

Philip Tamer will assume the role VP of engineering for the 3PAR Utility Development Unit (UDU), effective February 28th. He is currently VP of engineering for HP converged systems, where he led the development and release of CloudSystem 8, HP OneView, and ConvergedSystems solutions. Prior to HP, he led EMC’s Symmetrix business as its GM – leading the development of both the DMX-4 and VMAX storage arrays.

The reason of these moves could be the continuous decline of HP storage business with $3.3 billion yearly revenue in storage in FY14 compared to $4.1 billion three years ago, even if 3par storage systems were one of the most successful part of the storage activity.

On these global bad results, Cathie Lesjak, HP’s CFO, commenting the most recent financial quarter, said: “We need to improve sales execution in storage.”

 David C. Scott, born in Jamaica, serves as GM of storage at HP and has been its SVP since 2010, succeeding Bob Schultz. He rejoined HP with the acquisition of 3par in September 2010 for $2.35 billion. Previously, from October 1991 to January 2001, he held various management positions at HP most recently as GM of XP enterprise storage business in its network storage solutions organization. Prior to this role, he held various marketing, business strategy, sales and systems engineering positions in HP’s HP9000 enterprise server, HP-UX software and enterprise storage businesses both in the US and the UK. In 2011, StorageNewsletter.com wrote about Scott: “Getting $2,5 million in cash (and more) following company’s acquisition by HP, personal fortune now estimated at $96 million.” He holds a BS degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from UK Bristol University.

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