Janet Matsuda VP and CMO, Nimble Storage

Nimble Storage, Inc. announced that Janet Matsuda has joined the company’s executive leadership team and will serve as CMO.

She brings nearly 25 years of high-tech business-to-business marketing expertise to Nimble and will draw from her most recent positions at Blue Coat Systems, AMD and Mercury Interactive.

Dan Leary, a seven year Nimble veteran, will serve as VP of products, solutions and alliances.

Both Matsuda and Leary will report directly to CEO Suresh Vasudevan.

These appointments combined with the recent sales leadership additions of Denis Murphy and Leonard Iventosch fortify the company’s executive bench and position Nimble to gain market share in the $20 billion addressable market for storage.

“As we double down to accelerate customer acquisition in the enterprise segment, we must leverage our marketing investments to establish the Nimble Storage brand with enterprise IT leaders,” said Vasudevan. “Janet brings in-depth marketing expertise and a proven track record in building category-leading brands and executing highly-effective marketing initiatives that boost brand awareness and revenue growth. We welcome Janet to our executive management team.”

“It’s energizing to join an organization with passionate customer advocates, breakthrough technology and strong revenue momentum,” said Matsuda. “Nimble is already leading the pack of disruptive storage firms. Increased marketing and sales investments will propel the company through the next stages of expansion and growth. I look forward to working with the team to position Nimble Storage as the next market leader in the storage industry.”

Prior to joining Nimble Storage, Janet Matsuda served in marketing leadership roles at Blue Coat Systems, Egnyte, AMD, and Mercury Interactive. Under her leadership, the Blue Coat marketing team repositioned the company, revitalized the brand and built a demand creation engine, contributing to a company valuation that nearly doubled in three years. While at Silicon Graphics her team built an ecosystem and evangelized the digital prototyping category. This new approach transformed the design review process for automotive and aerospace companies and cascaded across the manufacturing industry. She was a member of the Mercury Interactive team that established and grew the Business Technology Optimization category. She holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Iowa and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Dan Leary has a 20-year track record in managing industry-leading, hardware and software solutions. Prior to Nimble Storage, He served as VP of marketing at ConSentry Networks and as VP of product management at Peribit Networks, where he was instrumental in creating and defining the ‘WAN Optimization’ category. Juniper Networks purchased Peribit in 2005 for $337 million. He also held management roles at netVmg, Lucent Technologies, and Bay Networks. He holds an MS in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University and a BS in systems engineering from the University of Virginia.