Veeam appoints new leaders to drive data resilience push

Veeam has made three senior leadership appointments, naming Brandt Urban as Chief Business Development Officer, Tony Colon as Chief Customer Officer, and Michael Rau as Vice President of Worldwide Partners.

The company said the changes form part of its plans for growth and product development across international markets. Veeam is best known for software used for data backup, recovery and related security functions.

Anand Eswaran, Chief Executive Officer of Veeam, said the company saw a shift in customer requirements as data resilience and security overlap with artificial intelligence initiatives.

"We stand at a pivotal and exhilarating moment for Veeam and the industry," said Anand Eswaran, CEO of Veeam. "We're entering a new era for data, one that combines the need for data resilience with security, and the ability to unleash the value of that data for AI. As the clear market leader experiencing rapid growth, we are strategically recognizing talent inside Veeam and adding new talent to our senior management team that will help us to not only sustain that growth but accelerate our momentum. Brandt, Tony, and Michael bring essential experience and vision that will ensure Veeam is ready for the next phase of our transformative growth and innovation, always keeping our customers and partners at the heart of everything we do."

Business Development

Urban will report to Eswaran. Veeam said he will lead corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and corporate strategy.

Urban previously served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Cloud Sales at Veeam. The company said he played a role in its cloud sales and its cloud strategy. Veeam said he will work with product and go-to-market teams.

Before joining Veeam, Urban held senior roles at Microsoft, Genesys, RingCentral, and HPE. Veeam did not disclose whether the business development remit includes near-term acquisition plans or new partnership announcements.

Customer Operations

Colon has joined Veeam in a newly established Chief Customer Officer role. He will report to John Jester, Chief Revenue Officer of Veeam.

Veeam said Colon will own the customer journey across onboarding, renewal, and customer-facing functions. The remit includes Renewals, Customer Success, Professional Services and Technical Support teams, according to the company. Veeam said Colon will also work with sales leadership on customer satisfaction, retention and growth.

Colon brings more than 20 years of experience leading customer-facing organisations, Veeam said. It cited previous roles at ServiceNow, Cisco, and Salesforce.

Veeam said Colon will focus on data resilience, ransomware recovery, and cyber resilience. The company has been positioning its products around recovery from cyber incidents as organisations face higher disruption risks and regulatory expectations around business continuity.

Partner Strategy

Rau has joined Veeam as Vice President of Worldwide Partners. He will report to Jester and will sit on the Worldwide Sales Leadership team, according to the company.

Veeam said Rau will lead its global partner business. The remit includes partner programmes and incentives across distribution, resell, software as a service, services, and strategic alliances. The company said it wants consistency across these partner routes.

Rau will oversee Veeam's partnerships with HPE, Lenovo, Pure Storage, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, TCS, and Kyndryl, according to the company. These relationships link Veeam's software to server and storage platforms, security vendors, and large services providers.

Rau spent nearly a decade at F5, Veeam said. He has also held senior roles at Cisco.

Sales Leadership

Jester said the appointments reflect Veeam's focus on customer and partner engagement. He also linked the changes to the company's view of market direction in data resilience.

"At Veeam, excellence isn't just a goal - it's our standard in every customer and partner engagement," said John Jester, CRO of Veeam. "These new strategic appointments underscore our unwavering commitment to innovation and industry leadership. With this strengthened team, we're not just keeping pace with change; we're setting a new benchmark for data resilience and customer success worldwide. I have absolute confidence that together, we will drive even greater value for our customers and partners at every step of their journey toward robust data resilience and business continuity."

Veeam is headquartered in Seattle and has offices in more than 30 countries. The company said it protects more than 550,000 customers worldwide, including 82% of the Fortune 500.

Veeam said Urban will lead corporate development and M&A activity, Colon will run customer functions from onboarding through renewal, and Rau will take charge of the worldwide partner business and major alliances.