NetApp's leadership

George Kurian is chief executive officer at NetApp and a member of the Board of Directors. George joined the company in 2011, bringing his passion and relentless focus on execution to his leadership roles at NetApp. He was named CEO in June 2015.

Previously at NetApp, as executive vice president of Product Operations, George was responsible for the strategy and development of NetApp’s product and solutions portfolio. Before that, George was senior vice president of the Data ONTAP Group overseeing development of the Data ONTAP operating system.

George joined NetApp as senior vice president of the Storage Solutions Group, where he was responsible for the solutions portfolio and joint partner technology integration.

Prior to joining NetApp, George was vice president and general manager of the Application Networking and Switching Technology Group at Cisco Systems. George’s diverse background also includes the role of vice president at Akamai Technologies, management consulting at McKinsey & Company, and leading software engineering and product management teams at Oracle Corporation.

George is also an independent director on the Board of global health services company Cigna Corporation.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

As president of NetApp, César Cernuda is responsible for leading the company’s global go-to-market organization spanning sales, marketing, services, support, and customer success. With more than 25 years of senior leadership experience, he will help NetApp transform quickly to capture new growth opportunities in enterprise storage systems and cloud data services.

With his passion for strong results; commitment to building diverse, high-performing teams; and experience in business transformation, César will lead NetApp to consistently win in a rapidly changing customer landscape.

César’s focus is driving customer success and speeding digital and multichannel customer engagements. He is repositioning NetApp by building on and expanding partnerships with the major cloud providers and other key strategic partners to ensure NetApp’s seat at the table for the digital transformation of all enterprise companies.

Before joining NetApp, César held various leadership positions in sales, marketing, and product development. He has more than 20 years of international experience, launching and growing businesses in major markets around the world. He worked at Microsoft for 23 years in senior roles, including vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Microsoft Dynamics, president of the Microsoft Asia-Pacific region, and most recently president of the company’s Latin America and Caribbean theater and corporate vice president worldwide. He led successful market transformations and contributed to the fastest-growing parts of the Microsoft business.

In addition, César is a non-executive director at Gestamp, an international group dedicated to the automotive industry; an advisory board member of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business; and a jury member for the Princess of Asturias Awards for Technical and Scientific Research. In 2019 the U.S.-Spain Chamber of Commerce presented him the Ponce de Leon Award for Executive of the Year. In 2018 and 2019 he was among the Hispanic IT Executive Council’s HITEC 50, which recognizes the top 50 Spanish and Latino hi-tech leaders worldwide.

César is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Leadership Program and the Program for Management Development at IESE Business School – University of Navarra. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from ESIC Business & Marketing School.

Harvinder (Harv) Bhela is NetApp’s Chief Product Officer and joined the company in 2022. Harv is responsible for leading NetApp’s product and engineering teams in our ongoing transformation into a multi-cloud, storage, and data services leader by accelerating breakthrough innovation at scale. The next generation of businesses are all data-centric, digital businesses. This is the “age of data” but that data is an ever-growing, increasingly diverse, ever-multifaceted, ever-harder to manage resource that is fragmented across on-premises and hybrid multi-cloud environments. Harv and his team are focused on delivering differentiated solutions to help customers unlock enormous business value across their entire data estate everywhere.

Prior to joining NetApp, Harv spent the last 25 years at Microsoft where he held multiple executive leadership positions. He built the company’s Exchange business, turning Office 365 into the world’s largest productivity cloud, and was instrumental in the successful launch of Windows 10. Most recently, he served as Corporate Vice President of the Microsoft 365 Security, Compliance and Management business, which he started and grew to more than $10 billion in annual revenue, making Microsoft the largest security company in the world.

Harv holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Mumbai and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.

Matthew Fawcett is NetApp’s Chief Strategy Officer, leading NetApp’s Corporate Strategy, Corporate Development, and Government Relations functions. He and his organization are routinely recognized for leadership at the intersections of innovation, technology, and law. Throughout his career, Matt has advised leading technology companies on a variety of issues, including mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, and corporate matters. Prior to joining NetApp, Matt served as the senior vice president and general counsel of JDS Uniphase Corporation and in private practice before that.

Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley and a J.D. from UCLA.

Elizabeth O’Callahan is NetApp’s Chief Legal Officer, responsible for overseeing all legal matters at the company and managing the worldwide legal team. Elizabeth also serves as NetApp’s corporate secretary and chief compliance officer. She is the recipient of numerous legal and professional leadership awards including the National Diversity Council’s Leadership Excellence in Technology Award and The Recorder’s Women Leaders in Tech Law.

Throughout her career, Elizabeth has advised leading technology companies on a variety of matters, including corporate governance, securities law, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, corporate compliance and ethics, data privacy, intellectual property, and litigation. Before joining NetApp in 2013, Elizabeth served in a senior legal role at Xilinx, and began her legal career in private practice in Silicon Valley specializing in corporate law and business litigation.

Elizabeth serves on the Board of Directors of Bay Scholars, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities and scholarships to low-income students.

Elizabeth holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Mike Berry is a technology industry veteran with a strong background in finance, operations and general management. Before joining NetApp, Mike was executive vice president and chief financial officer at McAfee. He was responsible for all aspects of finance, including financial planning, accounting, tax, and treasury, as well as operations and shared services.

Before joining McAfee in February 2017, Mike was executive vice president, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer at FireEye. Previously, he was executive vice president and chief financial officer for Informatica. Earlier, he led finance and other operations for several technology companies, including SolarWinds and i2 Technologies.

Mike earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Augsburg College and an MBA in finance from the University of St. Thomas. He is a member of the Rapid7 and FinancialForce boards of directors and serves as audit committee chair.

Debra McCowan is executive vice president and chief human resources officer for NetApp. She is responsible for developing the global HR strategy and leading the entire organization, including talent acquisition, talent development and learning, business partnerships, organizational development and effectiveness, compensation and benefits, diversity, inclusion and belonging, operations, and systems.

Debra is a change and transformational HR leader with 20+ years of global experience focused on integrating the people strategy with the business strategy to drive performance and growth and promote organizational health. Her success comes from her proven ability to build high-performing, goal-exceeding teams and develop progressive, business-aligned HR strategies and initiatives while providing strategic and operational leadership, typically in a context of rapid growth, change, and maturation.

In her last role as chief human resources officer at Equinix, Debra built a robust global HR function in a fast-paced environment. During her five years with the company, the global HR organization was instrumental in evolving Equinix’s culture, building the company brand, and designing and implementing leading-edge programs and initiatives in support of business objectives. Attracting and retaining crucial talent helped to build and position Equinix as a market leader.

Before Equinix, Debra co-founded the Accelerance Group. As a partner, she provided organizational and systems design consulting services and helped clients lead strategic change. Debra has also held global executive leadership roles at Avago Technologies (now Broadcom Inc.), Hitachi Data Systems (now Hitachi Vantara), and Telstra Corporation.

Debra serves on the board of directors of HealthEquity, Inc. She holds a postgraduate diploma in industrial relations and HR management from the University of Melbourne and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from La Trobe University.

James Whitemore is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at NetApp. He is responsible for advancing the company’s global marketing strategy and strengthening market recognition to accelerate growth.

As a veteran of the cloud computing, networking and storage industry, James has more than 25 years of experience leading and implementing successful global sales, product management and marketing strategies. A key part of the team since joining NetApp via the SolidFire acquisition in early 2016, James has been central to the development and execution of our Marketing strategy to reposition NetApp from storage to data and the cloud.

In his previous role as VP of Field & Demand Marketing at NetApp, James built and led a modern demand engine as well as managed Field and Partner Marketing, Demand Centers, Global Campaigns, Event Marketing, Digital Marketing, Social, Influence and Community Marketing.

James holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Northumbria University in the UK.

George Kurian is chief executive officer at NetApp and a member of the Board of Directors. George joined the company in 2011, bringing his passion and relentless focus on execution to his leadership roles at NetApp. He was named CEO in June 2015.

Previously at NetApp, as executive vice president of Product Operations, George was responsible for the strategy and development of NetApp’s product and solutions portfolio. Before that, George was senior vice president of the Data ONTAP Group overseeing development of the Data ONTAP operating system.

George joined NetApp as senior vice president of the Storage Solutions Group, where he was responsible for the solutions portfolio and joint partner technology integration.

Prior to joining NetApp, George was vice president and general manager of the Application Networking and Switching Technology Group at Cisco Systems. George’s diverse background also includes the role of vice president at Akamai Technologies, management consulting at McKinsey & Company, and leading software engineering and product management teams at Oracle Corporation.

George is also an independent director on the Board of global health services company Cigna Corporation.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Mike Nevens is Chairman of the Board at NetApp.

Mike Nevens was appointed to the NetApp board in December 2009. Mike Nevens serves as a senior advisor to Permira, an international private equity fund with 21 billion euros of funds under management. He also serves on the board of directors of Altera Corporation and Ciena Corporation. Nevens is on the board of trustees of the San Jose Museum of Art. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, where he has been an adjunct professor of Corporate Governance and Strategy.

Nevens retired as a director (senior partner) of McKinsey & Co. in 2002 after leading McKinsey's global technology practice. He also served on the board of the McKinsey Global Institute, which conducts research on economic and policy issues.

Nevens received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from the Krannert School at Purdue University, where he was designated a Krannert Scholar. He resides in Los Altos Hills, California, with his wife, Yvonne.

Deepak Ahuja joined Verily in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Previously, he served as CFO of Tesla from 2008 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. One of Tesla’s longest-serving executives, Deepak played a role in the company’s rise from startup to a large cap energy company. Deepak was Tesla’s first finance chief and helped guide it through its IPO in addition to raising several billion dollars of capital to fuel its growth. Prior to Tesla, he was at Ford Motor Company for 15 years, which provided him experiences in manufacturing, marketing & sales, product development, treasury, and acquisitions/divestitures. Deepak was named CFO of the year in 2010 for small public companies by Silicon Valley Business Journal. In 2014, he was named Bay Area CFO of the year for large public companies by San Francisco Business Times. Deepak holds an M.S. in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in materials engineering from Northwestern University and a B. Tech in ceramic engineering from Banaras Hindu University in India.

Dr. Gerald Held was appointed to the NetApp board in December 2009. Dr. Held, CEO of Held Consulting LLC, provides strategic consulting to CEOs and senior executives of technology firms.

In 1998, Dr. Held was "CEO-in-residence" at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Through 1997, he was senior vice president of Oracle Corporation's server product division, where he was responsible for Oracle's most important products during a period of rapid growth, from $1.5 billion to $6 billion in annual revenues. Prior to working at Oracle, he spent 18 years at Tandem Computers, where he was a member of the executive team that grew Tandem from a startup to $2 billion in annual revenues. During his tenure at Tandem, Dr. Held was appointed to several senior management positions, including chief technology officer, senior vice president of strategy, and vice president of new ventures. He led the initial development of Tandem's relational database products.

From 2006 to 2010, he was the Executive Chairman of Vertica Systems, an analytic database company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Company. Dr. Held served in director and executive roles at a variety of technology companies, including Business Objects SA, Tandem Computers, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Microplace, Inc., and Bella Pictures, Inc. Dr. Held also serves on the board of several private companies, including Tamr Inc., Madaket Inc. and Informatica Corporation, a formerly public technology company.

Dr. Held received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue, an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he led the initial development of the INGRES relational database management system.

Kathy Hill served in a number of positions at Cisco Systems, Inc. from 1997 to 2013, including, among others, Executive Advisor from 2011 to 2013, Senior Vice President, Development Strategy and Operations from 2009 to 2011, Senior Vice President, Access Networking and Services Group from 2008 to 2009 and Senior Vice President, Ethernet Systems and Wireless Technology Group from 2005 to 2008. Prior to Cisco, Ms. Hill had a number of engineering roles at various technology companies. Ms. Hill currently serves on the board of directors of Moody’s Corporation, a provider of credit ratings, research, tools and analysis for financial markets, and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.

Ms. Hill received a B.S. degree in Mathematics from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Deborah Kerr was appointed to the board in November 2017. Deborah Kerr is a product and technology executive that serves as an advisor, director and consultant to private and public companies. She also serves on the board of directors of International Airline Group, Chico’s FAS and EXLService Holdings, Inc. Previously, Kerr served on the boards of DH Corporation and Mitchell.

Ms. Kerr has served as a Managing Partner of Warburg Pincus since January 2019 and as a Senior Advisor from October 2017 to December 2018. From 2013 to 2017, Ms. Kerr was the Executive Vice President, Chief Product & Technology Officer for Sabre Corporation, a software and services technology provider to the travel and transportation industry. Prior to her role at Sabre Corporation, Ms. Kerr served as Executive Vice President and Chief Product & Technology Officer at Fair Isaac Corporation from 2009-2012. She has also served in various technology leadership roles at Hewlett-Packard, Peregrine Systems, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Kerr holds a M.S. in Computer Science and B.A. in Psychology. She resides in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Alan.

Scott Schenkel was appointed to the Board in November 2017. Scott Schenkel has more than 25 years of extensive business and financial leadership expertise across healthcare, technology and commerce industries. As an operationally-focused CFO, Scott’s experience spans financial planning and analytics, strategy, audit, mergers and acquisitions, acquisition integration, Six Sigma and process improvement.

Mr. Schenkel served as the interim Chief Executive Officer of eBay, Inc. from September 2019 to April 2020. He joined eBay, Inc. in 2007 and served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2015 to 2019, leading finance, analytics and information technology. He also served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of eBay Marketplace from 2009 to 2015 and as Vice President of Global Financial Planning and Analytics. 

Previously, Scott spent nearly 17 years at General Electric in a variety of finance roles. He last served as Chief Financial Officer of GE Healthcare Clinical Systems, a global healthcare equipment and clinical information technology solutions provider. Before that, he was Chief Financial Officer for GE Plastics Europe, based in the Netherlands. Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer of GE Lighting Europe, based in London and Budapest. Scott spent more than six years with GE’s Corporate Audit group, working on auditing and consulting efforts for corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, acquisition integration, finance and compliance. Scott began his career as part of GE’s Financial Management Program with its Power Distribution division in North Carolina.

Scott received his B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s Pamplin College of Business.

George T. Shaheen was appointed to the NetApp board in June 2004. Mr. Shaheen's distinguished career in the technology industry spans over 30 years, including CEO of Siebel Systems:, CEO and chairman of Webvan Group Inc.; CEO and Global Managing Partner of Andersen Consulting, which later became Accenture, from 1989 to 1999. He has served as an IT governor of the World Economic Forum. Shaheen currently serves on the boards of Marcus & Millichap, Green Dot Corporation, and Korn/Ferry International.

Shaheen has a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor of science degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and he has served on the University's Board of Trustees.

Carrie Palin joined Cisco Systems, Inc. in June 2021 as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Previously, she served as senior vice president and CMO of Splunk Inc from February 2019 to April 2021. As an ardent supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Carrie served as executive sponsor of both the Pride and Neurodiversity employee resource groups at Splunk, as well as Women in Technology initiatives. Carrie was senior vice president and chief marketing officer at both SendGrid (acquired by Twilio) and Box, Inc. She also served as vice president of marketing for IBM’s Cloud Data Services division and held myriad marketing leadership roles during a 16-year career at Dell.

Carrie earned a B.S. in communications from Texas Christian University.