Erwan Menard COO, DataDirect Networks

DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN) announced the appointment of Erwan Menard as Chief Operating Officer.

 In this role, Menard is responsible for revenue, sales, channels and partners, professional services, customer support, supply chain optimization, and manufacturing. With a focus on the execution of DDN’s strategic growth plan, Erwan’s primary focus is on scaling the organization to meet the limitless demands of today’s and tomorrow’s big data consumers.

"At a time in our history when we are experiencing significant growth Erwan brings us the leadership and execution skills required to scale up our business globally," said Alex Bouzari, CEO and co-founder of DDN. "With the market for Big Data and the need to store, process and gain insight into information and content continuing to grow exponentially, Erwan’s addition to our team greatly enhances our ability to better serve our customers and maximize value for them around the world."

Menard brings more than 15 years of international and general corporate management experience to the role. Prior to joining DDN, Menard served as Vice-President and General Manager of the Hewlett-Packard Communications and Media Solutions Unit, where he was responsible for a global team of more than 2,500 people. Menard was recognized in 2009, 2010, and 2011 by Global Telecom Business as one of the Forty under Forty industry leaders.

"Big Data is more than a buzzword. As smart machines, video and social networking are democratizing big data proliferation, enterprises everywhere are looking for innovative solutions to capture, process and derive value from this new information," said Menard. "DDN is at the center of this change with a decade of first-mover advantage at the greatest levels of scale. I am thrilled to be part of such an innovative and passionate organization to help transform the company into the world’s next information services and solutions powerhouse."

Prior to Hewlett-Packard, Menard held a variety of executive leadership roles, including President of Global Support at Alcatel-Lucent Convergence Business Group and Vice President, North America for the Alcatel Mobile Communications Group.