Rajiv Ramaswami CEO, Nutanix

Nutanix, Inc. announced that its board of directors has appointed Rajiv Ramaswami as president and CEO, effective Wednesday, December 9, 2020, and as a member of the board of directors, effective Monday, December 14, 2020. He will succeed co-founder Dheeraj Pandey, who previously announced his plans to retire as CEO upon the appointment of a successor.

Career highlights

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Ramaswami is a seasoned technology industry executive who has held senior executive roles at companies including VMware, Broadcom, Cisco, and Nortel, after having begun his career at IBM.

“Rajiv is an accomplished leader with a track record of delivering a high-growth portfolio of products and services,” said Sohaib Abbasi, lead independent director. “Rajiv distinguished himself among the CEO candidates with his rare combination of operational discipline, business acumen, technology vision and inclusive leadership skills. The talented Nutanix team, under Rajiv’s leadership, is well-positioned to drive sustained growth, to improve efficiency and to advance leadership in the emerging hybrid cloud infrastructure category.“

“I’m thrilled to be joining Nutanix at this transformative time for the company and the industry,” said Ramaswami. “I have long admired Nutanix as a formidable competitor, a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions and a leader in cloud software. Working closely with the board, the management team, and the more than 6,000 talented Nutanix employees around the world, we will build on Nutanix’s strong foundation of continuous innovation, collaboration and customer delight. Together, we will capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead and deliver on the company’s next phase of growth and value creation.”

“Rajiv is the right leader at the right time,” said Pandey. “With a future-proof business model, a loyal and expanding customer base, and a strong technology portfolio, I look forward to seeing Rajiv take the helm to lead this incredible team. This is the decade to watch for a company that so values simple, secure, and seamless. On a personal note, it has been a privilege to serve our customers and partners, working closely alongside Nutanix employees.”

Dheeraj Pandey will step down from the board effective Monday, December 14, 2020, to ensure continuity through Nutanix’s upcoming annual meeting of stockholders.

About Rajiv Ramaswami
Before joining Nutanix, he served as COO of products and cloud services at VMware. Prior to this role, he led VMware’s networking and security business, one of the fastest-growing units in the company, as EVP and GM. Before joining VMware, he served as EVP and GM, infrastructure and networking at Broadcom, where he established the company as a leader in data center, enterprise and carrier networking. In his prior GM roles at Cisco, he led multi-billion dollar product lines in switching, data center and storage and optical networking. Earlier in his career, he held various leadership positions at Nortel, Tellabs and IBM.

He earned his B. Tech in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and his Master’s Degree and PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow and holds 36 patents, primarily in optical networking.

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