Don Blake Senior VP of Operations at Hitachi GST

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced the appointment of Don Blake as senior vice president of Operations.

Mr. Blake will lead a team focused on making operational improvements that strengthen Hitachi GST’s competitive position in the global hard disk drive market. He comes to Hitachi after spending 13 years at Western Digital Corporation, where he most recently served as vice president and general manager of WD Media.

“Don brings a proven record of accomplishment in high-volume manufacturing, supply chain management and global business operations,” said Steve Milligan, president, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “His leadership and industry knowledge will be critically important as we continue to make process and efficiency improvements that will have a positive impact on customer response time, product quality and overall satisfaction.”

Mr. Blake has more than 25 years of manufacturing and operations expertise in the hard disk drive industry. His tenure at WD included executive-level manufacturing, program management and quality roles. He spent seven years in Asia managing WD’s HDD operations and played a leading role in the acquisition and successful integration of Komag. He began his career at Digital Equipment Corporation and held operations management positions of increasing responsibility at Conner Peripherals, Maxtor and Toshiba.

Mr. Blake will maintain offices in Asia and at the company’s headquarters in San Jose, Calif.