Ben Golub CEO, dotCloud

dotCloud, Inc., a PaaS company and the commercial entity behind the Docker.io project, announced that Ben Golub has joined the company as CEO.

With more than 25 years of industry experience, he brings knowledge of open source software and a track record of growing businesses, including two prior engagements as a start-up CEO.

This is a strategic time for dotCloud, following the recent launch of Docker, an open-source engine that enables any application to be packed and shipped as a lightweight container that runs virtually anywhere.

"I am impressed with dotCloud’s innovative approach to open source software and thrilled to be a part of this talented team," said Golub. "dotCloud and Docker are addressing some of the most critical IT challenges today, and can revolutionize the way the world approaches application delivery and deployment, cross cloud deployment, webscaling and virtualization. I look forward to playing a key role in helping dotCloud take advantage of the opportunities ahead."

 An industry veteran, Golub most recently served as the president and CEO at Gluster, provider of scale-out, open source storage solutions, which was acquired by Red Hat in October 2011. Prior to that, he served as the president and CEO of Plaxo, leading the company through a complete turnaround and an acquisition by Comcast Interactive Media. Prior to Paxo, he was the member of the executive team at VeriSign, where he served both as CMO and as SVP and GM of the trust and payments business.

"Ben has a proven track record of starting, growing and building great, disruptive companies, and will bring invaluable expertise and leadership to dotCloud," said Peter Fenton, general partner at Benchmark Capital. "Having served as an advisor for Docker, Ben will bring a strength and vision to dotCloud that will enhance the company’s revolutionary approach to code development and deployment."

"Ben has a history of working with first-to-market leading technology platforms that become game changing leaders," said Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder and dotCloud board member. "With the momentum and excitement behind Docker and Ben’s extensive experience, the company has an incredible opportunity to make a big impact on the industry."

"I am excited to be working with Ben on the next phase of dotCloud," said Solomon Hykes, dotCloud’s founder and CTO. "We developed a great partnership over the past three months working on the Docker project, and Ben shares our passion for transforming the industry through open source."

Golub holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Princeton University, and holds a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) accreditation. He serves on a number of for-profit and non-profit boards including Fundly, TrustE, and Partners for Youth with Disabilities.