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Big names came and went from big companies in October—a monster mash for the C-suite.
Here are four comings and goings you should know about.
Tesla CIO leaves company in advance of robotaxi launch
Nagesh Saldi left Tesla in early October, days before the company’s launch of its robotaxi vehicle. As Bloomberg reported, Saldi follows a chain of fellow executives leaving the company. After losing SVP Drew Baglino, government affairs head Rohan Patel, human resources executive Allie Arebalo, and Saldi, Tesla only has three executives remaining: CEO Elon Musk, CFO Vaibhav Taneja, and SVP of automotive Tom Zhu.
Saldi, who reported directly to Musk, served as CIO at Tesla for nearly six-and-a-half years. Prior to that, he spent over five years as VP of engineering at the company. Before Tesla, Saldi worked for Infosys and HP.
OpenAI snags new CISO from Palantir
When one door closes, another opens. In this case, it was Palantir’s loss that was OpenAI’s gain as Dane Stuckey moved CISO offices. The move was announced by Stuckey himself on his social media platforms, writing that he was excited “to help secure a future where AI benefits us all.”
Stuckey’s departure marks the beginning of a new chapter after over a decade at Palantir, the last six years and four months of which he served as CISO. Prior to Palantir, according to his LinkedIn, Stuckey was an information security engineer at an undisclosed organization.
Return to office? No, thanks
The Sam’s Club return-to-office policy wasn’t popular with company CTO Cheryl Ainoa, who decided to step down rather than work in the Arkansas headquarters. Sam’s Club made the decision to force a return to the office because of a belief in the “power of collaboration by being together,” Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas told Business Insider.
Ainoa worked for Walmart Global Tech for over four years, and as Sam’s Club CTO for just over a year. Prior to joining the company, she worked for Intuit, Move, and Yahoo.
Verizon looks to the future with new CTO
It’s a new world out there, and Verizon is taking advantage of the potential for change, hiring Santiago “Yago” Tenorio as the company’s CTO and SVP of strategy and technology enablement. Tenorio joins Verizon at a moment when the communications giant is investing in new technology. “As we continue to advance our 5G and 5G-advanced network builds, this is the right time to also look towards the future technology Verizon will enable,” Joe Russo, Verizon’s EVP and president of global network and technology, said in a statement announcing the hire.
Tenorio joins Verizon after a 23-year career in Ireland and the UK at Vodafone.