Home Depot hires internally, the state of Maryland gets a new CISO, Cisco poaches a Google Cloud exec, and a CTO resigns in explosive fashion in this month’s overview of tech C-suite changes.
Home Depot’s new CIO has decades of in-house experience
On May 29, the Home Depot announced it was hiring an internal candidate to lead the company’s IT strategy. Angie Brown, who has been with the company for 27 years, joins its executive team after decades as an IT staffer, most recently as SVP of technology.
Brown joined Home Depot out of college in 1998 as an associate systems engineer; her work has seen her climb the corporate IT ladder in the company. She replaces outgoing CIO Fahim Siddiqui, who worked for Home Depot for six and a half years.
A new CISO for the state of Maryland comes from the federal sector
A longtime federal IT employee is making the jump to state-level administration. James Saunders was announced as Maryland’s new acting CISO on May 5 after just over four years at the Office of Personnel Management. In his new role, Saunders will lead the Maryland Department of Information Technology’s Office of Security Management.
Prior to his work at OPM, Saunders spent nearly three years at the Small Business Administration, culminating in just over a year as the agency’s CISO. He also has extensive private sector experience, including stints at Raytheon and T. Rowe Price, and helped USAID with Splunk architecture for eight months in 2013 and 2014.
Cisco looks to Google for security exec
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Previously the VP and general manager of SecOps at Google Cloud’s cybersecurity division, Bailey will join Cisco as its general manager of security.
Bailey joined Google after the company acquired Mandiant, where he had been EVP for three years. Prior to that, he spent over 15 years at Vertical Communications, ending his tenure with over eight years as CEO.
Bolt CTO leaves company with angry LinkedIn post
Andy Elmhorst resigned his position as CTO at Bolt in a LinkedIn post that attacked the company’s leadership. Angered at what he called “a complete breakdown of governance at the company,” Elmhorst railed against Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow for suspending the company’s “conscious culture” and smearing former executive team members he had let go.
The day before Elmhorst’s resignation, Breslow wrote on LinkedIn that he had made job cuts after giving staffers a chance to prove their worth. “You earn the right to give feedback to leaders by being a top performer,” Breslow wrote. “If you’re not, we will hear none of it until you’ve proven to the company why we should listen.”
“I will not tolerate misstatements about honorable people,” Elmhorst wrote. “These statements being made should not be listened to by anyone or be used to tarnish their reputation. If you are looking for very talented leaders for your company, look no further than those who exited this week.”
Elmhorst’s resignation comes after two and a half years at Bolt. According to his LinkedIn page, he has since founded an AI services firm, Enstaria.