NetApp Overhauls Global Sales Organization To Accelerate Cloud-Led Growth

Changes to the data-centric software leader’s sales organization to better meet customer needs and power the company’s next stage of growth

Less than a year after joining global software leader NetApp as its President, César Cernuda has announced changes to the go-to-market (GTM) model and global sales organization that will help steer the company into its cloud-led future.

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“We are implementing these changes to better serve their needs. We will soon deliver a personalized, data-driven engagement model that allows our current and future customers to move at warp speed and aligns with the new way they want to engage with their solution partners.”

Cernuda is instituting a customer- and partner-centric strategic and operational evolution that will allow NetApp to move to a customer engagement model focused on driving deeper specialization and delivering hybrid cloud expertise powered by digitization. The changes will see the company ramp up its efforts to drive consistency and simplicity across its global sales organization and more aggressively address key markets and segments while reaching new customers and partners.

“With today’s relentless pace of change, speed is the new scale. And that’s what organizations are demanding as they try to put their data to work to keep innovating and stay ahead of the digital curve,” said César Cernuda. “We are implementing these changes to better serve their needs. We will soon deliver a personalized, data-driven engagement model that allows our current and future customers to move at warp speed and aligns with the new way they want to engage with their solution partners.”

The evolution of NetApp’s sales organization will also result in changes and additions to the sales leadership team, effective May 1, 2021:

• NetApp veteran and former SVP, Globals, Verticals, and Pathways, Rick Scurfield will serve in the company’s newly established role of Chief Commercial Officer. Scurfield will be responsible for building a new GTM motion and strategy including direct sales and channel coverage and will drive the transformation of NetApp’s digital and virtual sales teams and Sales Operations to better enable NetApp’s sales force and worldwide partnerships. Scurfield has led winning sales organizations for more than 20 years, most recently growing and leading sales teams supporting NetApp’s largest global accounts, vertical segments, global pathways, and the U.S. Public Sector.
• Max Long, former SVP, Chief Customer Officer at Adobe, will be joining NetApp as the company’s new SVP, North America. Leveraging his 30+ years of experience building high-performance sales teams and leading business transformations. Long will continue the focus on aligning NetApp’s business objectives in the U.S. and Canada driven by our customer’s business requirements. He will lead direct sales, channel sales, and demand generation teams.
• Alex Wallner, also a NetApp veteran who most recently served as SVP, Worldwide Enterprise and Commercial Field Operations, will take on the newly created role of SVP, International. Wallner will lead the execution of all GTM activities for the EMEA, APAC and Latin America regions. Focusing on increasing the footprint of NetApp as the partner-of-choice for our international customers, he and his team will help customers address their data challenges with hybrid multi-cloud solutions including NetApp’s data center architectures and superior cloud software portfolio.

“Rick’s and Alex’s proven leadership and in-depth knowledge of our industry, our customers and our partners combined with Max’s track record of leading enterprise sales teams to success at scale will be instrumental in helping organizations everywhere unlock the best of today’s hybrid multi-cloud world, wherever they are on their digital transformation journey—on premises or in any cloud,” added Cernuda.

The evolution of the NetApp data-driven GTM model and cloud-led sales organization is expected to be a continuous process starting in Q1 FY22.

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