SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Violin Memory®, Inc., (NYSE:VMEM), a leader in persistent memory-based storage solutions, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Kevin A. DeNuccio as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. He has also been elected to the Violin Memory Board of Directors. Mr. DeNuccio, 54, succeeds Howard A. Bain III, who was serving as interim CEO. Mr. Bain will remain chairman of the Violin Memory Board of Directors.
Mr. DeNuccio brings to Violin more than 25 years of executive and board experience building, managing and growing leading technology businesses. Most recently, he managed Wild West Capital LLC, an angel investing, management and technology consulting firm he co-founded in 2012. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the chief executive of Metaswitch Networks, a London-based, privately held provider of IP and telecommunications software, where he led the company’s global expansion, refreshed its product portfolio and oversaw two acquisitions.
Prior to Metaswitch, Mr. DeNuccio served as President and CEO of Redback Networks, a publicly-traded provider of edge routers that was acquired by Ericsson for $2.1 billion. During his tenure, he led a financial restructuring and major turnaround that took the company from significant losses in 2001 to achieving profitability and expanding its market capitalization nearly fourfold. Additionally, he has held executive positions with Bell Atlantic Network Integration, Cisco Systems, Wang Laboratories and Unisys Corporation.
“Kevin DeNuccio has an outstanding track record within the technology industry of achieving profitable growth and creating significant value,” said Howard A. Bain III, chairman of the Violin Memory Board of Directors. “His experience transforming businesses by developing deep client and channel relationships, rapidly scaling operations and cultivating talent will be invaluable to Violin as we focus on building a strong future for all our stakeholders.”
“I am very excited to join Violin and I look forward to working closely with such a talented and dedicated team to drive the enterprise transition to a flash-based storage infrastructure,” said Mr. DeNuccio. “With market-leading products and technology, great customers and growing partnerships, Violin has a strong foundation in place and I am confident in our ability to create significant shareholder value.”
“We are pleased to welcome a chief executive of Kevin DeNuccio’s caliber to lead the Violin team,” said David Walrod, chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees of the Violin Memory Board of Directors. “Kevin’s wealth of industry experience and deep insights will be a great addition to the Board. We look forward to working closely with him to execute our strategy to deliver profitable growth and drive value for all Violin shareholders.”
“On behalf of the Violin Board, I want to express our deep appreciation for Howard’s service as interim CEO,” added Mr. Walrod. “His stewardship of the Company during the last month and a half has enabled the Board to focus on successfully conducting its search for a permanent CEO.”
About Kevin DeNuccio
Kevin DeNuccio most recently managed Wild West Capital LLC, an angel investing, management and technology consulting firm he co-founded in 2012. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the chief executive of Metaswitch Networks. From 2001 to 2007, Mr. DeNuccio was the President and CEO of Redback Networks, a publicly-traded provider of edge routers. Prior to leading Redback Networks, he was the Senior Vice President of worldwide service provider operations at Cisco Systems, managing more than 4,000 employees globally and growing revenues from approximately $500 million to more than $4 billion. His previous roles at Cisco included managing worldwide field operations, encompassing all sales, engineering, and support organizations. In addition to Violin Memory, Mr. DeNuccio currently serves on the boards of SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), Calix, Inc. (NYSE:CALX), Metaswitch Networks and Northeastern University. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Northeastern University.
About Violin Memory, Inc.
Violin Memory enables businesses to access real-time information by delivering memory-based storage solutions that close the compute storage gap. Named by Gartner Inc. as the market share leader in flash-based storage systems, Violin Memory brings storage performance in-line with demanding, high-speed applications, servers and networks at disk economics. Violin Memory solutions are optimized from the ground up to leverage the inherent capabilities of flash memory, enabling performance of memory at compelling economics for business-critical applications, virtualized environments and big data in enterprise data centers. Founded in 2005, Violin Memory is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information, visit www.violin-memory.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the future prospects for our stakeholders, enterprise transition to flash-based storage infrastructures, creating future shareholder value, and future profitable growth and value for shareholders. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including: Violin Memory’s history of large purchases by a limited number of customers; its limited operating history, particularly as a new public company; risks associated with a transition in executive leadership; its relationship with Toshiba as its sole supplier of flash-based memory; as well as general market, political, economic and business conditions. Additional risks and uncertainties that could affect Violin Memory’s financial results are included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in the company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is available on the Company’s investor relations website at investor.violin-memory.com and on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and Violin Memory does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.
All Violin Memory news releases (financial, acquisitions, manufacturing, products, technology, etc.) are issued exclusively by Business Wire and are immediately thereafter posted on the company’s external website, www.violin-memory.com. Violin, Violin Memory and the Violin Memory logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Violin Memory, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other brand or product names used in this public announcement may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
