HDS Gets New CEO, HP a New Storage Chief

Hitachi Data Systems Chief Operating Officer Minoru Kosuge was promoted to CEO on May 29 following the resignation of David E. Robertson, who has taken a new position at Hewlett-Packard as senior vice president and general manager of the companys enterprise storage business, effective May 30.

Hitachi also announced the appointment of Jack Domme as its new COO, replacing Kosuge. Domme previously has served as HDS executive vice president of global solutions strategy and development.

HDS, based in Santa Clara, Calif., and HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., not only are neighbors but have been longtime partners in the storage space. HP buys its flagship XP family of storage arrays from HDS, including the XP24000, HPs version of the new HDS USP V (Universal Storage Platform V), which HDS introduced May 14.

Robertson had served in the employ of HDS for 26 years. In his new role at HP, Robertson will report to Scott Stallard, senior vice president and general manager of HP Enterprise Servers and Storage.

Robertson succeeds Bob Schultz, who continued to run HP StorageWorks after his appointment in January to senior vice president and general manager of the newly formed HP Enterprise Server and Storage Software organization.

"We are fortunate to have an executive of Daves stature to run HP StorageWorks. He is an accomplished industry veteran with considerable expertise in all areas of business leadership," said Stallard.

Prior to being named COO at HDS in April 2006, Kosuge served as executive vice president and chief storage architect, collaborating with Hitachi Data Systems Global Sales and Hitachi, Ltd.s RSD (Disk Array Systems Division). From 2003 to 2005, Kosuge was division president of RSD, where he led his team in developing the revolutionary Hitachi Universal Storage Platform.

Kosuge joined Hitachi in 1980 and has held a number of management positions since joining the company. As general manager of storage systems development for RSD and before that as department manager for the Enterprise Disk Array Hardware Design Department, Kosuge oversaw development of Hitachis enterprise and modular storage systems.

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Kosuge is a native of Nagano, Japan. He holds a B.S. degree in Engineering from Tokyo University.

"While we will miss Dave [Robertson], we are very pleased to see Dave in his new role at HP," an HDS spokesperson said.

"HP and Hitachi have been long-standing partners for many years, collaborating in areas ranging from personal computers to storage solutions. As Hitachi and HP are always looking for ways to enhance and expand the current strategic business relationship, Daves presence at HP will most certainly enable us to further build and strengthen an already strong partnership and take it to new heights," the spokesperson said.

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