SoftLayer Adds Key Executive Management
January 15, 2008, Dallas, TX – SoftLayer announced it has hired three new employees to key manager roles: George Karidis as Chief Strategy Officer, DJ Harris as Director of Business Systems, and Chris Menard as Director of Operations.
"SoftLayer is defining the cutting edge of hosting. My standing goal is to have the best minds that will help us continue to drive emerging technologies," said Lance Crosby, SoftLayer Chief Executive Officer. "Team chemistry, knowledge, experience, and work ethic are the cornerstones to our success. George, DJ, and Chris build on that foundation."
Mr. Karidis joins SoftLayer from Devonshire Investors, the private equity arm of Fidelity Investments, where he selected and implemented emerging technologies across numerous portfolio companies. At SoftLayer he will forge new ground on the company’s virtual datacenter initiative, further define its product offering, and lead its sales and marketing efforts. "Hosting is going to evolve more in the next two years than it did in the first ten," said Mr. Karidis. "Customers are placing more and more value on what hosting can help them accomplish beyond improved efficiency in space and power."
Mr. Harris comes to SoftLayer from Tyco where he served as an IT Analyst and Software Engineer and was responsible for integrating multiple legacy systems into a single functional unit. He will be responsible for all of SoftLayer’s internal business systems, and tasked to improve and automate all systems that have direct customer interaction. "Our customer support systems have to be as efficient and scalable as our on-demand services," said Mr. Harris. "They must add to the customer experience—not be a source of frustration."
Mr. Menard joins SoftLayer from Yum, Inc., and brings extensive experience in large-scale, multi-site datacenter operations. His primary responsibilities will be over geographical expansion, datacenter management, and customer service. "After scaling operations for a single large enterprise, I’m excited to help scale operations for thousands of customers concurrently," said Mr. Menard. "My goal is to make certain our customers’ IT meets their business needs." |
About SoftLayer
Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers next-generation web hosting and virtualized data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. Utilizing proprietary management tools coupled with the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology, the company delivers unprecedented power and control to securely manage IT environments while providing unparalleled scalability. For more information please visit www.softlayer.com or call 866.398.7638.
Contact:
Shawna Furr
214.442.0584
press@softlayer.com |
