Develop Great Managers Podcast

In this podcast, I interview John Dolan, Strategic Advisor and Board Member at Ascend Cloud Solutions. Prior to taking on this position, John was Global Vice President for the Software-Defined Data Center Support at VMware. John spent more than 14 years at VMware in the Technical Support organization, where he led global organizations across EMEA and APJ. He did this from Cork, Ireland where he also held the role of Campus Site Lead. Prior to VMware, John spent a number of years working for EMC in Technical Support, helping them to build a support team in Ireland. I got to know John while at VMware when I was in engineering within the Integrated Systems Business Unit. I was working on designs for VMware customer deployments and John was providing support of these same customers. I then had a chance to spend a lot of time with John and his team when I joined the leadership team in Global Services. I really enjoyed working with John. He was incredibly focused on helping customers to be successful. I was helping

In this podcast, I talk to Simran Singh, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for Hyperwallet, a Paypal company acquired in 2018, about his career path. Prior to Hyperwallet, Simran was a Senior Product Manager at VMware where he joined after graduating from business school. Before business school, Simran worked at Baring Private Equity Asia, the largest private equity fund in Asia. Simran was one of the earliest employees of Parthenon's education practice and helped launch schools in more than 25 countries around the world including Chile, Zambia, Mexico, UAE, Singapore, UK, etc.  Simran is a Palmer Scholar graduate from the Wharton School of Business and Director's Medallist from IIT Delhi (Computer Science and Mathematics). I got to know Simran while he was at VMware. He worked in my Product Management team. I knew from his first days at VMware, that Simran was a superstar. I have stayed loosely connected, watching his rise to where he is today. I have always been impressed with Simran's thoug

In this podcast, I interview Simran Singh, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for Hyperwallet, a Paypal company acquired in 2018. Prior to Hyperwallet, Simran was a Senior Product Manager at VMware where he joined after graduating from business school. Before business school, Simran worked at Baring Private Equity Asia, the largest private equity fund in Asia. Simran was one of the earliest employees of Parthenon's education practice and helped launch schools in more than 25 countries around the world including Chile, Zambia, Mexico, UAE, Singapore, UK, etc.  Simran is a Palmer Scholar graduate from the Wharton School of Business and Director's Medallist from IIT Delhi (Computer Science and Mathematics). I got to know Simran while he was at VMware. He worked in my Product Management team. I knew from his first days at VMware, that Simran was a superstar. I have stayed loosely connected, watching his rise to where he is today. I have always been impressed with Simran's thoughtful and humble appr

In this podcast, I talk to Joel "Thor" Neeb, CEO of the consulting firm and corporate events company Afterburner, Inc., about his career path. In his role, Joel leads more than 70 former elite military professionals, including fighter pilots, Navy SEALS, and Army Rangers, in achieving strategic objectives and fostering elite teams for Fortune 100 companies and professional sports teams. Joel joined Afterburner in 2012, was named president in 2015, and assumed the role of CEO in July 2019. Joel initiated Afterburner’s expansion from an events-based business into transformational business consulting. This focus developed into Afterburner’s newest business unit offering, Impact Consulting, where Afterburner’s team works along-side clients to identify challenges and improve performance. As a former F-15 mission commander, United States Air Force, Joel continues to go by his pilot call sign, “Thor,” in his business career. As a pilot, he’s both escorted the President and performed flybys at football games. He was

In this podcast, I interview Joel "Thor" Neeb, CEO of the consulting firm and corporate events company Afterburner, Inc. In this role, Joel leads more than 70 former elite military professionals, including fighter pilots, Navy SEALS, and Army Rangers, in achieving strategic objectives and fostering elite teams for Fortune 100 companies and professional sports teams. Joel joined Afterburner in 2012, was named president in 2015, and assumed the role of CEO in July 2019. Joel initiated Afterburner’s expansion from an events-based business into transformational business consulting. This focus developed into Afterburner’s newest business unit offering, Impact Consulting, where Afterburner’s team works along-side clients to identify challenges and improve performance. As a former F-15 mission commander, United States Air Force, Joel continues to go by his pilot call sign, “Thor,” in his business career. As a pilot, he’s both escorted the President and performed flybys at football games. He was the tactical leader o

In this podcast, I talk to Kit Colbert, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Cloud Platform Business Unit at VMware, about his career path. In his role, Kit is responsible for driving technical strategy and innovation for the vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, and VMware Cloud on DellEMC product lines. Previously, Kit was GM of Cloud-Native Apps, CTO for End-User Computing, the Chief Architect and Principal Engineer for Workspace Portal, and the lead Management Architect for the vRealize Operations Suite. At the start of his career, he was the technical lead behind the creation, development, and delivery of the vMotion and Storage vMotion features in vSphere. Kit holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Brown University and is a recognized thought-leader on Cloud-Native, End-User Computing, and Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure trends.  He speaks regularly at industry conferences, on the main stage at VMworld, and is the Hybrid Cloud voice for the VMware Office of the CTO. I got to know

In this podcast, I interview Kit Colbert, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Cloud Platform Business Unit at VMware. In this role, Kit is responsible for driving technical strategy and innovation for the vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, and VMware Cloud on DellEMC product lines. Previously, Kit was GM of Cloud-Native Apps, CTO for End-User Computing, the Chief Architect and Principal Engineer for Workspace Portal, and the lead Management Architect for the vRealize Operations Suite. At the start of his career, he was the technical lead behind the creation, development, and delivery of the vMotion and Storage vMotion features in vSphere. Kit holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Brown University and is a recognized thought-leader on Cloud-Native, End-User Computing, and Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure trends.  He speaks regularly at industry conferences, on the main stage at VMworld, and is the Hybrid Cloud voice for the VMware Office of the CTO. I got to know Kit while at VMware.

In this podcast, I talk to Cody Hosterman, Technical Director for VMware & Cloud Solutions at Pure Storage, about his career path. In his current role, Cody's team focuses on the VMware ecosystem and cloud-based offering integration with the Pure Storage FlashArray and Cloud Block Store. He has a deep background in virtualization and storage technologies, including experience as a Solutions Engineer and Principal Virtualization Technologist.  In his current position, he is responsible for VMware & Cloud integration strategy, best practices, and developing new integrations and documentation. Cody has spoken internationally on the topics of virtualization and storage at numerous conferences and events such as VMworld and various virtualization-related user groups and trade shows.  He is the author of several technical whitepapers and guides related to virtualization, storage, and data center infrastructure. He is the co-author or contributor to multiple technical reference books and his frequently-updat

In this podcast, I interview Cody Hosterman, Technical Director for VMware & Cloud Solutions at Pure Storage. In his current role, Cody's team focuses on the VMware ecosystem and cloud-based offering integration with the Pure Storage FlashArray and Cloud Block Store. He has a deep background in virtualization and storage technologies, including experience as a Solutions Engineer and Principal Virtualization Technologist.  In his current position, he is responsible for VMware & Cloud integration strategy, best practices, and developing new integrations and documentation. Cody has spoken internationally on the topics of virtualization and storage at numerous conferences and events such as VMworld and various virtualization-related user groups and trade shows.  He is the author of several technical whitepapers and guides related to virtualization, storage, and data center infrastructure. He is the co-author or contributor to multiple technical reference books and his frequently-updated personal blog cont

In this podcast, I talk Eddie Dinel, Senior Director of Product Management at VMware, where he has been since 2002, about his career path. In his role, Eddie has two key responsibilities. The first is VMware Validated Designs, a new way of approaching the problem of SDDC deployments. And the second is the "Enterprise Readiness" program across all products at VMware, focusing on reducing the friction involved in operating VMware software. Eddie has held many previous roles at VMware, across product development, technical alliances and IT. He has been involved in nearly every product that VMware has ever shipped. Prior to VMware, Eddie was at Zack Systems and HighWire Press. Eddie graduated with a Bachelor of Art in History as well as minors in Physics and Computer Science from Stanford University. I have had the pleasure to work with Eddie in most of the roles that I had at VMware. He is a passionate leader with a unique level of depth and breadth across VMware products. I hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I interview Eddie Dinel, Senior Director of Product Management at VMware, where he has been since 2002! In his role, Eddie has two key responsibilities. The first is VMware Validated Designs, a new way of approaching the problem of SDDC deployments. And the second is the "Enterprise Readiness" program across all products at VMware, focusing on reducing the friction involved in operating VMware software. Eddie has held many previous roles at VMware, across product development, technical alliances and IT. He has been involved in nearly every product that VMware has ever shipped. Prior to VMware, Eddie was at Zack Systems and HighWire Press. Eddie graduated with a Bachelor of Art in History as well as minors in Physics and Computer Science from Stanford University. I have had the pleasure to work with Eddie in most of the roles that I had at VMware. He is a passionate leader with a unique level of depth and breadth across VMware products. I hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I talk to Vijay Anand, Senior Vice President at Intuit, about his career path. In his role, Vijay engages with all global product development sites and guides them on the strategies for the future aimed at delivering Intuit’s mission to power prosperity around the world. Vijay also leads Intuit’s Tech Culture initiative with the objective of transforming Intuit into a world-class technology company and is the executive sponsor for the Women in Tech. During his 10-year tenure, Vijay is credited with building Intuit’s India Development Center in Bangalore where over 1000+ talented employees deliver game-changing innovations across Quickbooks, TurboTax, and Mint and delight millions of customers around the world. Vijay has extended Intuit’s global presence with a new global development center in Israel that is accelerating our journey on AI, Machine Learning and Information Security. Back in 2010, Vijay created a set of tenets called the Global Engineering Principles based on his experiences bui

In this podcast, I interview Vijay Anand, Senior Vice President responsible for Global Development Centers and based in Intuit’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. In this role, Vijay engages with all global product development sites and guides them on the strategies for the future aimed at delivering Intuit’s mission to power prosperity around the world. Vijay also leads Intuit’s Tech Culture initiative with the objective of transforming Intuit into a world-class technology company and is the executive sponsor for the Women in Tech. During his 10-year tenure, Vijay is credited with building Intuit’s India Development Center in Bangalore where over 1000+ talented employees deliver game-changing innovations across Quickbooks, TurboTax, and Mint and delight millions of customers around the world. Vijay has extended Intuit’s global presence with a new global development center in Israel that is accelerating our journey on AI, Machine Learning and Information Security. Back in 2010, Vijay created a set of

In this podcast, I interview Ray O'Farrell, Executive Vice President and leader of the Cloud-Native Apps Business Unit at VMware. In his current role, Ray will envision and extend the company’s strategy and operating model for delivering the Kubernetes platform of the future. Prior to August 2019, Ray served as executive vice president and chief technology officer, where his main focus areas were to ensure VMware’s long term technology leadership through research and innovation programs, with the primary goal of positively impacting and shaping the future of VMware, its ecosystem and its customers. Prior to his role as Chief Technology Officer, Ray co-led the Software-Defined Data Center Division comprising the vSphere, networking, management and storage businesses and was responsible for the division’s strategy, business, and product planning and engineering execution. Ray joined VMware to lead the ESX Storage team during the early development of the ESX platform. He helped build a large ecosystem of partner

In this podcast, I talk to Robert (Bob) Worrall, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Juniper Networks, about his career path. Bob heads up Juniper’s global information technology (IT) team. In this role, he leads the ongoing enhancement of the company’s IT infrastructure and applications architectures to support the growth objectives of the company. He and his team are also responsible for showcasing Juniper’s use of its technologies to the world. Prior to joining Juniper in 2015, Bob was senior vice president and chief information officer at NVIDIA with responsibility for deploying innovative technologies to enhance employee productivity and improve cost efficiencies. He also spent more than two decades at Sun Microsystems, including six years as chief information officer. He also held a variety of roles in Sun’s IT organization, including vice president of applications and vice president of IT operations. Worrall has extensive international business experience, including a two-year

In this podcast, I interview Robert (Bob) Worrall, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Juniper Networks. Bob heads up Juniper’s global information technology (IT) team. In this role, he leads the ongoing enhancement of the company’s IT infrastructure and applications architectures to support the growth objectives of the company. He and his team are also responsible for showcasing Juniper’s use of its technologies to the world. Prior to joining Juniper in 2015, Bob was senior vice president and chief information officer at NVIDIA with responsibility for deploying innovative technologies to enhance employee productivity and improve cost efficiencies. He also spent more than two decades at Sun Microsystems, including six years as chief information officer. He also held a variety of roles in Sun’s IT organization, including vice president of applications and vice president of IT operations. Worrall has extensive international business experience, including a two-year assignment in The Net

Welcome to another Develop Great Managers Topical Podcast! There is no topic more important to managers than “How To Build a Great Team”!. That’s because the bulk of work gets done in this structure. It doesn’t matter whether you are in sports, technology, medical, or almost any other industry – great teams are key to success. We have an amazing panel lined up to discuss this pressing question, including Karen Egan, a Vice President in Global Support Services at VMware, Satya Dodda, a Vice President of Software Development at Oracle, and Vicky Xu, a Research and Development Leader at Google. There is some amazing content in this discussion. I hope that the accents along with some recording problems do not create too much of a challenge. Enjoy!

In this podcast, I talk to Kieran Desmond, a Vice President at VMware, about his career path. Kieran is responsible for the Global Services Platform Experience through which he manages customer interactions for VMware Support. Kieran has in-depth knowledge of support operations and leading global support teams. He is passionate about technology and building great experiences for customers and all users that engage with technology to solve customer issues. Kieran joined VMware in 2006 and has taken on many challenges over the years. Prior to VMware Kieran spent 14 years at EMC spending the majority of time within Technical Support visiting customer sites deploying the latest and greatest features. Kieran also spent time within EMC Symmetrix R&D as a software developer developing tools to help diagnose product issues. Kieran lives in West Cork Ireland, a beautiful part of the world with his wife and three children. I hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I interview Kieran Desmond, a Vice President at VMware. Kieran is responsible for the Global Services Platform Experience through which he manages customer interactions for VMware Support. Kieran has in-depth knowledge of support operations and leading global support teams. He is passionate about technology and building great experiences for customers and all users that engage with technology to solve customer issues. Kieran joined VMware in 2006 and has taken on many challenges over the years. Prior to VMware Kieran spent 14 years at EMC spending the majority of time within Technical Support visiting customer sites deploying the latest and greatest features. Kieran also spent time within EMC Symmetrix R&D as a software developer developing tools to help diagnose product issues. Kieran lives in West Cork Ireland, a beautiful part of the world with his wife and three children. I hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I talk to David Hulbert, a Vice President at VMware, about his career path. David is responsible for the Global Premier Support Services organization.  This team is accountable for proactively supporting and servicing VMware’s most strategic customers. David’s organization is comprised of 400+ people spanning 3 Global Support Centers and is responsible for an annual operating budget of ~$50M. David is an accomplished senior leader with 20+ years of experience in the consulting, technical services and software industries.   He began his career at KPMG as a Business Intelligence consultant using MicroStrategy products. He then moved to Business Objects and SAP where he held several roles in a customer-facing, project management, and leadership capacity.  David’s strong organizational, interpersonal and communication skills along with his ability to execute has helped advance his career. He is passionate about customers, solving problems and managing people. David resides in Burlington, Ontario