Cohesity appoints Sanjay Poonen as CEO and president

Data management company Cohesity appointed Sanjay Poonen as CEO and president, in addition he will join the board of directors.

Poonen was formerly COO of VMware and president of SAP. Mohit Aron, who has been CEO since founding the company in 2013, will accelerate Cohesity’s product innovation and roadmap as founder and chief technology and product officer.

Aron will continue to lead the company’s research and development (R&D), support and services, as well as the office of the CTO. He will remain on the Cohesity Board of Directors.

Poonen said, “In my due diligence with customers, I’ve found that Cohesity has the best technology in its category and protects data for many of the biggest brands in the Fortune 500. Above all, Mohit has built an incredible team across the organisation that is committed to driving innovation while putting customers first.”

In his most recent role as COO of VMware, Poonen oversaw sales, marketing, services, and alliances and played a key role in doubling revenues from approximately $6B to $12B.

Poonen also played a vital role in architecting multiple successful cloud partnerships, including AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle.

He led the company’s security and end-user computing businesses, including the acquisition of AirWatch and Carbon Black. Prior to VMware, Poonen served as President of SAP where he led SAP's Applications, Industries, and Platform teams, serving in engineering and sales roles that helped double SAP revenues from approximately $10B to $20B.

Aron said, “I’ll continue to work closely with our customers and partners to further drive Cohesity’s technology and product leadership forward as we combat ransomware, eliminate data fragmentation, and simplify data management in the hybrid and multicloud world.”

Gaurav Garg, chairman of the board and founding partner of Wing Ventures said, “Sanjay is ideally suited to be the next CEO of Cohesity. He is one of the software industry’s most successful and respected executives, has an incredible track record of driving growth and operational excellence, is passionate about customers and partners, strongly believes in company culture, and is focused on delivering best-in-class innovation.”