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posted on 06 March 2008 15:22

Pete Rurkavina, ex-VP business operations at Cisco, has joined data de-duplication supplier Data Domain, becoming its senior VP for operations. Data Domain wants to grow as Cisco has grown, and become a multi-billion dollar business.

He assumes overall responsibility for Data Domain’s world-wide operations including manufacturing, supply chain management, IT and global customer support.

Frank Slootman, Data Domain's president and CEO, said: “Pete joined Cisco when that company was about the same size as Data Domain is today. His experience and expertise in scaling operations is of particular interest to Data Domain at this juncture in our growth. With operations in 23 countries and global demand for our products and services, Data Domain’s operational capabilities and infrastructure will need to scale smoothly. Pete’s experience in driving operational excellence throughout the organisational chain includes both multi-billion dollar business entities and companies of Data Domain’s size that became multi-billion dollar businesses.  We welcome him into the Data Domain fold and look forward to his contributions.”

Rukavina said: “Data Domain’s opportunity to disrupt the data centre storage landscape has already taken shape. This is a focused company with great leadership in an exciting market.  I am looking forward to scaling operations in a predictable and efficient way.”

Rukavina, with over 25 years of operational experience, was previously General Manager of the Cisco Content Networking Business Unit, where he was instrumental in making Cisco a leading vendor in the application and content delivery systems market. He also held various executive positions within Cisco manufacturing and operations and, before that,held management positions at Corning Glass and Conoco.

He holds a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University and a master in business administration.
 
Update

David Sangster is Data Domain's VP Operations. He was appointed in September, 2004 and will now report to Pete Rurkavina. Data Domain's operations infrastructure is expanding; there is a new operations facility in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, and the company will increase its global presence beyond the current 23 countries.

The company's operations have to scale and Rurkavina will be responsible for that on a world-wide basis, as he was at Cisco.