Nutanix sales head departs for startup fun and games

Just seven months into his role as Nutanix Chief Revenue Officer, Chris Kaddaras has quit to join a pre-IPO security tech startup.

Rajiv Ramaswami, Nutanix President and CEO, said so in an email to all Nutanix staff, writing: “I can understand the draw for Chris to have a large hand in shaping a company at an early stage, and we wish him the very best on this next adventure.” Ramaswami became Nutanix CEO in December 2020 when Kaddaras was EVP Worldwide Sales and promoted him to the CRO position in February this year.

Chris Kaddaras.

He was at pains to say: “Chris will help us finish out our first quarter of fiscal 2022 before he departs on October 31, 2021 [and] our first fiscal quarter is on track with the guidance we shared on our September 1, 2021 earnings call.” That was for between $172 million and $177 million in ACV billings next quarter, up 26.4 per cent year-on-year. In other words, there’s nothing wrong with Nutanix’s business results to make Kaddaras or Ramaswami unhappy.

Ramaswami emphasised the capabilities and experience of Nutanix’s post-Kaddaras sales team: “We have a dedicated and passionate senior sales leadership team in place that will continue Nutanix’s positive momentum as we embark on our next era of innovation, customer satisfaction, and success.”

Andrew Brinded, Nutanix SVP and Worldwide Sales Chief Operating Officer, will step into the CRO slot on an interim basis.

It must be a heck of an opportunity to tempt Kaddaras away from the top of Nutanix’s sales tree. Here’s a roster of the top 22 cyber security companies. Maybe Kaddaras’s startup is amongst them. Ironically, he must be being tempted by a king’s ransom in pay from a company that surely has fighting ransomware at the top of its capabilities list.