Restructuring Quantum Corp has hired Geoff Barrall away from Index Engines to be its Chief Product officer, a new position, to lead product strategy, innovation, and engineering direction.
The company is now in a more stable position, following its debt restructuring and exec team refreshment. It’s also changed its external auditors, following a stream of financial reporting issues, from Grant Thornton LLP to CohnReznick LLP. We understand a CFO search is under way to replace the departed Lewis Moorehead.
CEO Hugues Meyrath said: “Geoff is a proven product and technology leader with a remarkable track record of founding companies, scaling global engineering teams, and shaping product strategies that drive market leadership.”
He told us: “I hired Geoff as a contractor the past three or four weeks and I literally had him crawl through all our engineering organization and he came back with an assessment of the way [we] can attack primary storage and the way we’re going to attack the market in general. And we’re seeing a hundred percent eye to eye. And I just looked at him at the end of the presentation and said, okay, you want to go do this with me? And he signed up.”
“We’re going to have to reorg the whole engineering team the way they work. We’re going to have to re-look at what do we do.”
We understand Barrall will be looking at the Raptor tape libraries, StorNext, Myriad, DXi deduping systems, Pivot3 video surveillance, and ActiveScale object storage products, and working out how they can work better individually and together, and respond to market needs such as the whole AI situation.
Barrall was Index Engine’s Chief Product Officer, and worked alongside its CRO Tony Craythorne, who joined Quantum as its CRO in July. Craythorne’s LinkedIn entry is illuminating about his time at Index Engines, and he’s worked with Barrall before, at Bamboo Systems.
Barrall’s background is impressive. Before Index Engines, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Hitachi Vantara, where he shaped product strategy, partnerships, and advanced research, supporting $4 billion in annual revenues. Earlier in his career, he founded NAS supplier BlueArc Corporation, which he grew into one of the most recognized storage brands of its time before its acquisition by Hitachi. He was also the founder of Drobo and Connected Data, and has held multiple executive, board and advisory positions across the storage and IT industry.
Barrall said: “Quantum has a unique position in the market with its ability to deliver high-performance storage, cyber-resilient protection, and low-cost, long-term archives—all critical for today’s AI data-driven world. I’m excited to join Quantum at this pivotal moment to accelerate its innovation engine, align product strategy to customer needs, and deliver solutions that help organizations maximize the value of their data.”
Meyrath told us: “I think at this point we have more financial stability that we’ve had for several years. … I have my product guy now. I have my sales guy now. I have a good supportive board. I think we have the pieces and now we’re just going to put our heads down … and execute.”
It may be a tad early but we think we can start to say: “Welcome back Quantum.”
