Panasas appoints Tom Shea as President and CEO

Shea is an experienced executive with more than 20 years of business and engineering leadership in the storage industry, including tenures as CEO of Gear6 and Mirra, Inc. Shea has a proven track record delivering game-changing, transformational technologies to the market. He has led software and hardware teams in both public and private companies and has managed teams through periods of transition, exponential growth, and successful public offerings.

“I am honored to succeed Faye as CEO and to lead the Panasas team, building on our incredibly strong technology foundation,” said Shea. “We have re-invented ourselves over the past five years, and we are re-defining the price-performance equation in HPC storage with innovative technology that eliminates hidden costs. I look forward to working with our fantastic employees, customers and partners to advance our strategy, drive growth, and deliver value every day for our customers.”

Under Pairman’s leadership, Panasas drove an ambitious technology roadmap and market expansion that included introduction of the next-generation PanFS® parallel file system, release of the new ActiveStor® Ultra high-performance data storage appliance based on commercial off-the-shelf hardware, and new customer acquisitions across a broad spectrum of industries.

“It has been my privilege to lead the Panasas team over the past 10 years and I am proud of what we have accomplished together,” said Pairman. “We commercialized the product, expanded into new markets and did something very few data storage companies have achieved: building a new HPC parallel file system, an effort that took four years of deep engineering work. After focusing on product development and market expansion, it is now time to transition the company to customer-focused leadership, and I am confident that Tom will drive Panasas in that direction.”

“On behalf of the entire board of directors, I would like to thank Faye for her leadership and contribution to Panasas over the past 10 years,” said Jorge Titinger, member of the Panasas board. “Faye’s unwavering commitment to the company’s core value proposition—exceptional technology combined with outstanding customer service—leaves Panasas well-positioned for its next phase of growth. We have every confidence that Tom Shea’s extensive industry experience and leadership skills will drive plans for the company’s continued success, and we are truly enthusiastic about the future.”

In addition, Panasas announced that Harry Ault, chief revenue officer at DataStax, has joined the Panasas Board. Ault has more than 20 years of Silicon Valley field leadership experience and brings strong go-to-market and customer acquisition experience to the Board. In his role at DataStax, Ault leads worldwide field operations including data architects, sales, open source consulting, and partner ecosystem development.