Howard Fischer Associates Assists Faction Recruit CRO and CPO

August 9, 2021 – Philadelphia-headquartered executive search firm Howard Fischer Associates has helped to place two key leaders, Anthony Faustini as chief revenue officer and Rama Kolappan as chief product officer, for Faction, a leading multi-cloud data services provider.

Messrs. Faustini and Kolappan are joining Denver, CO-based Faction during a time of significant growth. They are expected to be major contributors driving the rapid commercial adoption of Faction’s portfolio of cloud data services, domestically and internationally, said Howard Fischer Associates.

“Anthony and Rama are prominent additions to Faction’s team during this exciting time of growth,” said Sean Charnock, CEO of Faction. “The expertise they bring in these newly created executive roles will support Faction’s continued leadership in delivering multi-cloud data services to our rapidly growing customer base. Faction’s platform provides a unique solution to empower customers in data-intensive industries to drive exponential value out of their most valuable asset – their data.”

Strong Experience

Mr. Faustini joins Faction following executive sales and go-to-market leadership positions at Commvault, Cisco and Big Switch Networks, where he drove transformational growth through strategy and sales execution for products in the compute, networking, storage and security sectors. In his most recent role as vice president, global sales, at Commvault, Mr. Faustini oversaw a global sales team that focused on building relationships with the top 30 enterprise organizations worldwide. He brings deep expertise in emerging and traditional platforms, including cloud/SaaS, data center, software-defined networking, storage, analytics, data management and security solutions.

Mr. Kolappan comes to Faction from Cisco Systems, where he was general manager and global vice president leading the transformation of Cisco’s customer experience portfolio. Before Cisco, Mr. Kolappan was responsible for the data management and data protection portfolio at Dell EMC. He also previously led cloud transformation and launched a SaaS business at Veritas and Commvault, respectively. Mr. Kolappan brings extensive expertise in cloud platforms, data management, security, AI/ML and enterprise mobility. He was named as one of the Premier 100 Technology Leaders by Computerworld magazine.

The onboarding of Messrs. Faustini and Kolappan reinforces Faction’s continued investment in the growth and expansion of the cloud data services market, said Howard Fischer Associates. In 2020, Faction experienced significant growth driven by new client wins in data-intensive verticals such as healthcare, oil and gas, legal and financial services, and logistics. Also in 2020, Faction expanded its European presence with a new cloud-connected region in Frankfurt. Continued global expansion was planned for Sydney in 2021, which would mark Faction’s first cloud-connected region in APAC.

Faction, founded in 2006, pioneered cloud-adjacent storage powered by patented technology that provides data access over low latency, high throughput connections to all the major clouds, including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Faction is also a leading managed service provider for VMware Cloud on AWS, including disaster recovery and production deployments, and was the first to offer cloud-attached storage solutions that integrate natively with VMware Cloud on AWS. Faction’s private and multi-cloud platforms give clients the ability to move, access, scale and protect data between clouds, without the fear of cloud lock-in. Faction, a VMware Cloud Verified provider, is also recognized as an Advanced AWS Consulting Partner and VMware Premier Cloud Provider.

Functional Search Consultants

Howard Fischer Associates specializes in placing key executives in functional areas, including sales, marketing, engineering, research and development, operations, information technology, human resources, business development and finance. The firm has completed senior-level searches for clients that include: Acacia, Affirmed Networks, Airbnb, Aqua America, Blue Apron, BlueJeans Network, Bonobos, Casa Systems, Cloudera, Comcast, Discovery Communications, GitHub, Jefferson Health, Penn Mutual, Pepsi Cola & National Brand Beverages, RentPath, Rue La, Triumph Group, Twitter and UGI Utilities.

The firm, which also has offices in Silicon Valley, Chicago and Boston, is led by founder and president Howard Fischer. For 35 years, Mr. Fischer has consulted with CEOs, boards of directors and senior executives on the process of identifying, evaluating and attracting leaders.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media