For the first time in the company’s history, one of VMware’s global leadership roles is headquartered in Canada.
“The pandemic has changed the philosophies of work forever,” Paula Hodgins, the company’s new vice-president of worldwide accounts and telco sales told IT World Canada a few weeks into her new role.
Replacing VMware’s Dan Zugelder – who is now the senior VP and general manager of the Americas – Hodgins says she’s excited to work close to VMware’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto and helping both partners and customers seeking business advantages grasp the complexities of cloud.
“VMware has a real focus on this particular vertical,” Hodgins told ITWorldCanada.com, adding there’s a massive push globally to modernize network infrastructure and get them ready for 5G and Wi-Fi 6. “Canadia telcos and service providers are front and centre.”
Hodgins joined HPE in 2019 and was tasked with helping guide the Canadian market towards a mix of public and private cloud environments supported by HPE. Prior to that, she spent 13 years at Microsoft overseeing Azure Cloud sales for customers in Canada and even spent time as the COO for enterprise sales in the U.S. and Canada. Replacing Hodgins at HPE is Mike Hilton, who was appointed as President of HPE Canada last week.
“Multi-cloud application modernization will continue to accelerate,” Hodgins said, elaborating how there are far fewer “five-year plans” because those have all been kicked into overdrive.
Jean-Pierre Brulard, executive vice-president, worldwide sales at VMware, called Hodgins an “outstanding talent.”
“Paula’s breadth of experience and unique skillset will be an invaluable addition to our company as we continue to help our customers build a trusted digital foundation to meet the demands of today and prepare for tomorrow,” he said in a March 17 news release.
Pat’s presence still felt
The departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger, who is now steering the ship at Intel, hasn’t impacted company morale and Hodgins says Gelsinger’s fingerprint on the company is still evident.
“Pat’s imprint on market leadership in culture is incredible. That is going to be a very long-lasting thing at this company,” she said, noting how his presence on VMware’s board of directors is a huge bonus. “In the meantime, we have a strong executive team and it’s business as usual for us.”