'I hope they can clone him' - partners react to departure of Nutanix CEO
Dheeraj Pandey is set to retire from the storage vendor he co-founded 11 years ago
Nutanix chief exec Dheeraj Pandey is set to depart the company he co-founded and has led for over a decade.
Pandey founded the storage vendor in 2009 alongside Ajeet Singh and Mohit Aron - the latter of whom went on to found and lead Cohesity - and will retire from his role once his successor has been selected by Nutanix's board of directors.
The news came on foot of the vendor's Q4 results which saw revenue rise nine per cent year-on-year to $327.9m. Its overall fiscal 2020 saw its top line grow by six per cent to $1.3bn.
The vendor also announced that Bain Capital Private Equity has invested $750m in Convertible Senior Notes, making it a leading shareholder in the firm.
"Co-founding and leading Nutanix for the last 11 years has been the single most rewarding experience of my professional career. Guided by a vision of making IT infrastructure so simple that it becomes invisible, our team has built Nutanix into a leader in cloud software and a pioneer in hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions," Pandey stated.
"While I will miss being in the trenches with our team every day, working from home alongside my family over the last several months has been a fulfilling experience. I look forward to spending more time with my children and allowing myself the space and flexibility to read and write and learn new domains, which simply hasn't been possible as a full-time CEO.
"The $750m investment from Bain Capital Private Equity announced today underscores the strength of our business and ensures a strong financial foundation to capitalise on the significant opportunities ahead. I am confident there is no better time for me to make this transition to a new leader who can guide Nutanix through its next decade of growth and success."
Pandey was an accessible and "personable" chief executive for partners, according to Michael O'Hara MD of VAD DataSolutions.
"You go to these events and you never see the CEO, or you see him on the stage and then he disappears into the background, and you don't really see them socially," he told CRN.
"But Dheeraj and all the Nutanix board were very visible, not just for the keynotes but throughout any of the events they held."
O'Hara praised Pandey's channel-centric approach to establishing Nutanix in the UK and how it managed to take market share from more established players at the time, such as EMC, HPE and IBM.
"It was a big challenge. They put a significant direct-touch team on the ground in the UK and they went out and knocked on doors into end users and created opportunities - and often those opportunities were fulfilled by channel partners," he said.
"That was a very bold move and a big investment, but it has paid dividends and has allowed them to grow as exponentially as they have."
Jonathan Lassman, CEO of Epaton, praised Pandey's leadership of the storage vendor and stated that he is leaving the firm in a strong position.
"Hopefully they can clone him," he quipped about the next CEO.
"Dheeraj has built the most fantastic business. The momentum has gathered and is there and I think the business will succeed and thrive and I think that it will just go from strength to strength.
"We've built a fantastic business on the back of theirs and hopefully someone will come in with the same vision and respect for the channel that he had."
Pandey's departure did little to dint Nutanix's share price which jumped nearly 20 per cent after its quarterly results were released.