SambaNova, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California that is developing an enterprise AI platform announced the addition of a former AWS Managing Director and a former Google Cloud VP to its team.
Richard Halkett has been appointed Chief Revenue Officer. He previously spent almost six years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), as the Managing Director and WW Lead for Innovation & Transformation Programs. Before joining AWS, he was the Global Director for Digital Capabilities at Cisco, where he built the company’s first sales teams dedicated to software, data, and analytics. Halkett brings extensive experience working in the US and internationally in both startup and enterprise technology in the public and private sectors. Previously, he was Executive Director of NESTA’s Policy & Research Unit, as well as Assistant Director of Studies at The Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Danner Stodolsky has been appointed SVP of Cloud. He joins SambaNova after over eleven years at Google, where he served as VP of Engineering for YouTube, Google Cloud Platform, and Ads Privacy. As a founder of the early search engine Lycos, and serving at Akamai Technologies, Quantum, and Verity, Stodolsky’s three decades of experience will provide SambaNova with unparalleled experience and insight.
“We’re thrilled to have Richard and Danner join our team; they will be instrumental in unlocking new markets and enterprise applications for generative AI,” said Rodrigo Liang, CEO of SambaNova Systems. “Richard’s expertise across sales, business strategy, and policy is unparalleled. His deep understanding of digital innovation will be invaluable as we continue to expand our reach. Danner’s engineering expertise from his many years at Google will help advance our cloud strategy globally.
- SambaNova was founded in 2017 by Stanford Professors Kunle Olukotun and Chris Ré along with Rodrigo Liang. Kunle Olukotun is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University and is known for his pioneering work on multi-core processors. Chris Ré is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and his research focuses on machine learning and its applications. Rodrigo Liang is a former Oracle executive who worked on hardware design for Sun Microsystems.