StorageTek Sales VP Scoots

Storage industry veteran Mark Ward has quietly left Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) after barely a year with the company -- and after just six months in charge of its North American sales.

Ward, also a former EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) executive, left StorageTek for personal and family reasons,” according to a spokesman for the tape library vendor. Mark McGuire, the VP of sales and services, will take over as acting VP of North American sales.

The StorageTek spokesman said employees were told of Ward's departure last Thursday, but no external announcement was made. The spokesman also declined to say whether there is an active search to replace Ward. “I don’t know what the next step is,” he said.

Ward joined StorageTek as VP of its ILM Solutions group last January, and was promoted to head of North American sales in July (see StorageTek Tweaks Exec Team).

Sources speculate Ward was pushed out of his sales post. Possible reasons include subpar StorageTek sales and possibly a culture clash. Like other tape companies, StorageTek’s product revenue has been soft, although Ward only held his sales VP job less than two quarters (see Services Save StorageTek and StorageTek Decries IT Spending).“It could be that when Mark was hired, the expectations were high that he would be able to boost sales,” says an industry source who asked not to be named. “And that didn't happen for whatever reason. So, it is possible that StorageTek needs a scapegoat or really needs to bring in a different person to drive sales.”

Ward may also have misread the corporate culture. An industry insider who worked with Ward at EMC describes him as a “frat-boy salesman” and thinks that might have been his downfall at StorageTek. This source speculates that StorageTek wanted someone with less of a "bulldog attitude." And a StorageTek salesman, who asked not to be named, said at least one sales pep talk was "a little too silly" for the StorageTek culture.

Ward’s positions at EMC included VP of global marketing, VP of software and professional services, and director of international sales. He was also a managing partner at Enterprise Ventures and founder and CEO of networking consulting services firm GiantLoop Network (see Has GiantLoop Done a Loop?).

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch