Hitachi Vantara Deepens Industrial IoT and Services Bench

Hitachi Vantara announced the appointments of two new executives to support the company’s industrial internet of things (IoT) and services portfolios. Brad Surak has been named chief product and strategy officer (CPSO), overseeing the development of Hitachi Vantara’s solutions portfolio.

John Murphy has been tapped to advance its services portfolio as vice president, offerings management. The news comes close on the heels of the company’s unveiling at Hitachi’s inaugural NEXT user conference, where it launched a fully enhanced Lumada IoT platform, together with other new offerings, including its Hitachi IoT Appliance, Hitachi Enterprise Cloud and Hitachi Smart Data Center, among others.

Brad Surak joins Hitachi Vantara from GE Digital, where he most recently served as the company’s chief operating officer. Prior to that, he served as GE Digital’s first chief product officer, where he was responsible for GE’s global IoT solutions and digital industrial product portfolio. Before joining GE, Surak served as the general manager of Mobile Analytic Applications and was the chief operating officer of the Business Analytics Solutions unit at SAP.

He has also held executive positions at Business Objects, Cambridge Technology Partners, and Ernst & Young. In his new role as CPSO at Hitachi Vantara, Surak will be responsible for driving the company’s product and technology road map to bring intelligent innovations to market that deliver exceptional value and outcomes for Hitachi’s customers and partners.

“Hitachi’s exceptional breadth and depth of operational and information technology expertise sets it apart from other players in the digital solutions and industrial IoT markets and gives it a unique advantage,” Surak said. “I’m immensely pleased to be joining the Hitachi Vantara team to drive a comprehensive product strategy that addresses our customer’s greatest business challenges from edge to core to outcomes.”

John Murphy joins Hitachi Vantara from IBM, where he most recently led product development and product management for the IBM Watson Data Platform. During his tenure, he also held key leadership roles in its data analytics and enterprise content management businesses.

Prior to IBM, Murphy held leadership roles in a number of software organizations, ranging from startups to large enterprises across diverse industries, including banking, entertainment, consulting and high tech. Reporting to Hitachi Vantara’s Chief Solutions and Services Officer Bobby Soni, Murphy will lead unified offerings management for the company, supporting development of its digital solutions and services portfolio and business strategy.

“Hitachi is boldly positioning itself to deliver the services and solutions that modern data-driven enterprises are hungry for,” said Murphy. “I’m proud to be joining a team that is so intently focused on serving the needs of its customers, and is uncompromising in its commitment to provide the unique delivery models and innovations they need to best capitalize on their data and more effectively compete in their markets.”

Launched by Hitachi, Ltd., on September 19, 2017, Hitachi Vantara is a new business entity that unites the operations, technologies, intellectual property and human capital of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group and Pentaho into a single, integrated company that is focused on digital innovation.

The company is now aggressively expanding its executive leadership team to support the delivery of best-in-class software, solutions and services offerings for global enterprises looking to transform their businesses and innovate with their data.

“In a market environment where our ability to bring digital innovations to market with speed and agility is increasingly important to better serve our customers, it's critical that we continue to deepen our bench with the industry’s best talent,” said Brian Householder, president and chief operating officer, Hitachi Vantara. “Hitachi Vantara is building a world-class executive team that possesses deep domain expertise in every corner of our portfolio — from data infrastructure and software, to cloud and analytics, to IoT and digital industrial solutions. This is why we are exceedingly pleased to welcome Brad Surak and John Murphy to the Hitachi family. We expect to accelerate the continued evolution and enhancement of our technology, solutions and services offerings under their leadership.”