Jay Kidd is joining ProStor as an independent director. But he has not left NetApp, where he is an SVP in the Storage Solutions Group looking after product strategy and development.
ProStor Systems makes the RDX removable disk drive product and InfiniVault library.
NetApp must have agreed to this; SVP positions are generally full-time. ProStor is a VC-backed company and has gained wide success through licensed manufacturers of drives and docks like Tandem Data and Imation, and their sales to OEMs like HP, IBM and others. Indeed we can say that the RDX line has had a material influence on Tandberg Data’s recovery from near-financial disaster under its previous management.
Kidd’s statement quoted in the Prostor release about his appointment said: “I’m excited about helping ProStor expand its market opportunities domestically and globally for the RDX removable disk and ProStor InfiniVault product lines in meeting the solution needs for long term information retention.”
As a full-time NetApp employee Kidd surely has no business expanding ProStor’s marketing opportunities anywhere at all outside NetApp, unless that is, this is a preparatory role for decreasing his NetApp involvement?
There is no announcement of any such diminished NetApp involvement by Kidd. ProStor says he is its second independent director from within the storage industry. Perhaps it is a face value thing. Kidd will not spend much time at ProStor; NetApp has no interest in ProStor’s products and technology, and there is no reason at all to wonder what’s going on.
