Executive Hires for Active Power, Codero, GoGrid

October has already been a busy month for executive appointments at companies in the data center industry. Here's a review of recent appointments at Active Power, Codero and GoGrid.

Ascolese to Take Helm at Active Power

Flywheel UPS specialist Active Power (ACPW) has named Mark A. Ascolese as president and chief executive officer, effective Oct. 14. Ascolese will replace Dr. Ake Almgren, who currently serves as interim president and CEO and will continue his role as chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Since 2006, Ascolese has served as CEO and is currently Chairman of the Board of Power Analytics, an electrical infrastructure enterprise software firm based in San Diego, Calif. Prior to Power Analytics, he served for more than 20 years in various leadership roles at Powerware Corporation, a global provider of power quality and backup power management products, which is now a part of Eaton Corp.

“We are excited to have an industry veteran like Mark on board,” said Almgren. “We believe his track record and deep knowledge of UPS products and mission critical markets will greatly benefit our business.”

“Active Power has a highly differentiated product offering with a convincing value proposition, a strong base of global customers, and a solid operating platform from which to grow the business,” said Ascolese. “I’m excited about what the future holds particularly for the new CSHD UPS as I believe it will position Active Power as an even stronger participant in the market than it is today.”

Codero Hires Rackspace Veteran Autenreith as COO

Hosting and cloud provider Codero Hosting has named Robert Autenrieth as COO and Vice President, Technical Operations and Support. His responsibilities will include management of Codero’s 24/7/365 customer support, data center operations and technical operations teams. Additionally, he will manage Codero’s data center strategy, from design to execution. Autenrieth was previously Vice President of Global Support Operations at Rackspace.

“With his extensive hosting technology experience, Robert is uniquely qualified to deliver on Codero’s promise of exceptional service through industry-leading uptime, expert customer support, and unparalleled value and performance," said Emil Sayegh, CEO and President of Codero Hosting. "Robert led one of the largest teams at Rackspace with hundreds of employees reporting to him, making him an ideal fit to ensure Codero reliably delivers cloud-based services on a massive scale, always advancing our technology to meet growing customer and business demands."

Autenrieth spent eight years with Rackspace in various roles and most recently provided the executive oversight of strategic planning, tactical alignment and P&L responsibility of nine teams supporting revenue generation, Customer Support and product engineering activities for Rackspace globally (USA, EMEA, APAC). As General Manager of Data Center Engineering/Operations, Autenrieth orchestrated operational strategies around data center management, customer care, engineering, and asset management, resulting in improved customer experience and increased profitability.

New C-Suite Posts for Worsey, Carroll at GoGrid

Cloud infrastructure company GoGrid recently appointed CIO & EVP Technology Mark Worsey as the company's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Technology, and named Robert Carroll as Chief Revenue Officer overseeing global sales, marketing, and products.

"As we amplify our focus on providing the reliable high-performance cloud platform our customers need to support their Big Data and related technologies, we're delighted to rely on these two industry veterans to help guide our strategic development," said GoGrid CEO and Co-Founder John Keagy. "Their expertise helps us deliver the innovative solutions, services, and expertise our customers need to take their businesses to the next level."

Since 2010, Worsey served as GoGrid's CIO & EVP Technology, responsible for all aspects of product execution including R&D, Engineering, and Network Operations as well as the company's Customer Service Operations. Previously, he was CIO & Global VP Technology for Blackhawk Network, with responsibility for driving the technology platform strategy and global network operations for this prepaid and gift card payments processing leader.

As GoGrid's Chief Revenue Officer, Robert Carroll has global responsibility for executing the company's Sales, Product, and Marketing strategies.Before joining GoGrid, Carroll was CMO at SDL Tridion, where he crafted and executed thought-leadership initiatives in the emerging Customer Experience Management (CXM) category.