VMware president leaves for VC firm

VMware Carl Eschenbach has stepped down from his role at VMware.

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By Sam Bonacci

The president and COO of VMware has stepped down from his role to join the VC firm of Sequoia Capital in a continuing exodus from the cloud storage company.

The announcement from VMware that Carl Eschenbach has left to “pursue a new career opportunity” was clarified by multiple news outlets to mean the second in command at the company was leaving for Sequoia Capital by multiple news outlets. Eschenbach, who joined the company in 2002 and was in charge of global sales and marketing, will continue as strategic adviser to CEO Pat Gelsinger, the VMware Board of Directors and the executive team, according to a release from VMware.

The move is just the latest in ongoing shake-ups and layoffs at the company, a subsidiary of EMC Corp., which is itself in the process of being acquired by Dell. In January, it was announced that 800 VMware employees would be laid off and that Jonathan Chadwick, the company's chief financial officer, chief operating officer and executive vice president, was leaving the company.

VMware has filled the roles left open by Eschenback. Maurizio Carli has been promoted to executive vice president of worldwide sales, and Peter McKay will lead the Americas field organization moving forward. Ray O'Farrell has been promoted to executive vice president.