LONDON, UK, 4 October 2011 – Drobo, makers of the award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today announced the appointment of Marcus Thompson as senior director of EMEA sales. He reports directly to David Bangs, worldwide senior VP sales at Drobo.

Previously, Thompson was business development manager for Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he was responsible for integrating LeftHand Networks into HP’s European storage business following it’s acquisition by HP for USD $360M. Prior to the acquisition, Thompson was the first European employee at LeftHand Networks.  As regional sales director for Europe he built the business to more than 300 customers and 50 partners in just three years.

In his new role Thompson will expand Drobo’s European SMB channel to meet growing demand for its award-winning portfolio of business storage solutions across the region. 

Tom Buiocchi, CEO at Drobo, said: “Marcus joins at a pivotal time for Drobo.  The business is evolving fast and we’re taking our ‘Small Box, Big Storage’ strategy aggressively into the SMB space as the recent launch of the Drobo B1200i confirms. Marcus brings a track record of building the kind of channel we need to address a high-growth opportunity in Europe.” 

Thompson brings over 20 years of channel and OEM sales experience within the data storage industry.  In addition to HP and LeftHand, he has also held senior managerial and director roles at Eurologic, DataCore Software and String Bean Software.

Thompson will be presenting on Drobo Business iSCSI SAN Solutions at IP EXPO on Wednesday October 19th at 3:45pm.  The Drobo booth is at F17.