Roger Egan, VMware Leader for Tanzu Sales, Exits Broadcom

Another VMware leader has exited Broadcom.

This time, it’s Roger Egan. 

Eileen Gibson, the VMware leader for OEM sales and partnerships, departed Broadcom on July 5, choosing retirement over a new job.

Egan joined VMware in mid-2020, leaving his role as head of global sales at Siemplify. At VMware, he started as vice president of the Americas for Tanzu. A year later, Egan moved up to senior vice president of worldwide sales for Tanzu. His career heritage also includes years at Docker, Red Hat and IBM.

On Friday, Egan announced on LinkedIn that he has taken on the job of chief revenue officer for OneTrust, a data security and governance provider. He’s responsible for expanding the company’s market share, helping organizations use data and AI. 

“I’m committed to helping OneTrust build on its momentum and allocate resources against its greatest potential,” Egan said in a press release. “The company has a unique culture and purpose and tremendous potential. I look forward to putting my background and skills to work to help achieve greater results.”

Egan, said Kabir Barday, CEO of OneTrust, “will be invaluable as we continue to grow our business and scale globally, driving innovation and delivering exceptional value to our customers.”

Broadcom’s Approach to Tanzu: ‘One Leader’

Related:OneTrust Partners Get Expanded Partner Program

Prior to July 12, Egan last posted on LinkedIn 10 months ago, when he shared Broadcom CEO Hock Tan’s blog recounting the latter’s VMware Explore experience. In that missive, Tan declared Tanzu “a central part of VMware’s software portfolio and its multicloud strategy, and will remain that way.” 

Since that time, Broadcom has kept its word about retaining Tanzu, though the chipmaker has applied its now-infamous streamlining strategies to the division — which might offer one explanation for Egan’s departure. According to an April 17 blog attributed to Andrew Berenato, who leads global partner sales for Tanzu, Broadcom condensed the Tanzu team after closing the $61 billion VMware purchase.

“The Tanzu division has one leader for sales, sales engineering, customer success, partner sales, professional services and enablement, with a clear direction and strategy on how we work together, and with partners as an extension of our balanced account team,” Berenato wrote.

That leader is Paula Hodgins, who, prior to the Broadcom acquisition, worked for VMware for nearly three years in telco and cloud sales. Hodgins gave Egan’s post about his new job a thumbs-up on LinkedIn.

VMware Leaders Exiting Broadcom

Egan and Gibson follow in the footsteps of VMware leaders Tracy-Ann Palmer, Laura Heisman and other folks who have left Broadcom in the months following the VMware transaction. (Sandy Hogan and the top echelon of the VMware executive team resigned from VMware before the Broadcom deal closed.)

Related:The Broadcom VMware Acquisition: A Complete Timeline

CEO Tan has invoked a range of reactions among VMware leaders, staff, partners and customers. Many are angry about changes to channel, product and operational policies and structure, while others, at least internally, have said someone needed to enforce such wholesale, cutthroat shifts to eliminate the bloat at VMware.

“VMware was just a s**t show,” one source told us recently.

And yet, VMware fostered a culture of cohesion among its employees. Broadcom, per sources talking to Channel Futures on condition of anonymity, does the opposite.

“Hock Tan gets up in front of 30,000 VMware employees and says, ‘We have no frills but you’ll make a lot of money and get great healthcare benefits,” a source said, noting that Tan added, “That’s what you get and that’s all you get.’”

But, they say, Tan’s efficacy speaks for itself — look at Broadcom’s share prices, they say.

Broadcom achieves its apparent efficiency by slashing its acquirees’ sales and marketing costs, sources say. Egan’s departure may have been influenced by those cuts.