Recent Changes Poise Company for Accelerating Growth in the Unstructured Data Management Market
SAN FRANCISCO, June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Panzura has announced two leadership changes, appointing Guy Churchward as Executive Chairman and elevating David Black to Chief Financial Officer (CFO). These strategic moves will accelerate the company's growth trajectory and reinforce its market position in the rapidly evolving unstructured data management landscape, which is projected to reach $120 billion by 2032. This figure highlights the exponential increase in unstructured data in the enterprise, the need for actionable insights, and the rising adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).
As Executive Chairman, Churchward will provide oversight and hands-on guidance, working directly with CEO Dan Waldschmidt to boost business momentum and architect the company's future direction. His appointment reflects Panzura's strong market position and readiness to capitalize on significant growth opportunities in the enterprise data management sector.
In his role as CFO, Black will continue providing experienced guidance on capital allocation and investment priorities, ensuring alignment between Panzura's financial planning and market execution. Having previously served as Senior Vice President of Finance, his expertise includes a board-level understanding of the financial dimensions of technology roadmaps. Black's promotion demonstrates Panzura's recognition of outstanding talent while maintaining operational continuity.
The changes come as Panzura grows beyond its Panzura CloudFS hybrid cloud file data management foundations and looks to expand the capabilities of the Panzura Symphony enterprise data services platform. They also reinforce Panzura's ability to transform how its customers manage, protect, and extract value from their data assets amid increasing IT complexity.
Executive Chairman Brings Proven Silicon Valley Leadership
"I've closely collaborated with Guy as a board-level advisor to Panzura since late last year, and his guidance as Executive Chairman will be key as we enhance our market strategy and growth potential. He will help us harness the substantial opportunities ahead of us as we look to scale Panzura and create greater value for our customers and stakeholders," said Waldschmidt.
Churchward is a respected Silicon Valley veteran with more than three decades of technology leadership experience. He has a record of driving innovation and sustainable growth at industry titans including Dell/EMC, NetApp, and BEA Systems. He successfully held the role of CEO five times throughout his career including leading multiple enterprise technology companies through successful scale phases and market expansions.
"Panzura is firmly established as a fundamental player and innovator in the unstructured data management and orchestration space. I'm particularly impressed by the recent enhancements to their technology stack, which offer considerably wider applications to customers than I had initially anticipated. I'm eager to support the Panzura team – they've been great to work with, and I look forward to leaning in even more," said Churchward.
CFO Appointment Strengthens Financial Excellence
As CFO, Black brings 30 years of extensive experience in enterprise technology finance to Panzura, reinforcing the company's focus on disciplined growth and operational excellence. His deep understanding of Panzura's business model and his organizational knowledge ensure a seamless transition.
"I've seen firsthand our remarkable evolution and the heightened market demand for our solutions. My new role allows me to even better leverage the strengths of our business and market dynamics to invest in innovation and customer success. We're well-positioned to capitalize on the emerging opportunities, and I'm excited to speed up our path forward," said Black.
Black's career includes previous roles as Senior Vice President of Finance at Pavilion, CFO at Advantel Networks, and Vice President of Finance at Gridiron Systems. He also held financial leadership positions at FaceTime Communications, BEA Systems, and Fortinet Inc. Black's elevation to the executive team means even closer integration between Panzura's financial strategy and business operations.
Foundations for the Next Phase of Growth
Today's news coincides with industry recognition for Panzura, having achieved a rare trifecta of accolades. The company was named to the CRN® Storage 100 for the sixth consecutive year, ranked first for innovation in the Frost & Sullivan® 2025 Radar™ for Hybrid Cloud Storage, and secured recognition in a Gartner® Market Guide for the third straight year.
The recent honors underscore the power of the Panzura CloudFS and Panzura Symphony platforms, which convert unstructured data into a strategic advantage for modern enterprises navigating hybrid and multi-cloud environments – areas perfectly aligned with Churchward's pedigree of driving technological evolution and Black's expertise in fostering financial excellence in enterprise technology organizations.
CloudFS lets technologists transform silos of data storage into a unified hybrid cloud file platform for reduced storage costs, active archiving, backup, disaster recovery, and immediate collaboration for distributed workforces. It eliminates file access latency and protects against malicious and accidental threats to data loss, including ransomware. The platform is considered the industry standard for performance and resilience, serving Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries.
Symphony complements the advanced features of CloudFS as well as modular CloudFS capabilities such as Panzura Data Services and Detect and Rescue, delivering visibility and control across heterogeneous data storage environments regardless of the underlying infrastructure. It acts as a 'central nervous system' for all enterprise metadata, access controls, policies, and AI pipelines, cataloging a wide range of data ecosystem elements. Together, these platforms make it possible to significantly reduce cloud and on-premises storage costs while improving data security, compliance, and governance.
About Panzura
Panzura empowers modern enterprises to unlock the full potential of their unstructured data, aligning it with strategic business goals. Our solutions ensure data visibility, accessibility, and control, seamlessly preparing organizations for a digitally transformed, AI-driven future. With Panzura, organizations can enhance data resilience, optimize costs, and deliver data instantly to users and processes – anywhere, anytime. Discover how Panzura can drive your success at panzura.com.
Panzura is a trademark or registered trademark of Panzura LLC in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks, registered trademarks and/or logos are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact
Thomas Morelli, Panzura, 1 (206) 218-3984, [email protected], https://www.panzura.com
SOURCE Panzura
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