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Alvaro Celis is a global technology executive and board leader with over three decades of…
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Each year, from September 15 through October 15, we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, a time during which we recognize…
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Old PCs are Costing Your Business
Old PCs are Costing Your Business
I travel all over the world to meet with partners and customers. This means I spend a lot of time in airports…
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Alvaro Celis shared thisEnterprise AI security cannot exist in a vacuum, nor should it be locked inside a closed box As an inaugural partner of the newly launched Open Secure AI Alliance, NetApp is standing alongside NVIDIA and over 50 industry leaders to champion a critical reality: true AI safety must span the entire agent stack—from permissions and guardrails down to the underlying data For our Customers: This initiative represents a major milestone in data sovereignty and operational resilience, by moving away from opaque, closed systems, our customers gain the power to inspect, adapt, and run advanced AI on private infrastructure. This ensures they retain complete control over their proprietary data assets, eliminate single points of failure, and mitigate systemic security risks For our Partners: This alliance unlocks a massive, highly secure market opportunity, by standardizing an open-source defensive security stack, we are eliminating deployment friction and giving our ecosystem partners a robust, validated framework to design, integrate, and scale enterprise-grade AI practices with confidence You cannot secure AI without securing the data it feeds on. NetApp's intelligent data infrastructure provides the secure, unified foundation required to protect, govern, and connect private data directly to open-source models across hybrid multicloud environments—delivering the performance and safety required for enterprise production. No single company can secure the AI era alone Through open collaboration, we are building a safer, more sovereign future for enterprise AI 🔗 Read more about the alliance: https://lnkd.in/gKKpZnC7Industry Leaders Unite in Open Secure AI Alliance for AI Safety and SecurityIndustry Leaders Unite in Open Secure AI Alliance for AI Safety and Security
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Alvaro Celis posted thisMassive investments in GPUs and AI models are only as valuable as the data that feeds them. If your data cannot move and process at the speed of accelerated compute, your innovation stalls. That is why NetApp’s acquisition of DataPelago is a defining milestone for our industry. By aligning accelerated computing with the data layer, we are addressing the most critical bottleneck in enterprise AI: data processing latency and GPU starvation. This alignment allows organizations to prepare and activate their data natively, securely, and in-place—unlocking maximum return on their AI infrastructure investments. For our partner ecosystem, this strengthens our joint GTM alignment with Hyperscalers and AI infrastructure leaders while giving GSIs and MSPs a highly differentiated platform to monetize high-value AI readiness services. The future of AI belongs to organizations that can make their data AI-ready wherever it resides. This acquisition is a bold step forward in our Intelligent Data Infrastructure vision, proving that NetApp is executing with the velocity and precision required to turn AI concepts into real-world business value. Read the full announcement here: #AI #DataStrategy #IntelligentDataInfrastructure
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Alvaro Celis shared thisI've spent 30 years watching partner ecosystems get treated as distribution channels. The companies that win the next decade will treat them as something else entirely: co-innovators, force multipliers, and competitive moats. That belief is what brought me to NetApp as Chief Partner and Ecosystem Officer. The market context is not subtle. Customers are navigating hybrid and multi-cloud complexity, building AI infrastructure they can trust, and managing data environments that have to perform as the demands on them compound. Data infrastructure is no longer a back-office decision. It is a strategic one. NetApp is increasingly at the center of those conversations. What I see is a company with strong technology, deep customer trust, and a partner ecosystem that has significant presence, and even greater potential. My focus is to build an ecosystem that accelerates growth, scales innovation, and deepens customer trust across the business. One that brings ISVs, SIs, service providers, cloud partners, and the emerging AI ecosystem into genuine co-innovation and joint GTM, creating differentiated value for customers. I am excited to join a leadership team I respect, at a company I believe in, during a pivotal moment for the industry. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to George Kurian, Cesar Cernuda, and Dallas Olson, Jr. for your trust. For partners, customers, or leaders shaping the future of AI and data infrastructure, I welcome the conversation. https://lnkd.in/gqj9ZQVk
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Alvaro Celis shared this74% of organizations expect AI to drive revenue growth. Only 20% are doing it. The gap is not the technology. It is GTM architecture. Speed to value is the new moat. Are you reimagining your GTM or just automating what already exists? #GTMStrategy #AIGrowth #EcosystemSelling #B2BSales #RevenueArchitecture
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Alvaro Celis shared thisWhile 88% of organizations are already using AI, only 10% of boards are considered AI-ready. That is not a technology gap. It is a governance failure, and it has a measurable cost. Boards with proper AI oversight outperform those without by a factor of 5. The problem is that most boards think they are approving an investment when they approve an AI initiative. They are actually approving a transfer of capabilities, judgment, and decision-making authority. You do not need the best AI model to win. But you absolutely need a board that understands what it is actually governing. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g7MXCykj
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Alvaro Celis shared thisGrowth got you here. Scale requires a different system entirely. 78% of companies with strong product-market fit still fail to scale. The gap is rarely the vision. It is execution architecture. Are you building the system before you need it? #ScaleArchitecture #OperatingModel #B2BGrowth #GTM #Leadership
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Alvaro Celis shared thisWe’re leaving the AI experimentation era. This is no longer about smarter answers. It’s about autonomous execution, measurable outcomes, and AI embedded into operating models, governed, trusted, and outcome-driven. The winners won’t adopt AI faster; they’ll reinvent the business around it. How are you leading this shift? #AI #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #OperatingModel #EnterpriseAI
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Alvaro Celis shared thisBoards today are expected to help shape resilience, strategy, and long-term value creation, not only oversee performance. Honored to have completed the INSEAD Executive Education, International Directors Programme. This experience broadened my perspective on the global context of board service and reinforced my conviction that board leadership today requires more than experience. It requires strategic clarity, sound judgment, a deep understanding of governance, curiosity, humility, and the discipline to keep learning as the landscape evolves at unprecedented speed. After decades leading global technology businesses, I continue to believe that the strongest boards are those that combine oversight with foresight, governance with strategic engagement, and accountability with the ability to navigate complexity in periods of disruption and change. Grateful to INSEAD for a rigorous and globally relevant program, and to the outstanding peers and faculty who made the experience so valuable. I look forward to carrying these insights forward in my continued work as an executive and board member. #INSEAD #BoardLeadership #CorporateGovernance #Strategy #ExecutiveLeadership #ValueCreation
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Alvaro Celis shared thisNo company scales alone anymore. The fastest-growing organizations don’t just sell products, they build ecosystems that compound value. When partners are treated like channels, growth plateaus. When they’re treated like builders, growth accelerates. Are your partners strengthening your competitive edge or slowing it down? #EcosystemStrategy #Partnerships #B2B #GrowthStrategy #Leadership
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Thank you Everton for all you did for our business and our team. I am sure the best is yet to come for you!
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Alvaro Celis liked thisAlvaro Celis liked thisIt was an honor to serve as a judge for this year’s Tech Titans Awards, one of the most prestigious recognitions of technology leadership in North Texas!! Judging these nominations was both inspiring and incredibly difficult. The level of talent, innovation, leadership, and community impact across the Dallas technology ecosystem is remarkable. Every finalist represented the kind of work that moves companies, industries, and communities forward. Having been a Tech Titans award recipient myself, I know how meaningful this recognition can be. It is humbling to now sit on the other side of the process and see the care, rigor, and thoughtful consideration that goes into honoring these leaders. A special congratulations to Nina Vaca on her well-deserved induction into the Hall of Fame, and to all of the winners and finalists recognized this year. Your work reflects the strength and promise of our North Texas technology community. I am proud to be associated with Tech Titans and grateful for the work they continue to do to elevate innovation, leadership, and connection across our region. #TechTitans #NorthTexas #DallasTech #TechnologyLeadership #Innovation #Leadership
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Alvaro Celis liked thisAI is rapidly becoming accessible to everyone — similar models, similar compute, and increasingly similar tools. So where will sustainable competitive advantage come from? Your data. Every enterprise has years of proprietary data, customer insights, transactions, and operational knowledge that competitors cannot simply replicate. But having data is not enough. The advantage comes from making it AI-ready, trusted, protected, and accessible wherever it lives. This is where the NetApp data platform becomes increasingly relevant — providing a unified, intelligent and secure data foundation across on-premises and cloud environments, helping organizations unlock their data for AI while maintaining resilience and control. As George Kurian highlighted, the winners in the AI era will be those who can turn their unique data into intelligence and business outcomes. Models will become more accessible. Compute will become more abundant. But your data remains uniquely yours — and the right data platform turns it into your competitive moat. #NetApp #AI #EnterpriseAI #DataPlatform l #IntelligentDataInfrastructure #HybridCloudAlvaro Celis liked thisThree+ years of generative AI. Billions in compute spend. But many enterprises still struggle to bring AI projects to life. The data was always the problem. Not the ambition, not the models. The data. Siloed across clouds and data centers, stale before it reaches the pipeline, disconnected from the workflows that actually need it. Adding more tools to that problem doesn't solve it. It buries it deeper. The NetApp Platform was built on a simple premise: enable every business to build an intelligent data infrastructure that makes data AI-ready in place, unifies storage across every cloud and workload, protects against threats autonomously, and puts your entire data estate under a single control plane. No rebuilding from scratch. No sprawl. A foundation that works wherever your data lives. The enterprises that come out ahead won't be the ones that spent the most on AI. They'll be the ones that got the foundation right before everyone else did. See what that looks like in practice: https://ntap.com/3UAYOrL #NetApp #AIReadyData #DataInfrastructure #CyberResilience #HybridCloud
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Alvaro Celis liked thisAlvaro Celis liked thisBittersweet today as I say goodbye to an incredible chapter at The University of Texas at Arlington - I'm excited to share that I am rejoining Microsoft as a Agentic AI Solution Architect. UTA gave me the opportunity to work alongside talented colleagues, inspiring students, and visionary leaders who are shaping the future of education and innovation. I am grateful for the relationships, lessons, and memories that will stay with me throughout my career. As AI continues to transform how we work, learn, and create, I look forward to helping organizations maximize the value of Microsoft Copilot and AI technologies to drive meaningful outcomes and empower more people to achieve more. Thank you, UTA. Once a Maverick, always a Maverick. #Microsoft #AI #Copilot #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #MSFTLife
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Alvaro Celis reacted on thisAlvaro Celis reacted on thisAfter 23 years, my tenure at Microsoft has come to a close. I’ve always thought of a long career like playing in the NHL. Competing at the absolute top for two decades means living through every kind of season, the championship runs where strategy and execution align, and the stretches where success is measured by sheer resilience. Competing at that level exacts a price: missed dinners, late-night flights, and the slow accumulation of fatigue that tests both mind and body. Those demands sharpened my judgment and stamina, but they were real costs nonetheless. I’m grateful to a small group of exceptional leaders I served alongside. They did three things that mattered: they protected the team in storms, raised the bar when comfort set in, and trusted people with hard problems. You know who you are your standard of leadership will stay with me. To everyone I shared the ice with over 23 seasons: thank you for the standards we set and the battles we won together. The off-season was short, the recovery is complete, and I’m ready for the next puck drop. Details on my next executive chapter coming soon.
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Alvaro Celis liked thisAlvaro Celis liked thisHad a great time connecting with the CISO community at our Security Day event in Mexico City. Being a CISO is one of the hardest jobs in the enterprise right now. The business wants AI shipped yesterday, while blind spots, shadow AI, and AI-led attacks keep them up at night. That's exactly why coming together as community is so critical. We can't solve this in silos. Thanks to all our customers and Microsoft teams who are working tirelessly in support of the mission of making the world more secure.
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Alvaro Celis reacted on thisI’m delighted that Julia Liuson has been nominated to join Elastic’s Board of Directors. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Julia over the years and have seen firsthand her deep understanding of developers and the impact that AI is having on how software is built. Julia has spent her career at the forefront of major shifts in technology, and I’m looking forward to having her experience, perspective and curiosity around the table as we think about what comes next for Elastic. I’m looking forward to working with you, Julia.Alvaro Celis reacted on thisJulia Liuson has been nominated to join Elastic’s Board of Directors. Julia brings more than three decades of technology leadership, most recently as President of Microsoft’s Developer Division, with deep experience across AI, developer platforms and enterprise technology. As AI reshapes how applications are built, how technology is operated and how organizations defend themselves, Julia’s experience will be invaluable as we continue to innovate across Search, Observability and Security. We look forward to your joining Elastic, Julia! https://go.es.io/45Vel8j
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Alvaro Celis liked thisAlvaro Celis liked thisA great way to say goodbye to summer with the NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) Northern California community. Thank you to the NACD Northern California Chapter board and leadership for bringing us together for such a wonderful evening, and for choosing the beautiful Regale Winery in Los Gatos as the setting. 🍷 Grateful for the conversations, connections, and community.
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Alvaro Celis reacted on thisAlvaro Celis reacted on thisHonored to celebrate a meaningful milestone — 15 years as FTE at Microsoft. A great surprise arrived in the mail today, reminding me how much growth, learning, and impact these years have brought. I’m deeply grateful for the leaders who have guided me, the colleagues who have inspired me, and the teams who have pushed boundaries together. Every challenge, opportunity, and collaboration has shaped my journey. Proud of what we’ve accomplished — and excited for what’s ahead. Mariana Castro Jorge Cabeza Werner Corrales Alvaro Celis Guadalupe Durán de Ponce Gabriel Andrada Dujo Kara Mandeville Hector Ignacio Monje Coccolo Gerrit Bergsma Saru Raju Joel Miller Emelies Cartagena Claudia Garcia Leylah Halima M.cia Leylah Halima M. Tiffany Choong Jose Manuel Gomez Robert Smith Eduardo Cobo Fernando Lopez Douglas Schlosser Veronica Matheus EMMANUEL CLAVE Tania Utrera Demian Gil Marino Alejandro Meza Connie Evans-Welsh Roberto A. Calleja R. Sarath Rangu Molly Jacobstein, MBA Mariloli Baragano Mary Huson Matt Zimney Melanie M.y Melanie M. David Merzel Karla Liliana R.id Merzel Karla Liliana R. Ana Carla A. Zanoni Ana Marmolejos Erlin Almonte Eduardo Alfani
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Alvaro Celis liked thisPlease join us for the HITEC California Regional Event Sept 15 https://lnkd.in/giZAnYkiAlvaro Celis liked thisThe decisions that shape a career are rarely the easiest ones. At the 𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐂 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭, accomplished executives Ivonne Valdes, Rebecca McDonald, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 Claudia Massey, will come together for 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐩: 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. Through candid stories of risk, reinvention, failure, mentorship, and growth, they’ll reveal the pivotal choices that transformed their careers—and share the advice they wish they had received along the way. Because becoming an 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 often begins with one defining decision: choosing to step beyond what is comfortable and into what is possible. 📅 September 15, 2026 📍 Santa Clara, California 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃—register now or miss this candid, inspiring conversation about the pivotal moments that shape exceptional leaders. 👉 https://lnkd.in/e8JBXQdk
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Forbes Business Council
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- PresentForbes Business Council is an invitation-only community of senior executives and business leaders vetted for professional achievement and business impact. Members collaborate on emerging business challenges, share executive perspectives through Forbes.com publications, and engage with a global network of C-suite and board-level leaders across industries. Accepted based on 30+ years of experience scaling multibillion-dollar technology businesses across AI, cloud, software, and hardware.
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Forbes Business Council
Member
- PresentForbes Business Council is an invitation-only community of senior executives and business leaders vetted for professional achievement and business impact. Members collaborate on emerging business challenges, share executive perspectives through Forbes.com publications, and engage with a global network of C-suite and board-level leaders across industries. Accepted based on 30+ years of experience scaling multibillion-dollar technology businesses across AI, cloud, software, and hardware.
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Rose Joseph Heathcote
Bloomberg News interview of Arvind Krishna after the successful (SPEEDY) completion of the Confluent acquisition. He also updates on AI, Quantum, the current environment and more. Definitely worth the listen. Key points: * Confluent securely and quickly moves data in real time - perfect fit in IBM's hybrid cloud, AI and automation portfolio * NVIDIA and IBM partnership announcement 5Xs speed up!! * AI is a tailwind for IBM! * $4.5B IBM benefit achieved by a combination of AI and automation * $3B IBM reinvested into the company in R&D, Sales, Client Engineering, etc. * Reshaping of the workforce vs reduction * Quantum update - incredible outlook for Quantum https://lnkd.in/e3nEXPk9
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Ryan Richards
Honored to moderate this panel at PEI. What stood out wasn’t just the alignment between Finance and GTM — it was how quickly performance shifts once those teams finally operate from the same reality. John Turner, Tim Eng, Jonathan Konkoly, and Bijal Sheth didn’t hold back. They laid out the structural issues, the operational gaps, and what it actually takes to convert plans into predictable revenue and cash. We captured the themes in a concise recap — highly relevant for management, operating and deal teams.
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Samer Abu-Ltaif
Following the historic announcement we made in the UK earlier this week, some exciting news from Norway - together with Nscale and Aker ASA, we have signed a $6.2 billion agreement to expand sovereign cloud and AI capacity in Europe. In Narvik, Norway, once home to the Vikings, we will be building one of the world’s largest GPU deployments. Powered entirely by renewable energy, this project will deliver secure, scalable infrastructure to meet the growing demand from both public and private sectors. This investment reflects our commitment to empowering organisations with the digital foundations they need. With local partners, we’re helping shape Europe’s digital future – driving competitiveness, resilience and growth across the region. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/d6bxCpcx
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