Cobalt Iron Appoints Brian Smith Operations VP

Cobalt Iron Inc., a provider of cloud-based data protection, has hired Brian Smith as vice president of operations. In this newly created position, Smith will oversee the company’s internal day-to-day operations, including product support and deployment and the quote-to-cash process.

“We created this position to bring hands-on operational leadership to Cobalt Iron to support our continued growth,” said Mark Pougnet, CFO of Cobalt Iron. “Brian’s passion and proven track record of leadership in high-growth, fast-paced environments will bring best practices to our operations and accelerate ‘as a service’ delivery of data protection to our customers.”

Smith has more than 15 years of progressive leadership experience with various software organizations. Before joining Cobalt Iron, he was VP of client alignment at Netsmart. Prior to that, he was the chief operating officer for Aptora and VP of global sales support and senior director of global sales operations for Lexmark Enterprise Software.

He has had leadership responsibility for numerous operational areas, including quote to cash, software licensing, support, and contracts.

Smith has an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Smith will report to Pougnet.