Leadership

Chief Executive Officer

Western Digital Corporation

Irving Tan is the Chief Executive Officer at Western Digital. Widely known as an exceptional leader, he has decades of experience in sales and global operations, market transitions, and customer and government dynamics. His focus on people is evidenced by his track record leading high-performing teams that achieve sustained results.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer, he held the position of Executive Vice President for Global Operations at Western Digital, responsible for all global operations functions, including manufacturing operations, procurement and supply chain, and IT.

Previously, Irving served as Cisco's Chairperson, Asia Pacific, Japan, and China, responsible for leading the company's strategy to capture the significant growth opportunity that the APJC region offered and strengthen key customer and ecosystem relationships. During his time at Cisco, he was Executive Vice President and Global Chief of Operations where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the company's operating strategy and targeted growth through productivity improvements and innovation across all core business functions, including sales, engineering, supply chain, and services. He also served as the sales leader of Cisco Asia Pacific and Japan, where he grew the sales business consistently over his tenure and advanced APJ's position as one of the most trusted IT partners and providers in the region.

Irving currently serves as the Chairman on the Board of Directors for SATS (Singapore Airport Terminal Services). Additionally, he has served as an advisor to governments and industry partners on using technology to innovate and transform. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in business administration from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, and an honorary doctoral degree in engineering from Curtin University.

Interim Chief Financial Officer

Western Digital Corporation

Don Bennett currently serves as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of Western Digital. He is responsible for the global finance organization, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, corporate real estate, tax, treasury, internal audit, and investor relations. With more than 30 years at Western Digital, Don has served in multiple leadership positions across finance, corporate development & strategy, marketing, and real estate operations.

Don serves on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee at the Discovery Cube Orange County, CA and the CFO Executive Summit Advisory Board. He also is active with a variety of charities including Fraternity Without Borders, providing shelter, food, education, and health care for children and families facing vulnerability or social challenges in Africa, Brazil, and the U.S.

Don graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, attended Columbia University executive strategy curriculum, and holds a certificate in personal financial planning from UC Irvine.

Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

Western Digital Corporation

B. Scott Davis is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Western Digital. In this role, he is responsible for driving business growth and setting the strategic direction for sales and marketing. He oversees go-to-market strategies, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives to maximize revenue and market impact.

As a veteran sales executive with over 37 years at the company, Scott has unmatched experience in fostering deep, lasting customer relationships and cultivating high-performing teams. He has held various executive leadership roles within the company, including leading Latin America, Americas, Strategic Accounts, and most recently, serving as Senior Vice President of Global Channel and ROEM Sales.

Scott holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Chief of Global Operations

Western Digital Corporation

Vidya Gubbi is the Chief of Global Operations at Western Digital. He is responsible for all global operations functions, including manufacturing operations, procurement, supply chain, quality and sustainability.

With more than 36 years of experience and deep expertise through many facets of the storage industry, Vidya is known for his passion for technology and building high performing teams with proven results. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Operating Unit at Western Digital, leading more than 30,000 employees in manufacturing, engineering and supply chain to consistently deliver exceptional products to its customers.

Previously, he has held numerous leadership positions at various companies including Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate, across research, product and technology development, and operations. He also holds multiple patents in HDD technologies.

Vidya holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Santa Clara University, California, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, India.

Chief Human Resources Officer

Western Digital Corporation

Katie Watson is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Western Digital. She oversees the company’s global human resources functions.

As Chief Human Resources Officer, Katie partners closely with the executive management team and the company’s Board of Directors to strategically enable the organization and leads the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors on behalf of management. She oversees Western Digital’s HR functions, leading a high-performing, business-aligned HR organization that empowers employees and activates a culture of innovation.

Katie is a global Human Resources leader with over 25 years of experience across the life sciences, technology, and semiconductor industries.

Previously, she was the Chief Human Resources Officer at Solidigm Technologies, a $9B divestiture from Intel, where she was responsible for building the HR function from scratch and helping the organization establish a new culture and value proposition. Prior to that, she spent nearly 17 years at Gilead Sciences, a global biopharmaceutical company, where she led the HR function and partnered closely with the Chief Executive Officer, Board of Directors, and other top-level executives on strategies to enable organizational and geographic growth, establish an engaged workforce, and create a mission-based culture that aligned with the company’s core values.

Katie is a graduate of Stanford’s Board of Directors’ Governance Program, a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), and a Certified Executive Coach. In 2017, she was named one of SF Business Times’ Most Influential Women in Business.

Katie has a B.A. in Psychology from UC San Diego and a Master’s in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

Chief Information Officer

Western Digital Corporation

Sesh Tirumala is the Chief Information Officer at Western Digital, driving the company's digital transformation and fostering a culture of innovation through technology. In this role, he oversees all of Information technology, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise data and analytics.

Sesh brings more than 30 years of experience and has a proven ability to translate business needs into effective technology strategies to enable profitable growth, streamline operations and enhance customer, partner, and employee experiences. He has extensive experience leading teams responsible for strategy, architecture, mergers & acquisitions, technology product delivery, and shared services.

Previously, Sesh served as PagerDuty’s Chief Information Officer, where he and his team were responsible for creating data-driven, seamless relationships with customers while improving operational efficiency and streamlining employee experience. Prior to that, he was the CIO at Anaplan, where he oversaw IT and partnered closely with Anaplan’s Product, Go to Market, and Business Operations teams. Prior to that role, he served as Divisional CIO for Cisco’s multi-billion-dollar software business.

Sesh holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India.

Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer

Western Digital Corporation

Shantnu Sharma is the Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer at Western Digital. In this role, he is responsible for defining and implementing the growth strategy and innovation for Western Digital. He has over 25 years of experience, having held various leadership roles across operations, strategy, corporate development, and technology leadership.

Previously, Shantnu has been the Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Arrow Electronics, where he was responsible for planning, strategy, investments, capital allocation, and M&A. He also crafted Arrow’s enterprise AI/ML strategy for both operational efficiency and top line growth. Prior to that, Shantnu served as Corporate Vice President, Head of Strategy and M&A at AMD, and in that role, he was part of the core team that turned the company around, set up several large joint ventures, bought Xilinx, and helped AMD enter the AI and cryptocurrency markets. Earlier in his career, he worked as a consultant at McKinsey, and as an electrical and software engineer.

Shantnu holds a Master’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the MIT School of Engineering.

Chief Product Officer

Western Digital Corporation

Ahmed Shihab is the Chief Product Officer at Western Digital. In this role, he is responsible for leading engineering and product strategy as well as innovation and the development of current and future Western Digital products and solutions.

With over 30 years of experience across product design and business leadership, Ahmed has consistently delivered on the needs of customers and the business by developing a culture of quality and agile execution.

Prior to Western Digital, Ahmed served as Corporate Vice President of Azure Storage at Microsoft, where he led the engineering and operations teams for object and block storage, driving the design and development of Microsoft's cloud storage solutions. Previously he served as Vice President, Infrastructure Hardware at AWS, where he led innovation, building, and operations of AWS's compute and storage global fleet. He also held leadership roles at NetApp and Xyratex. Ahmed holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton in England.