Petralia, based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, has more than 24 years’ experience in technology as well as telecommunications. His previous affiliations have included Fortinet, SonicWall, CenturyLink and AT&T, serving in various sales, business development and management roles.
“We are excited to have an industry veteran with such deep relationships in the Southern California community,” said Ross Shapiro, NetApp’s executive overseeing SLED in the U.S. West division. “His integrity, generosity and kindness are highly valued with our customers and partners.”
In his LinkedIn profile, Petralia describes himself as a “trusted strategic adviser, comfortable with a channel-centric go-to-market approach, offering a documented track record of successfully driving and managing sales engagements and teams, effectively leveraging partners to win new accounts, and converting complex technical offerings into customer-friendly solutions.”
Petralia told Techwire he was deliberate in his search.
“After researching NetApp and understanding the direction the industry was headed in, NetApp became the clear choice for storage and cloud solutions,” he said. “The interview process was one of the best I’d experienced in my career, and the culture is among the top I’ve had the privilege to work in. In the short time I’ve been here, two months, the feedback from partners and customers is extremely positive. Very happy to be here, looking forward to continued success and exponential growth over the coming years.”
Petralia is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having earned his degree in general studies at Naval Specialist School. In addition, he volunteers with Los Angeles Mission Inc.