Databricks has announced the appointments of Nico Gaviola and Daniel Holz to its senior EMEA leadership team as the firm looks to drive further regional growth
Gaviola joins the business as vice president of Emerging Enterprise and Digital Natives, while Holz takes the role of vice president for Central Europe.
An experienced industry leader, Gaviola arrives with more than a decades’ experience at Google Cloud, where he served as director of Data and AI for South EMEA. In his new role, he is tasked with helping emerging enterprises and digital native businesses adopt Databricks’ Data Intelligence Platform and accelerate AI adoption.
“I’m thrilled to join Databricks at such a pivotal time for AI adoption amongst emerging enterprises and digital natives,“ Gaviola said.
“There are so many exciting startups emerging in EMEA, and these innovative, cloud-native businesses have a real opportunity to leverage Gen AI in a fast, secure, and governed manner.”
A fellow seasoned executive, Daniel Holz joins the company from Oracle where he led the firm’s cloud technology division as senior vice president of North East Europe. Prior to that, he held leadership positions at Google Cloud and SAP.
At Databricks, Holz will look to drive local customer adoption of the Data Intelligence Platform, strengthen local partnerships, as well as bolster the Central Europe team in core markets such as Germany and Switzerland.
“The opportunity for data and AI to transform enterprises across Germany and the Central Europe region is huge, and I’m proud to join a company pioneering data intelligence,” Holz commented.
Databricks targets EMEA growth
The double appointment follows a number of recent expansion milestones for Databricks in EMEA. In the last fiscal year, the firm opened several new offices across the region, including locations in Aarhus, Belgrade, Madrid, and Riyadh.
With the additional openings of a new EMEA hub in central London, a Paris office, and an expansion of its location in Amsterdam, the company said it has increased its staff count to more than 1,400 employees across the region.
Databricks’ latest leadership appointments also follow the company’s announcement back in January that it had successfully secured $15 billion in financing to fuel global growth and attract top AI talent.
“I am delighted to welcome Nico and Daniel to Databricks EMEA,” commented Samuel Bonamigo, Databricks’ senior vice president and general manager for EMEA
“Their experience and expertise will no doubt help more digital native, emerging enterprise, and Central European customers adopt the full capabilities of the Data Intelligence Platform for scale and continued growth.”
In addition to hiring top talent across the region, Databricks said it is also committed to training the data and AI community and its customer base.
“With a growing team, rapid expansion, and our ability to train the wider data and AI community, we are perfectly positioned to help our customers navigate the fast-paced world of Gen AI adoption,” Bonamigo added.
