LOS ANGELES — MelroseTEC, the professional services division of MelroseMAC (www.melrosemac.com), has expanded its services by hiring media and enterprise industry technology veterans Laura Thommen and Mike Oakes. Thommen comes on board as the company’s VP of strategic sales. She will lead a team to enhance the company’s exposure and expertise in the media, government and enterprise markets.
Thommen brings decades of experience in solution sales that incorporate big data, professional content solutions, and cloud adoption. She spent the first six years of her career at Litton Data Systems (now Northrop Grumman), then the next 27 years with technology firms such as Apple, Adobe, Avid and DataDirect Networks. In 2010, she was appointed VP of sales at DataDirect Networks, and was responsible for building out cloud, content and media worldwide.
Mike Oakes is the company’s director of enterprise technology and services, and brings experience from the high performance computing and the media and entertainment industries. He will work closely with Thommen and will be responsible for detailing customer specifications, file system design and customization, and proactive support programs.
Oakes has been immersed in technology since the 1980s. He started his career at Gould CSD (Computer Systems Division). In 1997, he joined SGI, where he steadily rose in rank within the field service organization. In 2006, Mike joined DataDirect Networks, and in 2008 he was appointed manager, rich media, domestic United States. In 2010, he was appointed worldwide technical director, cloud content and media, responsible for managing the media business's technical support, delivery and sales engineering functions.