B. KEVIN TURNER

President & Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Turner joined Core Scientific with over 30 years of successful business experience. He served as Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer from 2005 – 2016, where he led the company’s global sales, marketing and services and support organization of 55,000+ employees in more than 190 countries. Under his leadership, the sales and marketing group grew the company from $35 billion to over $91.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2016. Kevin oversaw worldwide sales, field marketing, services, customer support and partner channels as well as the creation of the Microsoft Stores omni channel division. He also led the corporate support functions including Information Technology, Worldwide Licensing & Pricing and Operations. As Microsoft’s COO, Kevin drove a strong track record of results, execution excellence and improved efficiency while transitioning the company’s business model to the cloud and driving the customer satisfaction scores to the highest in company history. After Microsoft, Kevin served for a short term at Citadel where he was the Vice Chairman and CEO of Citadel Securities, the largest market maker in the world.

Prior to Microsoft, Kevin spent nearly 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores, where he rose through the ranks and was named the youngest corporate officer ever at Wal-Mart at age 29. He held various leadership positions at Wal-Mart including becoming the EVP & Chief Information Officer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and as his last assignment he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of SAM'S CLUB, a $37 billion division of Wal-Mart Stores which had over 125,000 employees. Sam’s Club delivered record earnings under his tenure. Kevin Turner currently serves on Boards of Albertsons Companies and Nordstrom, Inc.

ABER WHITCOMB

Director

Aber Whitcomb has been regularly listed amongst the top CTO’s in the United States for the past 10 years. His first large success was as the CTO and Co-Founder of MySpace.com, which sold to News Corporation in 2005 for $580 million. Since MySpace, he has started many other successful ventures including i/o ventures, a San Francisco, CA, based Venture Capital & Private Equity firm, Jam City and others. Aber is a well-known expert in large scale computing, networking and storage and frequently speaks on these topics at industry events. He has been featured in publications such as VentureBeat, The New York Times and SoCalTech.

MATTHEW BISHOP

Chief Administrative Officer

Matthew Bishop was the Corporate Vice President, Strategy and Operations of Microsoft’s World-wide Commercial Business. He led the strategic development of Microsoft’s go-to-market approach, and created a world-class sales force focused on how the Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge will drive digital transformation. Matthew and his team developed Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to provide sales analytics insights and led strategic initiatives across  commercial businesses including acquisition integration. Matthew has led sales teams across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He received the Microsoft Chairman’s Award from Bill Gates for his sales leadership.

Prior to Microsoft, he supported the UK Prime Minister on cross-government strategy where he was an early strategist on inventing e-Government. In 2012,  Matthew was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen of England for his voluntary work in protecting children online. Matthew  graduated from the University of Southampton with a BS in Engineering.

IAN FERREIRA

Chief Product Officer AI

Ian Ferreira has over 20 years’ experience in engineering in large companies and tech start-ups. He has expertise in software, engineering, UI/UX, systems architecture, product development, machine learning/artificial intelligence, and leading successful teams. Ian has a healthy obsession with end user experience, high performance computing and massive parallel systems. He joined Microsoft in 2004 as a Senior Software Design Engineer Lead and received five promotions in ten years. His last role was Group Program Manager. During his tenure he developed the architecture and implementation of Bing Ads, created the world’s first real-time bidding exchange, successfully launched the Windows 8 Ads-in-Apps, and launched the largest cloud deployment at the time.

Ian left Microsoft to join a tech start-up, Context Relevance. He and his engineering team focused on a machine learning platform based on early versions of Apache Spark, automated parts of the data science pipeline, and became deeply involved with predictive analytics. Most recently, Ian was the Executive Vice President at WideOrbit, the world’s leading premium advertising management company. While at WideOrbit, Ian and his team launched an innovative programmatic advertising media exchange.

Ian graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa with a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering.

JIM BENEDETTO

Chief Data Officer

Jim Benedetto has been an influential tech entrepreneur in Los Angeles for over 15 years. Prior to joining Core Scientific, he was the co-founder and CTO of Gravity from 2010-2016. Under his leadership, Gravity developed an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning platform that delivered personalized web content to over 300 million users in real time. Gravity was acquired by AOL/Verizon in 2014. Prior to Gravity, Jim served as the Senior Vice President of Global Technical Operations at MySpace.com from 2003 to 2009, where he led the development of the distributed data architecture that allowed the company to scale from 100 Thousand to 100 Million users in less than three years. Prior to MySpace, Jim began his internet career at Quack.com, an early stage telephony company acquired by Netscape in 2000.  

Jim has acted as an investor and advisor to many large scale data platform companies, most notably glusterFS, a distributed supercomputing company acquired by Redhat in 2011.  He is recognized as an industry expert in distributed data architectures, artificial intelligence and machine learning, with a specific focus on the algorithmic modeling of human behavior and decision making.  He has frequently spoken on these topics at global industry conferences, and has been featured in well known publications such as the New York times, the BBC and Business Insider. Jim’s passion for technology began in his early youth, when he taught himself to code at age 5 on an IBM PCjr.

GANESH BALAKRISHNAN

Chief Product Officer, Blockchain

Ganesh Balakrishnan has over 14 years’ experience in engineering, product, and strategy experience at Amazon. He led product and strategy for two of Amazon’s acquisitions, Twitch Prime and Woot. He expanded the global footprint of Twitch Prime from 11 countries to over 200 countries and territories.

Ganesh graduated with an MBA from the University of Washington. He also has his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Masters of Biological Science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science.

RUSSELL CANN

Chief Customer Success Officer

Russell Cann has 20 years of experience designing, building, and growing large scale technology infrastructure companies. Prior to CoreScientific, Russell grew and developed a blockchain and cryptocurrency mining business as well as several other network infrastructure concerns. Previously he worked for Accenture in the areas of fintech and risk management on projects in Europe and the Americas.

An active Philanthropist, Russell is a Trustee for the National Foundation of the Boy Scouts of America and Alston Wilkes Society. Further he volunteers with Sue Kuhlen Camp for Kids and Lion’s Club. He is an active member of YPO and graduated cum laude from the South Carolina Honors College and the Moore School of Business.

WESTON ADAMS

Chief Construction & Facilities Officer

Weston Adams has over 14 years of experience leading large scale construction projects. Most recently, Weston held the position of President and CEO of Western States Contracting, a vertically integrated civil construction company with revenues of $100+ million annually and nearly 800 employees. He is a licensed General Contractor and Developer in multiple states and has completed projects in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. Weston holds a BS Finance from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and is an active member of YPO.

BILL HUMES

Chief Financial Officer

Bill Humes has over 27 years’ experience building and leading finance teams in global companies with significant operating scale and complexity. Bill served as the Chief Financial Officer at Ingram Micro, a publicly traded Fortune 100 global technology and supply chain services company, from 2005 – 2016 where he helped grow revenue from $25 billion to $43 billion. During his eighteen year tenure at Ingram Micro, Bill was a key leader who helped Ingram Micro successfully acquire and integrate more than 40 companies throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. As Ingram Micro’s CFO, he consistently helped drive operational efficiencies, improved profitability and created shareholder value in a highly competitive, low margin business.  In addition to his CFO role, Bill also served as the Chief Operating Officer at Ingram Micro from April 2012 to September 2013 and was responsible for global information systems, logistics operations, and global business processes.  Bill was instrumental in the sale of Ingram Micro to the HNA Group, a Hainan, China-based global leader in aviation and logistics, for an equity value of $6 billion. 

Prior to Ingram Micro, Bill spent nine years at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  As a Senior Audit Manager, he managed all aspects of professional service engagements, including audit services, IPOs and secondary offerings for a broad spectrum of large multi-national and middle market companies. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of California with a B.A. in Economics-Business.   Bill also currently serves on the Board of 3D Systems Corporation.

SHARON ORLOPP

Chief Human Resources Officer

Sharon Orlopp has over 35 years’ experience in Fortune 500 companies in operations, human resources, diversity and inclusion. Most recently, Sharon was the Global Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate H.R. for Walmart. She spent 12 years at Walmart in senior leadership roles, including Senior Vice President of H.R. at Sam’s Club. Prior to joining Walmart, Sharon was Vice President of H.R. for Sports Authority and she spent 17 years with Foot Locker where she held various leadership positions in operations and human resources.

Sharon is the co-author of a Vietnamese memoir, Standing Up After Saigon: The Triumphant Story of Hope, Determination, and Reinvention. This incredible odyssey follows Thuhang Tran and her challenges with polio, war, poverty, family separation, and immigration to the United States. Sharon believes in the power of story to touch the heart and change behaviors.

A lifelong advocate for inclusion, education and opportunity, Sharon considers it a privilege to serve as a Board member for The Harwood Institute and for the University of Denver’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. She has held previous Board positions with Women’s Foodservice Forum, Enactus, Highlands Oncology Group, and the Center for Entrepreneurship at Fayetteville State University.

Sharon graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a BA and received her Master’s Degree in educational technology from the University of Arkansas.

TODD DUCHENE

General Counsel

Todd DuChene brings over 25 years’ experience as a General Counsel in private and public companies. His expertise spans intellectual property, patents, IPOs, and strategic transactions. Todd was 29 years old when he became VP, General Counsel for Office Max. He was instrumental with the IPO at OfficeMax, which was one of the largest IPOs in retail history. Todd joined Fisher Scientific and helped grow the business from $500M to $6B. Todd worked on 100+ deals while at Fisher Scientific until it merged with Thermo Electron. He served as GC at several other technology companies that ranged from $2B to $12B: Solectron, National Semiconductor, Nuance, and FLIR Systems. 

Todd received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science at The College of Wooster and received his JD from the University of Michigan.

JIM CLEVELAND

Chief Power Officer

Jim Cleveland’s experience spans more than 35 years in all aspects of hands–on hardware and software solution sales, including recruiting, team building, business development, technical marketing and operations.  He has a track record of building strong businesses by leading and developing high performing teams that have transformed businesses into profitable enterprises.  Accomplished in field sales and marketing management, solution selling, relationship building in both “1 to 1” and “1 to many” environments, Jim consistently delivers business results and is widely recognized as a leader in the computer and data capture technology communities.

Jim is Founder and CEO of e-Waste, LLC an R2:2013, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001:2007- certified nationwide IT Asset Disposition company. E-Waste, LLC serves the Fortune 500, in solving financial, regulatory, and data security issues related to their IT asset portfolio.

Previously, Jim was a Business Unit Executive at IBM, Executive Vice President of Telxon Corporation, where they grew the mobile and wireless handheld business from $210m in revenues to $565m in 6 years by developing new markets and providing solutions to new industries outside their core market of retail. At the same time Jim developed new markets for Telxon’s wireless subsidiary Aironet which later turned from a $10M dollar investment to an $800M dollar sale to Cisco in 7 years. Jim has received several achievement awards from IBM, Telxon and PSC and attended the IBM Presidents MBA program at Harvard University after graduating from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree.

JR TIETSORT

Chief Security Officer

JR Tietsort was the Chief Information Security Officer at Micron Technology, a $30 billion company with 35,000 employees in nine countries. He is an expert in cyber security, intellectual property protection, and regulatory compliance. During his twenty-year tenure at Micron, he focused on the protection of trade secrets, insider threats, and constantly evolving espionage threats. He has an excellent track record in building partnerships with industry groups, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement in multiple countries.

JR holds a BS in Management and Business Information Systems from George Fox University and an MBA from Boise State University.

GIRISH RAO

Chief Information Officer

Girish Rao brings a successful track record of over 19 years delivering cloud, data center, networking and big data solutions. He was previously at Electronic Arts he drove container cloud architecture and product strategy for global launches.  Before Electronic Arts, he was at Equinix where he productized Azure and AWS solutions from concept to product and oversaw 100+ data centers. He also spent 13 years at Cisco in architecture, data center, networking, deployments and vendor management.

Girish has his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NIT Surat, India, and his Master’s degree in Computer Networks from North Carolina State University.