Rackspace appoints two senior leaders for private cloud

Rackspace Technology has appointed Paul Soligon as Senior Vice President of Operations and Marco Tesini as Senior Vice President of International for its Private Cloud business unit, adding two senior leaders with experience in cloud and infrastructure markets.

Soligon will oversee Business and Sales Operations and Customer Success, bringing together functions intended to support growth, customer retention, analytics and customer experience.

Tesini will lead markets outside the US for the Private Cloud division, overseeing the international business as Rackspace seeks to expand its reach overseas and deepen customer relationships.

Both executives bring long careers in enterprise technology. Soligon has spent more than 25 years in high-growth technology businesses, while Tesini has more than 25 years of experience in IT organisations focused on business transformation and growth.

Before joining Rackspace, Soligon was Senior Vice President at USAN. Earlier, he spent nearly a decade at Amazon Web Services, where he served as Vice President and General Manager of Sales, leading a 700-person organisation responsible for more than USD $2.2 billion in revenue and more than USD $4 billion in strategic enterprise agreements.

Tesini previously held senior leadership roles at Hitachi Vantara and Unisys. At Hitachi Vantara, he led regional turnaround efforts that produced double-digit growth.

Leadership push

The appointments come as Rackspace continues to position its private cloud and AI-related services for customers seeking tighter control over how systems and data are managed. The company presented the hires as a response to demand from enterprises pursuing AI deployments in governed private cloud environments.

Gajen Kandiah, Chief Executive Officer of Rackspace Technology, tied the appointments to that trend.

"Paul and Marco join Rackspace at a moment when demand for a governed, enterprise AI backbone is accelerating faster than most organizations can deliver against it," said Gajen Kandiah, Chief Executive Officer, Rackspace Technology. "Paul's experience scaling a multi-billion-dollar business at AWS gives us the operational rigor to match that demand. Marco is a proven growth and turnaround leader who has built and rebuilt international businesses at scale, most recently at Hitachi Vantara. They strengthen our ability to do what the market increasingly needs: put AI into production on governed private cloud with the operational discipline that enterprise customers require."

Rackspace has been sharpening its message around hybrid cloud, private cloud and AI services as companies weigh how to deploy artificial intelligence tools while meeting governance, compliance and security requirements. Private cloud offerings have drawn renewed interest from organisations in regulated sectors and multinational businesses that need more direct control over infrastructure, data location and internal operating standards.

In that context, the Operations role is closely tied to execution across sales support and customer management. Bringing Business Operations, Sales Operations and Customer Success under one executive can give the company tighter oversight of commercial performance and retention, particularly as customers manage long-term cloud contracts and complex migration or modernisation projects.

The international role also underlines Rackspace's focus on expanding beyond its home market. For a business selling private cloud services, international growth can depend on local customer relationships, regional sales structures and the ability to navigate different regulatory and data-handling requirements across territories.

Soligon's background at AWS may resonate with customers familiar with large-scale cloud sales and enterprise account management. His time at USAN, where he built and scaled new go-to-market partnerships and revenue expansion, also points to a focus on commercial execution as well as internal operations.

Tesini's career history suggests a different emphasis. His work at Unisys and Hitachi Vantara placed him in enterprise infrastructure and services businesses where international expansion often requires restructuring regional teams, improving performance and restoring growth in mature markets.

Rackspace did not announce any other management changes alongside the appointments. Tesini will lead all markets outside the US, while Soligon will take charge of operational functions intended to support customer retention and growth.