Erwan Menard of HP  has joined DataDirect Networks as the company’s new chief operating officer, a position created specifically for him to fill. DataDirect is a big data storage company that has been growing in a very rapid pace, and beefing up its management team is a good way of supporting its current direction.

“We understand DDN grew revenues 83 per cent from 2007 to 2010, and recorded revenues of $186m in 2010. This year it is running at a $200m rate and is growing strongly,” reports The Register.  “It is going to scale up its operations – Menard’s area. Headcount grew 45 per cent in the 2007-2010 period and there are currently 70 open job requisitions.”

DataDirect is not only growing, but it’s also shifting its focus towards becoming something more similar to an information services company.  The company has expanded its high-performance computing (HPC) business into the media market with post-production processing, as well as into the cloud.

Going back to the fresh hire, Menard will be joining several other former Hewlett-Packard executives serving in top positions at DataDirect.  Menard had a very senior role at HP managing over $1b business and he joins a slew of ex-HP seasoned execs.  Among them is Jean-Luc Chatelaine, currently EVP Strategy and Technology, Philippe Ciampossin, VP for research and development and CTO for software. Back at HP, Menard severed as vice president and general manger of the technology giant’s  Communications and Media Solutions unit.

In some other executive staffing changes news from the past week, Dell (which also happens to be one of Hewlett-Packard’s biggest competitors), announced it has added three new directors to its board:  Janet Clark, who comes from the oil industry and will be serving on the board’s audit committee; Laura Conigliaro, a retired Goldman Sachs partner who joins the finance committee, and Ken Duberstein. Duberstein is the latest member of the governance and nominating committee, head of the Duberstein Group and former White House Chief of Staff.