C HATSWORTH, CA — DataDirect Networks (DDN), a privately-held information storage company, has appointed former HP Fellow and Information Optimization CTO Jean-Luc Chatelain as its head of strategy and technology. He will be responsible for leading the expansion of DDN’s product portfolio into a global growth and innovation franchise, focused on maximizing the value of information for its customers.

As a Hewlett-Packard Fellow, Chatelain was responsible for leading HP’s information optimization strategy, steering the entry of HP in the ILM space. He also founded Persist Technologies Inc., a leader in reference information storage software, which was acquired by HP. Prior to that, Chatelain co-invented the SmartCell, an application-centric enterprise storage technology, and created a breakthrough medical imaging workflow technology for Cemax-Icon, which was later acquired by Imation/Eastman Kodak.