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Chef Taps Former GE Capital Chief Architect to Lead EMEA Operations

Justin Arbuckle Brings More Than 20 Years of Experience in Transforming Enterprise IT for Speed and Scale to Chef 

Leading UK-Based IT Recruitment Firm Reports Chef is Top 10 IT ‘Skill on the Rise’

SEATTLE – May 27, 2014 – Chef, the leader in web-scale IT automation, today announced that Justin Arbuckle will join the company as Vice President of Europe and Chief Enterprise Architect for Chef. Prior to Chef, Arbuckle built the first global IT architecture function at GE Capital and led one of the company’s largest technology restructurings in its history. He will report directly to Chef CEO, Barry Crist.

Enterprises worldwide are adopting web-scale IT automation to deliver services at the speed of customer demand. Chef’s total sales in Europe grew 400 percent in 2013, with companies including Digital Science, Imagination, Klarna, Paddy Power, and Schuberg Philis adopting Enterprise Chef to automate IT infrastructure and applications. Further reinforcing the enterprise shift to web-scale IT, an August 2013 Gartner report entitled, “The Long-Term Impact of Web-Scale IT Will Be Dramatic,” predicts that, “By 2017, Web-scale IT will be an architectural approach found operating in 50 percent of Global 2000 enterprises.”

In a recent survey conducted by The IT Job Board in the UK, entitled, “Q4 2013 Market Report” the leading IT recruiting and placement firm found that Chef was one of the top 10 permanent and top 10 contract skills on the rise in the UK, holding the highest average salary in each category.

News Highlights:

–       Justin Arbuckle Heads Chef Europe: Arbuckle brings more than 20 years of experience in transforming enterprise IT for speed and scale to Chef. Having transformed massive IT architectures at multiple European enterprises, Arbuckle is especially equipped to enable other organizations to accomplish the same feats with Chef.

–       European Demand for Chef Quadrupling: Chef’s total European sales grew 400 percent in 2013, demonstrating accelerating demand for Chef’s web-scale IT automation platform across Europe. Meanwhile, the number of European open source Chef Community members has more than tripled in the past 12 months.

–       Chef Europe Doubling in Size: Chef’s European team has doubled in size in the first six months of 2014, with personnel throughout Western Europe. The team will double again to more than 10 employees in Europe by year’s end.

Arbuckle was most recently Chief Architect for GE Capital. Prior to serving as Chief Architect, Arbuckle was GE Capital’s chief technology officer for EMEA. He has also served as a Chief Architect for GE Global Banking, GE Money Bank, Barclays, and IBM.

Supporting Quotes:

“Justin is passionate about – and deeply experienced in – using automation to make enterprise IT better, faster, and more agile. His proven track record includes empowering engineers with web-scale IT principles to deliver unprecedented value for customers. We’re doubling down on Europe and with Justin at the helm we’re well-positioned to capitalize on this tremendous opportunity.”

–       Barry Crist, chief executive officer, Chef

“Today’s economy is a digital one, meaning web-scale IT isn’t an option, it’s a necessity, for every organization. Chef is the automation engine of this shift and with Chef, engineers are more important – and more influential – in business than ever before. I’m incredibly excited to empower enterprises and emerging web companies alike to delight customers with better, faster services.”

–       Justin Arbuckle, vice president Europe, Chief Enterprise Architect, Chef.

Additional Resources:

About Chef

We are Chef – the leader in web-scale IT automation. We give you a model for automating IT infrastructure and applications that drive self-reliance across your development and operations teams. We are the Chef community. We are tens of thousands strong. We are helping your businesses become faster, safer and more flexible, so you win in today’s 24×7 digital economy. Join our movement today. www.getchef.com

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Lucas Welch

Former Chef Employee