A senior technology executive from the National Australia Bank (NAB), Graham Rothwell, has been appointed to the Board of Directors for the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).

Rothwell is head of cllient management, technology operations at the bank.

The appointment is part of a new initiative by SNIA to open seats on the board to personally selected representatives to ensure its strategy is influenced and endorsed by major end user organizations.

It will allow SNIA to directly engage with IT professionals who manage mission critical data centres, and rely on networked storage and information management systems within their business.

Rothwell began his role at NAB in August 2007 managing the relationship between the technology infrastructure arm of the group and the business.

Prior to joining NAB, Rothwell spent two years as alliances director for Accenture's financial services group covering the Asia Pacific.

In addition to 15 years consulting and systems integration experience, Rothwell has held positions at Veritas/Symantec, Qantas and Suncorp.

SNIA ANZ chairman, Jacob Van der Eyk, said the initiative is a real breakthrough for the organization.

"Having someone of Rothwell's calibre and expertise on the Board means we can hear first hand about the issues that organisations face in managing their information growth, and ensure that our strategic programmes are validated and pertinent," he said.

"We are the first SNIA regional affiliate to open up the Board to end-user organisations and we see this as a revolutionary idea that others will follow."

SNIA is a not-for-profit global organisation made up of more than 420 active member companies plus their worldwide affiliates and close to 7,100 active individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry.

- with Sandra Rossi