SkySQL, the Finnish database firm that wants to steal Oracle(s orcl)’s lunch with the MySQL fork MariaDB, has hired the former general manager of HP(s hpq)’s public cloud services as its new product chief.

Roger Levy told me on Wednesday that his team had been “somewhat isolated” from HP’s ongoing layoff extravaganza, as cloud is where HP is trying to refocus its efforts, but he couldn’t resist SkySQL’s offer. “For me it was a couple of things,” he said. “One, the interesting opportunity that SkySQL has in the industry, and the other was from a personal point of view, wanting to get back to the startup environment.”

As Levy noted, SkySQL brings together some of “the top database people around” – it takes in many members of the original MySQL team. Now, with $20 million in the bank from an Intel(s intc)-led Series B round last October, SkySQL…