The Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2019

We are pleased to announce The Software Report’s third annual Top 50 SaaS CEOs awards.  In 2019, we received an astounding number of nomination submissions that provided meaningful insight into the inner workings of some of today’s most successful SaaS companies.  We read through every last bit of commentary submitted on behalf of each nominated CEO to form the most accurate picture we could of the individual's leadership qualities.  In many cases, we were genuinely moved by what we read.  Some CEOs are almost super human in their ability to execute in business - to communicate an inspiring vision, to design an effective corporate strategy and to consistently achieve performance targets, all while ensuring each and every employee knows s/he truly matters to the organization. 

The 50 CEOs named to this year’s list are exceptional for many reasons, however, we honed in most closely on the following attributes – integrity, intellect, drive, emotional intelligence, organizational culture and operational skill.  While it was very challenging to assign a ranking since each CEO was deserving of the utmost recognition, we were able to rely on the quality and consistency in the commentary submitted on behalf of the candidates.  We also separated the awardees into two equal categories based on the size of their organization thinking the CEOs were more comparable to each other within each category versus taken as a whole.  For CEOs managing organizations exceeding 500 to 1,000 employees, we termed them “Masters of Scale”.  And for those at the helm of companies up to 500 employees, we termed them “Growth Leaders”. 

Please join us in congratulating The Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2019.

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MASTERS OF SCALE

1. Reggie Aggarwal
Company: Cvent

Reggie Aggarwal is Founder, CEO and Chairman of Cvent.  This is Reggie’s third consecutive year as a Top 50 SaaS CEO.  Each year, we at The Software Report, are astounded by the quality of the nomination submissions Reggie receives and the meaningful commentary submitted by his colleagues.  It is truly rare to find a leader so loved and admired.  He founded Cvent 20 years ago and to this day 90% of the original team is still working by his side, a testament to Reggie’s leadership qualities over the long run.  From the commentary we received emerges a picture of a consistently strategic, thoughtful, deeply involved, high energy leader completely committed to making Cvent the best it can be. 

As one colleague put it, “Reggie has an incredible passion for the business and a drive to be great that is second to none.  His attitude sets the example for the extraordinary culture of performance, hard work, and customer-first attitude that defines Cvent.”

Today, he leads over 4,000 employees worldwide in solidifying the company as the preeminent cloud-based event management software company. Cvent has over 25,000 customers and 300,000 users using its software in over 100 countries.  Reggie founded the company in 1999, leaving a career as an attorney.  He graduated with a BS degree from the University of Virginia, a JD from Washington and Lee University Law School, and an LLM (post-law degree) from Georgetown University Law School.  Cvent went public on the NYSE in 2013 and was subsequently bought out three years later in 2016 by Vista Equity Partners. In 2017, Reggie joined the Board of Directors of Marketo, another Vista portfolio company.

Top Performers Define Winning In Great Detail

2. Nick Mehta
Company: Gainsight

Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, a leading customer success software company.  What rings most true from the nomination submissions we received was Nick’s immense capacity for creating a human first culture and getting to know each employee on a personal level all while rapidly and effectively managing the complexities of the company’s operations.  As one colleague states, “Nick is incredibly personal - he knows all 600+ people at Gainsight and many aspects of their professional and personal lives. This allows him to build empathy across the organization and make decisions that are impactful for all stakeholders.”

Others spoke to his tactical capabilities, “He's so smart and the volume of what he can complete in a day is not humanly possible” and “No organization has a Nick Mehta as CEO, his capacity to "do it all" while still having time, and a seat at the table, is truly remarkable”.

Nick joined Gainsight in 2013 and since then has led the company through tremendous growth.  Under his watch, the company has taken on over $100 million in growth capital from some of the leading software investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.  Prior to Gainsight, Nick was the CEO of LiveOffice, which he led for four years culminating in a successful sale to Symantec for $115 million.  Prior to LiveOffice, he served as a Vice President of Product Management with Symantec.  Nick graduated from Harvard with a BA in Biochemistry and a MS in Computer Science.


3. Colin Day
Company: iCIMS

Colin Day is a name that’s mentioned in inner circles of leading executives and investors in the software industry.  He’s earned a reputation among colleagues both external and internal to iCIMS as a visionary leader driven to succeed who is always transparent and humble and at the same time inspiring and engaging.  He founded iCIMS in 2000 after working as a recruiter at an IT staffing firm.  Over the years, Colin has expanded the company’s product suite, positioning iCIMS as a leader in the broader talent acquisition software space. 

According to one iCIMS colleague, “Colin is a transformational and inspiring leader. Working at this organization for close to 10 years, I've learned and grown so much both professionally and personally. He has created a fantastic winning organization where we are transparent, empathetic, and want to be the best - for each other, for our customers, and for the industry. Put those things together and we have great results and a phenomenal culture. I am proud to work for him.”

Colin has created an outstanding culture at iCIMS, which has spurred continued growth both at the top line as well as new customer acquisition.  Today, the company has over 4,000 customers including dozens of Fortune 500 brands.  It employs over 850 employees and generates over $200 million in annual recurring revenues.  iCIMS acquired JobMagic in 2012, for social recruiting, and TextRecruit in 2018, for mobile candidate communications and artificial intelligence. 


4. Dan Rodrigues
Company: Kareo

Dan Rodrigues is the founder and CEO of Kareo. He founded the company in 2004 with a vision of simplifying medical offices with web-based medical billing software.  Today, Kareo supports over 50,000 physicians and other healthcare providers and processes more than $18 billion annually in insurance claims.  With over 500 employees, Dan ensures consistent communication throughout the organization, He is praised by his colleagues for his accessibility and listening to each and every employee regardless of level. 

“Dan is compassionate, engaging with all employees (no matter their level), and a positive force for all of Kareo. He cares deeply about the company and our goal of improving healthcare through enabling providers. Dan invests in the management team through training that not many companies would be willing to spend money on. His value is immeasurable,” said a Kareo colleague.

Born in Anaheim, California, Dan grew up with entrepreneurial parents, a factor which contributed to his success. He attended University of Washington then transferred to and graduated from UCLA with a BS in Computer Science.  Prior to launching Kareo, Dan started creating technology for the healthcare industry in 2001 as a co-founder and managing partner of Skematix, a software consulting firm. In the late 1990's, Dan was the co-founder and CEO of Scour, a search engine for finding music and video files online, which was used by more than 10 million consumers. With Scour, Dan raised venture capital financing from Michael Ovitz, Ron Burkle, and Ron Conway and sold the company in 2000.


5. Tim Wallace
Company: iPipeline

Tim Wallace is the CEO and a Board Director of iPipeline, a leading provider of sales distribution software to the insurance and financial services markets.  He joined the company in 2008 as CEO and since then, has led the company through significant growth and global expansion increasing annual revenue from $6 million to nearly $200 million.  Under Tim’s watch the company raised over $80 million in capital from leading investors including NewSpring Capital and TCV.  He was also instrumental in guiding the company through a successful sale process to Thoma Bravo in 2015. 

Tim has extensive experience as a CEO and leading companies to exit.  Previously, he served as the Interim President and COO of MEDecision Inc in 2008 when MEDecision announced it was being purchased by HCSC.  Before that, he was the CEO and Chairman of FullTilt, a leading enterprise PIM software recognized by Forrester and Gartner.  FullTilt was acquired by QAD in April of 2008.  He also served as CEO of XeroxConnect and President and CEO of XLConnect, which made its public offering in 1996 and was later acquired by Xerox in 1998 for $420 million. 

Tim spent the first eleven years of his career with Arthur Andersen & Company, eventually rising to the Director level.  Among his many career accolades, Tim is the winner of the 2011 Ernst & Young Technology CEO of the Year, several PACT Enterprise recognitions, and the Red Herring Top 100 North America and Top 100 Global awards.  Tim earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Miami University and currently serves on the boards of AccuWeather and Energage. 


6. Jeff Lawson
Company: Twilio

Jeff Lawson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio, a leading cloud communications company that enables developers around the world to build, scale, and operate communications within software applications.  Jeff founded Twilio during the 2008 recession (going even so far as to sell his own wedding gifts to bootstrap the company) and has since built a community of over 5 million developers and over 150,000 customers.  Today, Twilio has a market cap of over $18 billion and generated over $650 million in revenue in 2018.  The company’s growth has been astounding growing on average 60% year over year.  It is expected to exceed 1 billion in revenue in 2019.

Jeff has been a serial entrepreneur since the beginning - he started his first business in middle school filming and editing videos for events. He continued to pursue his entrepreneurial habit while earning degrees in computer science and film from the University of Michigan. Prior to co-founding Twilio, he was the Founder, CEO & CTO of Versity, Founder and CTO of NineStar, and Founding CTO of Stubhub. He was also one of the first product managers for Amazon Web Services.  Jeff’s passion for philanthropy and social issues has bled into Twilio’s work in many ways, most notably with the creation of Twilio.org, taking the One Percent Pledge to commit 1% of the company’s equity to philanthropy, and in a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. 


7. Sejal Pietrzak
Company: DealerSocket

Sejal Pietrzak is the President and CEO of DealerSocket, a leading provider of software for the automotive industry enabling dealers to sell and service vehicles more profitably while improving customer experience.  The company employs more than 1,000 professionals who support 300,000 active users at nearly 10,000 dealerships. Previously, Sejal was the Chief Administrative Officer of ACTIVE Network, a global marketplace for activities and events, where she held company-wide responsibility for leading corporate strategy and day-to-day business operations.  She was with the company for over 12 years initially leading its Endurance Sports division before moving on to a Global Senior Vice President role.

Upon joining, then CEO and Founder Jonathan Ord commented, “She has the skills, experience, and passion to continue to grow the company and serve our customers for years to come.”  And according to a colleague, “Sejal is a compassionate leader who cares deeply about her team and the customers DealerSocket serves. Sejal is tough but fair, and she is dedicated to making DealerSocket a great place to work.”

Sejal’s career began in the field of diplomacy where she was the Executive Director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in charge of the US-India Business Council.  After business school, she took a position as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.  From there she moved to industry as a Vice President of the Consumer Credit Group at Wells Fargo.  She earned a bachelor’s degree from William & Mary and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Top SaaS CEO Feature: Sejal Pietrzak of DealerSocket

8. Mike Gianoni
Company: Blackbaud

Mike Gianoni is the President and CEO of Blackbaud, a supplier of software and services specifically designed for social good-oriented organizations, such as faith communities, foundations, K-12 Schools, and nonprofits. Blackbaud is now the 18th largest vendor in SaaS applications revenue worldwide, per IDC, and is a Fortune Change the World company and repeat Forbes Most Innovative Growth Company. Through purpose-built cloud software, services, thought leadership, and data intelligence, the company is amplifying impact for more than 40,000 customers in over 60 countries in their own efforts to build a better world.

According to colleagues, “Gianoni has quickly earned a reputation of “walking the talk” with respect to the company’s mission to help power an ecosystem of good. He spends a significant amount of time talking to customers and always follows up by challenging his teams to incorporate that feedback in future innovation.”

Mike joined Blackbaud from Fiserv, a global provider of financial services technology solutions, where he was executive vice president and group president of the Financial Institutions Group. Before that, he was president of Fiserv’s Investment Services division, executive vice president and general manager of CheckFree Investment Services, and the leader of numerous divisions at DST.  Mike is a first-generation American, with degrees in both engineering and business, as well as an MBA and Honorary Doctorate from the University of New Haven. In addition to leading Blackbaud, Mike serves on public and mission-based boards, including the Clemson University President’s Advisory Board, Teradata, and the International African American Museum Board. 


9. George Kurtz
Company: CrowdStrike

George Kurtz is the Co-Founder and CEO of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The company provides endpoint security, threat intelligence, and cyber attack response services to enterprises. CrowdStrike posted its first quarterly report as a public company in July.  George said the company achieved 103% year-over-year revenue growth in Q1, and now has a subscriber base of over 3,000.

George is a serial entrepreneur who has also spent time in the corporate world. His previous titles include founder of security company Foundstone, which was acquired by McAfee, and Chief Technology Officer of McAfee. After college, George began his career at Price Waterhouse as a CPA and in 1993, Price Waterhouse made him one of its first employees in its new security group.  Alongside his work at CrowdStrike, George is an author, speaker, and internationally recognized security expert with decades of experience in the industry. He has a BS in Science from Seton Hall University. 


10. Corey Thomas
Company: Rapid7

Corey Thomas is the CEO and Chairman of Rapid7, a provider of analytics solutions for security and IT operations. The cyber expert has held various positions with organizations including virtualization company Parallels, Microsoft, Deloitte, and the U.S. Commerce Department. In 2018, he was elected to the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA) board of directors and the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Strategy Council. Corey serves on the board at LPL Financial as well as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. 

Corey grew up in a working class family in Georgia, where he says he learned important leadership lessons through his various roles, including his first job as a janitor for local churches. He is a firm believer that company culture can determine the success or failure of a company. The CEO promotes a culture of trust by default and self-awareness at Rapid7. He has a bachelor’s. in electrical engineering and computer science from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. 


GROWTH LEADERS

1. Vineet Jain
Company: Egnyte

Vineet Jain is the Founder and CEO of Egnyte, the only secure content platform that is designed specifically for business.  In late 2018, Vineet raised his Series E round of $75 million from Goldman Sachs.  His other investors include Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Polaris Partners.  Vineet is the classic example of a deeply technical yet strategic entrepreneur.  He is a mechanical engineer by training earning his bachelor’s from Delhi College of Engineering.  He worked as an engineer for Bechtel and a consultant for KPMG, before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey.

In 2001, he founded Valdero, a supply chain software solution provider and obtained funding from Kleiner Perkins, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Trinity Ventures.  Shortly after Valdero was successfully sold, Vineet turned his sights on SaaS and founded Egnyte in 2007.  He began with limited funding and as he worked out the finer details of his business model began bringing in outside capital, again from the most prestigious investors.  Today, Egnyte has thousands of customers including such well known corporations as Red Bull, Yamaha, Nasdaq, and AppDynamics among many others.  The company is supported by nearly 500 employees.  Vineet earned an MBA from Santa Clara University. 

Top SaaS CEO Feature: Vineet Jain of Egnyte

2. Brad Brooks
Company: OneLogin

Brad Brooks is President, CEO and Board Director of OneLogin, which he joined in 2017.  Over the past 25 years, Brad has excelled as a corporate leader with some of the world’s leading technology corporations.  Previously, at Docusign and as Chief of Marketing, Product and Engineering, he helped grow the company to more than 200 million users across more than 150 countries. And at Microsoft, he spent nine years leading its Windows commercial and consumer businesses. 

While Brad has attained prominent professional titles, they do not begin to capture how he leads others and why he is effective.  A OneLogin colleague helps shed some light, “Brad is a tremendous leader who perfectly balances the task of keeping the company on course for our vision, while at the same time delegating and allowing individuals to help plot the steps necessary to get there. He believes wholeheartedly in transparency, both to employees and customers alike.”

Under Brad’s watch, the company has grown its employee base by over 60% and raised $100 million in a Series D round, more than doubling the company’s cumulative capital raised to date.  OneLogin is well on its way to becoming the global standard for Unified Access Management.  It offers a portfolio of identity as a service solutions that unifies access for both on-premise and SaaS applications, helping enterprises drive new levels of business integrity, operational speed and team efficiency. Notably, Brad’s experience across product, marketing and sales gives the company a significant edge in sustaining long term growth.


3. Gregg Johnson
Company: Invoca

Gregg Johnson joined Invoca as CEO in 2017. Under his leadership, the company has experienced unprecedented growth while being repeatedly recognized as the market leader in enterprise call tracking and analytics software. Gregg’s focus on customer success, market innovation, and a culture of continuous improvement has led the company to 200 percent year-over-year growth in enterprise annual contract value in 2018.  An integral success factor in Invoca’s growth has been Gregg’s commitment to building an inclusive company culture with a diverse workforce that is driven by its values of learning, teamwork, and customer success.

One colleague had particular insight on Gregg’s unique capabilities, “Gregg is one of the most resourceful, yet and thoughtful and humble people I've ever worked with. He has the ability to easily transcend the areas of strategy and execution, in multiple disciplines simultaneously while always keeping an eye on internal culture and team.  Gregg focuses on empowering the team, streamlining the product and improving processes to increase velocity and build scale.”

Previously, Gregg led Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s social marketing product line, where he integrated $1 billion worth of M&A investments into the Salesforce product portfolio. Prior to that he drove product strategy and development for Salesforce Chatter, helping define the nascent category of enterprise social networking and rolling out one of Salesforce's most successful products. He also worked at Boston Consulting Group and held a variety of roles at start-ups. Gregg graduated from Stanford University and holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. 


4. Chris Golec
Company: Demandbase

Chris Golec is the Founder and CEO of Demandbase, a leading provider of business to business marketing software solutions.  Chris founded the company in 2006 to change the way businesses market and sell to other businesses online.  He has raised more the $90 million of financing and has grown his organization to nearly 350 employees.  Demandbase’s clients include enterprise leaders and high growth companies including Accenture, Adobe, DocuSign, GE, Salesforce and many others.  Previously, Chris founded Supplybase to help global manufacturers collaborate with their supply chain to bring new products to market.  He built the company over a six year period eventually selling to i2 Technologies in 2000.

Earlier in his career, Chris worked for General Electric, first as a sales manager in their advanced materials division then as a global marketing manager for its advanced materials business.  Chris began his career as a product development engineer for DuPont, where he led the development of the company’s technology for electronically joining natural gas piping.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Michigan State University and an MBA from Boston University.  In 2019, Chris and his colleagues authored the definitive book on ABM, "Account-Based Marketing: How to Target and Engage the Companies That Will Grow Your Revenue".


5. Will Hayes
Company: Lucidworks

Will Hayes is the CEO of Lucidworks, a leading powerful enterprise search solution that incorporates AI and machine learning.  Customers include Reddit, Red Hat, Moody’s Commvault, and Verizon among many others.  Will joined the company in 2013 as its Chief Product Officer and was appointed CEO in 2014.  Under his watch, Lucidworks’ flagship product Fusion has doubled revenues year over year for the last three years.

Prior to Lucidworks, Will was head of technical business development for Splunk, where he was responsible for defining the company’s market category and key product feature sets. He created and led the company’s global partner program, building an ecosystem of consultants, developers, resellers, system integrators, service providers, and technology partners. Earlier in his career, Will served as a software engineer at Genentech, where he built solutions that supported the sales and drug development teams in their field activities.  

Will is highly respected among his colleagues for his values-based culture, which he adheres to and which has enabled him to scale from 100 to over 250 people over the past several months.  A testament to his leadership capabilities, Will raised $50 million last year from leading investors Top Tier Capital Partners and Silver Lake Waterman.  Notably, Will has also been active in the bay area community supporting organizations such as 10,000 degrees that provides financial, emotional and educational resources to disadvantaged Bay Area youth.


6. Marne Martin
Company: WorkWave

Marne Martin is the CEO of WorkWave, an IFS company, which provides comprehensive field service management solutions.  She was recruited to the CEO position in 2018 bringing with her deep expertise in field service management and leading organizations.  Previously, she was the CEO of ServicePower, which she restructured as a public company and for which she proceeded to improve operations.  She then led the company through a take private and doubled bookings growth thus accelerating SaaS recognized revenue.  Now at WorkWave, Marne is imparting a new vision and adept stewardship, strategically executing on a plan to increase growth while tending to the company’s existing 7,000 customers.

WorkWave is focused on service businesses across multiple verticals, from pest control to lawn and landscape to HVAC, providing them with end-to-end solutions for support across digital marketing, mobile field service, routing and scheduling, invoicing, and all other needs in between.  WorkWave is a business unit of IFS, an international corporation with over 3,500 employees that develops and delivers enterprise software.  In the early 2000s, Marne helped lead a venture capital / private equity firm, where her primary responsibility was serving as President and Board Member of Digicel Holdings, a mobile telecommunications firm.  Marne earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Purdue University. 


7. Neil Moses
Company: Mi9 Retail

Neil Moses is the CEO of Mi9 Retail, which he co-founded in 2014. The company offers solutions for most retail verticals that include planning, merchandising, e-commerce, store operations and advanced analytics.  It has over 500 global customers including Nike, Estee Lauder, Christian Dior, Giant Eagle, Hard Rock International, Pepkor, Levi Strauss, Spencer Gifts, and Talbots.

Neil has extensive experience in executive-level operational and corporate development positions.  One colleague commented, “Neil has successfully assembled a team of technology and business professionals who he’s inspired with his passion for challenging the “norms” of legacy retail operations. He is grounded and approachable and insists on building and maintaining a company culture that is inclusive and transparent.”

Previously, Neil served as Vice President of Operations for Perceptive Software, a subsidiary of Lexmark International, which he joined as part of Lexmark’s acquisition of Brainware in 2012.  Before that, he was Chief Operating Officer of Brainware, President and co-founder of Rogomo, Inc. (where he launched WeTutor.com), and he held a number of senior-level positions at AOL.  In 2018, Mi9 Retail received a strategic investment from HGGC, which joins General Atlantic and Respida as the company’s sponsors.  Mi9 Retail has offices around the world. 


8. Dan Latendre
Company: Igloo Software

Dan Latendre is the Founder and CEO of Igloo Software, a leading provider of digital workplace solutions.  Its software suite covers enterprise communication, collaboration, knowledge management, and culture and engagement.  Drawing on three decades of deep technology experience, Dan has taken Igloo Software from a small startup to a globally recognized company, now experiencing explosive growth.  Over the last several years Dan has successfully maintained high customer retention while acquiring new customers leading to impressive year over year revenue growth.  Notably, the company surpassed one billion monthly interactions on its digital workplace platform in 2017. 

Prior to founding Igloo, Dan was a senior level executive with Open Text for over ten years.  One of his most notable achievements there was spearheading the launch of the first web-based intranet application, Livelink®. The application is used by thousands of leading corporations around the world for intranet, extranet, portal and online library solutions. 

In 2018, Dan raised $47 million from Frontier Capital to aid in building the company’s sales and marketing operations, expanding distribution channels, strengthening its global partnership with Microsoft, and further accelerating the company’s footprint in the North American market.  Today, Igloo Software provides some of the leading large corporations with its solutions, including Verizon, BDO, Groupon, Greystone, and many others. 


9. Dave Dutch
Company: OrderMyGear

Dave Dutch is the CEO of OrderMyGear, the leading software solution to online stores, providing order management and supply chain software to the team sporting goods and group apparel markets.  Dave joined the company in January 2019 inspired by its tremendous potential.  In 2018, OrderMyGear facilitated orders for thousands of dealers, tens of thousands of teams and groups, and millions of coaches, athletes, fans, and administrators.

Dave has a long history of leading tech companies into and through the rapid growth phase.  Prior to OrderMyGear, Dave was the CEO of PayLease, which he grew from $4m to $100 million in annualized revenue, employing close to 300 employees.  He also led PayLease through two successful liquidity events and an acquisition. 

Dave is heavily involved in the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem.  He currently serves on the boards of three companies – Trakref, Real Green Systems and Raken.  He is also a senior advisor to Growth Street Partners, a growth equity firm out of San Francisco.  Dave started his career in the United States Navy in Special Operations.  He graduated from the United States Naval Academy earning a bachelor’s in Ocean Physics and from Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business where he earned an MBA. 


10. Eran Ben-Shushan
Company: Bizzabo

Eran Ben-Shushan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bizzabo, an all-in-one event success platform.  Eran is the consummate high growth executive with a self-discipline one might find in someone with a military background; in fact Eran had previously been in the Israeli Air Force where he rose through the ranks.  Yet operational skill is only part of the story, Eran is a great communicator and has been known to give inspiring talks on the vision for Bizzabo as well as the company’s mission.  He also genuinely cares for each employee, making himself equally available at both company locations in New York and Tel Aviv. 

“Eran is the perfect example of a CEO that genuinely believes in the power of his people. He forms connections with his team and provides an environment of transparency and honesty. He leads by example and encourages each person to challenge themselves to grow with Bizzabo's support,” is just one of the many glowing remarks Eran’s colleagues offered.

Launched in 2012, Bizzabo provides event organization solutions through the cloud, which conference organizers can use to create websites, market their events, sell tickets, and execute other event related tasks. Under Eran’s leadership, Bizzabo has attracted thousands of clients across the globe.  Before co-founding the company, Eran served as the CEO of the Rosh-Pina Convention, and he was a team leader and systems engineer at Elbit Systems. He served in the Israeli Air Force for 9 years achieving the rank of Major. He was educated at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, where he graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s in business and entrepreneurship.


11. Linda Crawford
Company: Helpshift

Linda Crawford is the CEO of Helpshift, a leading provider of advanced customer service software used by large enterprise customers such as Xfinity Home, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Zynga, Viacom and hundreds of others.  Helpshift is installed on over two billion devices worldwide and serves more than 820 million active consumers monthly.  Linda joined Helpshift in late 2017 from Optimizely, where she was the Chief Customer Officer.  Before that, she was one of the key executives that drove Salesforce's post IPO growth from $400 million to $6 billion. She was also an early employee at Siebel Systems later becoming an executive and helped the company grow from $8M to $1.3B.

Since joining Helpshift, the company has tripled its annual recurring revenue. Linda has been the driving force behind several groundbreaking 2019 Helpshift initiatives, including expanding the team to EMEA and the recent launch of the Connected Customer Conversations platform. The platform helps brands deliver exceptional experiences to their customers by connecting digital channels, phone support, self-service and bots.  Linda is passionate about empowering women leaders in technology. Her role as a diversity and inclusion advocate over the last 20 plus years remains one of her highest priorities.


12. John Street
Company: Pax8

John Street is the Founder and CEO of Pax8, a leading cloud commerce marketplace.  In the last two years, he has tripled the size of the organization to over three hundred employees.  Such rapid growth on limited outside funding is a testament to John’s executive skill, which was finely honed over several decades leading various tech companies.  Prior to Pax8, John built MX Logic into one of the world’s largest providers of cloud-based email and web security.  He had also served as Chairman and CEO of USA.NET in the 1990’s and prior to that Telephone Express. 

His colleagues praise his ability to predict how technology will evolve in the future as well as his ability to build a strong culture with high standards.  He has been a tremendous advocate for entrepreneurship both in and outside his organizations.  In fact, many executives that have worked with John have gone on to become entrepreneurs themselves.  He graduated from The University of Notre Dame and began his career as a tax accountant with Arthur Andersen.  John also served in the U.S. Peace Corps where he was focused on economic empowerment in the Philippines.  He is Chairman Emeritus of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra.


13. Mark Josephson
Company: Bitly

Mark Josephson is the CEO of Bitly, a link management platform that helps brands deliver and measure their marketing execution across multiple channels.  Since joining Bitly in 2013, Mark has raised over $60 million from leading investor Spectrum Equity.  He has led the company through several major stages including introducing an enterprise product and launching new strategies to better address companies of different size and use cases.  One colleague comments on Mark’s focus on his people and recruiting the most talented professionals.  In turn he supports those people through and through; his core value is “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.” 

Prior to Bitly, Mark led revenue and marketing as the senior vice president at Patch.com, an AOL company.  Before that, he was the CEO of Outside.in, a hyperlocal company that was sold to AOL.  Mark rose quickly in the tech world, just a handful of years after graduating from college, he was made the general manager and executive vice president at About.com, where his roles included Director of Business Development and Director of Communications.  Bitly was founded in 2008 in New York and today its solutions are used by some of the most prominent corporations including Amazon, Nike, ESPN, Disney, The New York Times, Gartner, Bose and many others.  Mark earned a bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College.


14. Don MacAskill
Company: SmugMug

Don MacAskill is the Co-Founder and CEO of SmugMug and CEO of Flickr.  With these two online software properties under his belt, one could claim that Don is the king of online photo sharing.  SmugMug was already an industry leader when Don decided to acquire Flickr in 2018.  The acquisition gave him an even larger userbase adding 100 million users and tens of billions of photos shared.  SmugMug today is well-known as the industry leader, however, that was far from the case in the early days of the company.  For a tech startup in Silicon Valley, SmugMug’s founding was far from typical.  Don and his father launched the effort in 2002 straight into the headwinds of the collapsing tech industry.

While most people thought Don and his father were crazy, they pushed on, guided by their passion for the internet and digital photography.  As time went on, the business began to grow and more family joined in.  Today the company is the largest independent photo sharing site in the world, and is supported by over 200 employees.   Prior to SmugMug, Don was a software engineer for various tech companies including fatbrain and Best Internet.  To this day, he still codes nearly every day. 


15. Abhinav Asthana
Company: Postman

Abhinav Asthana is the Founder and CEO of Postman, which provides nearly six million developers and over 200,000 companies with a more effective and seamless means to API development.  He founded the company nearly five years ago; what started off as a side-project has grown into an industry standard API Development Environment.  Abhinav has excelled quickly in the technology industry, first starting out as an engineer then moving to become a CTO, which in turn led to his role as founder and CEO, all within a space of less than ten years.  He is known by his colleagues as a deeply technical executive keen on continuously honing in on the user experience and anticipating new technological features.

In the last two years, Abhinav has doubled the size of Postman.  Recently in June of 2019, he took in $50 million of outside capital with CRV leading the round.  Prior to that he had raised a Series A from Nexus Venture Partners.  Before founding Postman, Abhinav was the Founder and CTO of TeliportMe and before that the CTO of BITS360 a 360 virtual tour technology.  Early in his career, one of his first professional assignments was as a front-end engineer with Yahoo! He graduated from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India. 


16. H. John Oechsle
Company: Swiftpage

H. John Oechsle is the President and CEO of Swiftpage, a leading provider of digital marketing and CRM solutions for small and midsized businesses.  The company serves millions of users through its flagship software products Act! and Act!365.  John joined the company in 2012 with a long track record working as a technology executive for large corporations.  He was the Company CIO for Johnson and Johnson in the early 2000s and was the Director of Global Information Management for Kellogg Company in the 1990s. 

Most immediately prior to joining Swiftpage, John was the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Product for DigitalGlobe, a publicly traded company, where he was instrumental in driving revenue growth through the launch of a number of successful product lines.  Prior to DigitalGlobe, he was the Senior Vice President of Technology and Content as well as CIO for IHS.  John is an advocate for technology and education in Colorado and around the world through the Colorado Technology Association and OpenWorld Learning.  John earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rutgers University and an MBA from Dartmouth. 


17. Yoav Schwartz
Company: Uberflip

Yoav Shwartz is the Co-Founder and CEO of Uberflip, a cloud-based content experience platform that enables B2B marketers to create personalized content experiences at scale.  He founded the company with Randy Frisch in 2012 and over the years built a high performing organization by focusing on culture, vision and customers.  That focus turned into acquiring some of the most sophisticated clients including mongoDB, LeanData, Blackbaud, and Snowflake among many others.  With customer and revenue traction established, in 2018, Yoav raised $32 million in a Series A round from Updata Partners.  To date, the company has added more than 1,000 B2B companies to its customer base. 

Yoav is a multifaceted entrepreneur.  Having grown up in an entrepreneurial household, he developed an appreciation for the skills needed to make for a successful business.  In addition to leading Uberflip, he is an investor in Hover and Betterez and owner of YMS Dynamics.  Previously he was Founder and CEO of Mygazines, which transformed PDFs into interactive experiences and prior to that was the Co-Founder and CEO and of Silverwood Flooring.  His first forays into entrepreneurship were in high school and college and consisted of designing websites in the late 90’s and building web-apps in the early 2000’s.  He earned a bachelor’s degree from Western University.


18. James Legg
Company: Thycotic

James Legg is the President and CEO of Thycotic, a leading cybersecurity company focused on account credentials and identity access.  He joined the company in 2015 from PHD Virtual Technologies where he was President and CEO.  James has held several prior executive positions in the technology industry.  Prior to PHD Virtual, he was the Vice President of Wlrd Wide Sales for Idera Software and Vice President of World Wide Sales and Support for NetIQ/PentaSafe.  Earlier in his career, James was the Director of Sales at Peregine Systems. 

Thycotic is on the fastest growing IT security companies.  It prevents cyber attacks by securing passwords, protecting endpoints and controlling application access. The company is focused on providing its customers with the freedom to choose cloud or on premise software solutions that are the easiest to implement and use in the industry. Thycotic has grown to serve more than 10,000 customers.  James earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver and an MBA from the University of Michigan. 

19. Laura Urquizu
Company: Red Points

Laura Urquizu is the CEO and a Partner of Red Points.  She joined the company in 2014 and since then has helped it scale from 15 people to over 220 employees worldwide.  Red Points is a leading provider of online digital brand protection.  Among its features include solutions which protect against digital piracy, counterfeiting, grey market and other online infractions.  The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Barcelona, Spain and New York, New York.  Since inception, the company has helped over 600 clients monitor and prevent attacks on its online reputation.  Red Points customers include Knockaround, David Trubridge, O’Neal, and LELO among many others. 

Laura has driven the company business model forward transforming it into a globally renowned SaaS solution. Following her vision, Red Points has developed its business model to serve global enterprises of all types in online brand protection. Leveraging her background as a venture capital pioneer in Spain, she raised $64 million from leading investment firms including  Mangrove Partners, Northzone, Eight Roads Ventures & Summit Partners. Laura and Red Points have won recognition by important publications and organizations; recently the company was named one of the hottest startups in Europe by Wired. 


20. Katherine Kostereva
Company: bpm'online

Katherine Kostereva is the CEO and Managing Partner at bpm’online.   Katherine is well known for what she has accomplished with bpm’online, now viewed in the industry as one of the leading CRM and business process automation software companies in the market.  Her colleagues hold her in high regard for her vision and persistence.  She has tremendous corporate and industry insight, which has been instrumental in aligning their strategy and roadmap to meet the growing needs of customers.   Katherine is always there for partners and clients to support and guide whenever needed. 

She co-founded the company in 2013 and since then has achieved the highest customer satisfaction scores in the CRM and BPM industries and landed some of the largest corporations as clients including Heinz, BDO, BNP Paribas, Ericsson, Pepsico, and numerous others.  She has also attained top analyst ratings from Gartner, Forrester and other research firms. Katherine has grown the company to an employee base that numbers close to three hundred.  She has won numerous awards including being named one of the top women entrepreneurs in cloud computing and being recognized as one of the most influential women in the BPM industry, among other awards.


21. Brendan King
Company: Vendasta

Brendan King is the Co-Founder and CEO of Vendasta Technologies, the leading marketplace for 16,000 channel partners who offer digital products to more than two million small and medium businesses.  Businesses ranging from banks, telecom companies, to marketing agencies access Vendasta’s platform to automate various components of their operations all under a single login.  Brendan is a serial entrepreneur and started his career building two successful companies in sequence.  Both were in the computer retailing space, one of which was nationally franchised.  He then went on to serve as COO and Director of Point2 Realty solutions, growing its membership to over 165,000 agents and brokers in 85 countries. 

Brendan had been the key driver and innovator of the company and has built the organization to nearly 300 employees.   Through Vendasta, his aim is to enable local businesses to more effectively compete with large corporations by giving them access to the best software tools available through a seamless interface.  The company has been recognized for its steady growth by Deloitte Fast 50 (Canada) and Deloitte Fast 500 (North America).  Brendan also worked for Cameco Corporation as a Geophysicist and earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Saskatchewan.


22. Philipp Schloter
Company: ABUKAI

Philipp Schloter is the President and CEO of ABUKAI, which offers business productivity solutions beginning with ABUKAI Expenses that automates employee expense management.  The expense tool was named one of the Top 20 cloud services by PC Magazine; it is used in over 90 countries and in over 50% of the Global 500 companies.  Prior to founding ABUKAI, Philipp founded and sold PIXTO to Nokia as CEO, after which he went on to lead a global growth business unit at Nokia focused on augmented reality technology and services.

Philipp began his career in technology as product manager for Microsoft.  He had worldwide responsibility for Windows Server and also acted as a strategic adviser to Microsoft’s corporate strategy group.  From there, he went on to Deutsche Telekom where he was appointed Head of Product and Service Innovation.  Philipp has deep knowledge in the computer science field.  At Stanford University he earned bachelor's degrees in computer science and economics and a master’s in electrical engineering.   Philipp also co-founded another venture-backed start-up, and is an advisory board member at KII, a global telecom supplier.


23. Greg Mercer
Company: Jungle Scout

Greg Mercer is the Founder and CEO of Jungle Scout, the leading Amazon product research tool built on millions of data points collected each month. Recognizing the vast ecosystem created by Amazon, Greg sought to tap into the needs of the thousands of entrepreneurs seeking to take part in the ecommerce paradigm. Since founding the company in 2015, Jungle Scout has grown quickly without funding. Its organization now numbers over 100 employees with much of the uptake happening in the last two years.

Greg successfully built a business that started with just him as the sole employee. As one colleague commented, “Greg is scrappy. He took an idea, with no programming experience, and made it happen. He learned, he hired, he worked, and 4 years later he has grown the company from just him to 100+ employees around the world.” Greg is also known for the care he puts into developing relationships with his employees, and for being intentional and approachable. He has made Jungle Scout a magical place to work. Greg earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Auburn University.


24. Gireesh Sonnad
Company: Silverline

Gireesh Sonnad is the Co-Founder and CEO of Silverline, a Salesforce Platinum Partner specializing in enterprise clients in the financial services and healthcare sectors.  In 2018, the company was named the #1 best small and medium company to work for by Glassdoor.  He has been building the company since 2009 and in 2018 took in outside capital from Pamlico Capital.  Gireesh’s various technology and leadership experiences has equipped him to effectively grow Silverline to nearly 400 employees. 

A colleague who knows Gireesh well states, “I can say with conviction that Gireesh is the top CEO I have ever worked with.  While he has the full package of traits that make a fantastic CEO - integrity, intelligence, empathy, charisma - what truly differentiates Gireesh is his passion for his 350+ employees.  More so than any CEO with whom I have worked, Gireesh prioritizes his people.”

Gireesh’s career in technology spans a lifetime, beginning with studies in computer science, work as a developer, participation in startups, CTO/CIO roles, and as an entrepreneur — founder of multiple software consulting practices focused on cloud computing. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Michigan. 


25. Bob Youakim
Company: Passport

Bob Youakim is the Co-Founder and CEO of Passport, a nine-year-old company that provides a mobile-first software platform used by cities, universities and private operators. Bob started Passport to help public and private agencies drive efficiency and obtain value from the money spent trying to improve life in cities. Its products are used by nearly 1,000 clients and 5,000+ locations worldwide, processing over $1 billion in mobility payments for parking and transit. 

The company is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Grotech Ventures, MK Capital, and Relevance Capital.  Before Passport, Bob held various leadership roles in business development, finance and operations, and was a successful VP in investment banking. He received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.S. degree from the University of Illinois. He is also a father of four, and enjoys flying planes.

MASTERS OF SCALE (CONT'D)

11. Aneel Bhusri
Company: Workday

Aneel Bhusri is the Co-Founder and CEO of Workday, an on-demand financial management and human capital management software vendor. He also is a member of the company’s board of directors, and served as chairman of the board from 2012 to 2014. Aneel has more than two decades of experience in the enterprise software space. The $48.5 billion company, formed in 2005 after Oracle’s hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, posted revenues up more than 36% to $2.1 billion for the full year 2018. 

Aneel is also an advisory partner at leading software venture firm Greylock Partners, which he first worked with in 1999, and a member of the board of directors at semiconductor company Intel, among other companies. Before Workday, Aneel held various management roles at companies including PeopleSoft, where he was Senior VP for Product Strategy, Business Development and Marketing, and Vice Chairman of the board. He holds an MBA from Stanford, where he serves on the Board of Trustees, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics from Brown University. 

12. Alex Shootman
Company: Workfront

Alex Shootman is the President and CEO of Workfront, a work management software provider. From its founding in 2001 under the name AtTask, the company’s mission has been to automate and accelerate the complete lifecycle of work. Alex has served as CEO of Workfront since 2016 and brings to the company over 25 years of experience in all areas of revenue and profit generation for tech companies. 

Before Workfront, Alex held the position of President at Apptio. His other roles include President of Eloqua, where he helped lead the company to its IPO and later acquisition by Oracle. Alex has also held executive-level positions at companies including Vignette, TeleTech, and BMC Software.  He began his career at IBM, where he rose through the organization over a twelve year period eventually landing the role of Director Industry Solutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.  Alex is a father of four, an avid road cyclist and runner, and a published author.


13. Eric Yuan
Company: Zoom

Eric Yuan is the Founder and CEO of cloud-based business communications platform Zoom Video Communications. Yuan started Zoom in 2011 after helping build Webex as one of the founding engineers and its VP of engineering.  Over a ten year period in the early 2000s, Eric helped grow Webex from 10 engineers to more than 800 wordwide.  The company was acquired by networking giant Cisco Systems in 2007 in a deal worth $3.2 billion.

When Eric emigrated from China over two decades ago, he barely spoke English. After leading Zoom, known for its remote conferencing services, to its IPO, Yuan now has a net worth in the billions. In 2018, he was named the #1 CEO of a big company by Glassdoor, with a 99% approval rating from employees, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California for the software category. Eric is a named inventor on 11 issued and 20 pending patents in real time collaboration. He earned a certification from the Stanford University’s Executive Program.


14. Ryan Smith
Company: Qualtrics

Ryan Smith is the CEO and Co-Founder of Qualtrics, an experience management software provider headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle, Washington. The company serves over 10,000 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools.  Ryan started the customer survey software company with his brother Jared out of their parents’ basement in Utah after their father, who had the initial idea for the project, was diagnosed with cancer.

After a decade of declining venture money and reportedly denying a $500 million bid for the company, Qualtrics agreed to deals with Accel and Sequoia. In 2018, the family sold Qualtrics to SAP for $8 billion just before its planned IPO. Ryan is the father of five children and Co-Founder and Board Member of 5 For The Fight Foundation, a global campaign inviting everyone to donate $5 to cancer research in honor of someone who has been touched by the disease. He earned a business degree from Brigham Young University. 


15. Simon Biddiscombe
Company: MobileIron

Simon Biddiscombe is the President and CEO of MobileIron, a software company specializing in security for mobile devices, apps, and cloud services including enterprise mobility management and mobile device management. The company’s Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution secures over 19,000 organizations.  At the helm of MobileIron, Simon leads overall business strategy, bringing decades of experience in management and financial experience to the company.

Previously, Simon was Interim CFO at ServiceSource International. Other prior roles include CEO, CFO and Senior VP at QLogic Corp, where he spent five years, as well as five years as CFO at Mindspeed Technologies, previously Conexant. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked for nine years eventually rising to Senior Manager. He has a BA in Business Studies from the University of Glamorgan and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.


16. Olivier Pomel
Company: Datadog

Olivier Pomel is the CEO and Co-Founder of Datadog, a monitoring service for cloud-scale applications. The company was founded in 2010 and provides monitoring of servers, databases, tools, and services through a SaaS-based data analytics platform. Under his leadership, Datadog, which now has over 1,000 employees, has grown internationally and has taken over various competitors, most recently app testing company Madumbo in February 2019. 

Olivier previously served as VP of Technology at Wireless Generation, where he spent eight years building and leading a team of close to 100 developers. The company, which built data systems for K-12 teachers, was acquired by News Corp in 2010. Olivier also held software engineering roles at companies including Silicongo, Neomeo, and IBM Research. He studied at the Ecole Centrale Paris, where he received his MS, CS in 1999. Olivier is an original author of the VLC media player. 


17. Jay Larson
Company: Optimizely

Jay Larson is the CEO and interim Head of Sales at Optimizely, a testing platform that helps businesses experiment with new features inside their websites and apps. The company serves 40% of the leading interbrand companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, Ebay, and Gap. Since Jay came on board, Optimizely has seen a 30% growth in enterprise customers and a significant boost to its annual recurring revenue. In June, the decade-old software company raised $50 million in a Series D round to build out its product, team and global reach. 

Before joining Optimizely in 2017, Jay was the CEO at Birst, as well as an executive at Mercury Interactive, SAP Success Factors, Oracle and Jive Software. He brings to the leading digital experience optimization company three decades of experience in the software industry. Jay received a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of California Los Angeles.


18. Sunny Gupta
Company: Apptio

Sunny Gupta is the Co-Founder and CEO of Apptio, a next generation enterprise SaaS company focused on helping CIOs manage the business of technology. Under his leadership, the analytics-based business had its IPO in September 2016, and was later taken private in January 2019, when Apptio entered an agreement to be acquired by Vista Equity Partners in a deal worth approximately $2 billion. 

Sunny’s career spans over two decades in enterprise software. He has held a variety of management roles at large companies and successful startups, including his most recent role as EVP Products for Opsware, which was acquired by HP for $1.6 billion. Sunny was also head of the Java Performance Management product group for Mercury Interactive, where he grew the business over triple digits to become one of the leading vendors in the market. The serial entrepreneur has held senior positions at IBM, Easel Corporation, Vigor Technology, Rational Software, and Performant. Sunny holds a bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina. 


19. Michael Praeger
Company: AvidXchange

Michael Praeger is the Co-Founder and CEO of AvidXchange, the largest B2B payment network in the US, which serves more than 5,500 customers and 400,000 suppliers nationwide. After founding the company in 2000, Michael led AvidXchange to secure the title of Global Unicorn by CB Insights for three consecutive years, with a $1 billion plus valuation.  His previous titles include Co-Founder of technology career site PlanetResume.com and Co-Founder and CEO of InfoLink Partners, a tax automation software company.

Earlier in his career, Michael was an Associate with Boston-based growth equity firm Summit Partners. The North Carolinian is currently active in the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and serves on the advisory board of the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA), and is a board member of Charlotte City Center Partners, Kare Partners and E2D. Michael received a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.  Alongside his work at AvidXChange, he is a thought leader, a speaker, and a contributor to various publications.


20. Thomas Hogan
Company: Kony

Thomas Hogan is the Chairman and CEO of Kony, a market-leading company focused on mobile applications for enterprises. He brings to the software company 35 years of experience in executive posts in the technology industry. Before joining Kony in March 2014, Tom was Executive VP of Software at HP, responsible for overseeing sales, marketing, engineering, product development, operations and technical support.

His other roles include President and CEO of enterprise content management provider Vignette, and leadership positions at Siebel Software, where he helped increase revenues four-fold, and IBM, where he started his career eventually rising to Vice President over a seventeen year period. Tom is also the founder and Chairman of SmartLeisure.com, a trusted online source for customers in the shared-ownership economy. He holds a master’s degree in management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering from the University of Illinois. 


21. Matthew Prince
Company: Cloudflare

Matthew Prince is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cloudflare, a leading Internet security, performance, and reliability company that is on a mission to help build a better Internet. The company launched in 2010 and now runs one of the world's largest networks. Matthew is a serial entrepreneur who started writing computer programs at the age of seven. After studying Computer Science and Literature in college, Matthew earned a law degree and spent just one day working as an attorney before joining a tech startup in Chicago.

Matthew co-founded Unspam Technologies, where he still serves as Chairman. He has since been an adjunct professor of law at the John Marshall Law School, and co-creator of open source community Project Honey Pot.  Matthew made it on the San Francisco Business Times’ 40 under 40 list, and under his leadership, Cloudflare won the title of most innovative internet and network company by the Wall Street Journal. The tech CEO is a speaker, author, and ski instructor, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a JD from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College.


22. Amir Orad
Company: Sisense

Amir Orad is the CEO of Sisense, a business intelligence and analytics software company. The New York-based firm has offices around the world including in Tel Aviv, London, Melbourne and Tokyo. In 2015, Sisense appointed the industry vet and serial entrepreneur to lead its next stage of growth. Over the past three years Amir has grown Sisense several times over to make it one of the fastest rising companies in the analytics and BI space. 

Amir previously was CEO at NICE Actimize, a financial crime analytics leader. Under his leadership, the company grew over six fold to revenue of nearly $200 million. He has also served as co-founder and EVP Product/CMO of cyber analytics provider Cyota, which was acquired by RSA Security, where he became VP of Marketing. Alongside his work at Sisense, Amir is a big data analytics thought leader, and he is credited as an inventor on several risk and analytics related patents. He holds a bachelor’s in Computer Science and Management from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Columbia University. 


23. Joshua Reeves
Company: Gusto

Joshua Reeves is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gusto. Previously ZenPayRoll, Gusto helps over 100,000 businesses nationwide manage and simplify payroll, human resources and employee benefits. The cloud-based software company was founded in 2011 in San Francisco, CA, and also has offices in New York and Denver. In July, its latest round of funding landed it a $3.8 billion private valuation. Its backers include Fidelity, Generation Investment Management, CapitalG and General Catalyst.

The serial entrepreneur was also the CEO and Co-Founder of Unwrap, which created the Buzzeo social application development platform and was acquired by Context Optional. At Context Optional, Joshua served as a strategist. The CEO says one of his key roles is to be of service and to empower others to do great work. He has championed a “shoes off” policy at the multi-billion dollar enterprise, which offers generous benefits and a “homey” work environment. Joshua has a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. 


24. Frank Bien
Company: Looker

Frank Bien is the CEO of Looker, a provider of data analytics software, which aims to help companies improve their business operations. Under his leadership, the company has grown its customer base to over 17,000, with clients including Sony, Amazon, The Economist, IBM, Spotify and Kickstarter, and has offices around the world.  Frank brings to Looker more than two decades of experience growing leading technology companies in the fields of business intelligence, big data, analytics, and data storage.

Before joining Looker in 2013, Frank held previous roles including SVP of Strategy for storage vendor Virsto, which was acquired by VMware, and VP of Strategic Alliances at big data company Greenplum, which was taken over by EMC. He held other leadership positions at organizations including Sensage, Vignette/OpenText, Dell and the Federal Reserve. Frank holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University at Long Beach.  


25. Ara Mahdessian
Company: ServiceTitan

Ara Mahdessian is the Co-Founder and CEO of ServiceTitan, a software provider for companies in the residential service industry. Ara started the business with Vahe Kuzoyan, both Armenians whose families had fled their countries and immigrated to Southern California. Ara and Vahe watched their fathers, who built successful building and plumbing companies, struggle with the logistics of running a growing service business. ServiceTitan now helps over 2,500 home and service contractors manage their businesses, offering invoicing, scheduling, marketing, and more, in a mobile, cloud-based platform. 

Since founding ServiceTitan in 2013, Ara has led the company through a series of funding rounds, the latest which landed it a valuation of $1.65 billion. The company has offices around the world, including Armenia, and grew from about 500 employees to nearly 1,000 in 2018. Ara holds a bachelor’s of Management Science and Computer Science from Stanford University. 


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