Candidate Moves: January 2024
The turn of the year usually signals some interesting candidate moves within the market, and this year has been no different;
Software
Private equity backed ERP software provider IFS promotes Mark Moffat to Chief Executive Officer from Chief Customer Officer. Prior to joining IFS, Moffat was a CTO of PwC UK & EMEA. IFS is backed by PE investors including TA Associates, Hg, and EQT.
Sam Altman returns as CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Altman had been the CEO since 2019. Prior to ChatGPT, Altman was President of Y Combinator.
IT Services firm Atos has appointed Yves Bernaert as its new CEO. Yves was previously CEO of Accenture Technology.
AI software company Cloudera has appointed Charles Sansbury as its new CEO. Most recently he was CEO of ASG Technologies from 2015 until its 2021 sale to Rocket Software.
Product Lifecycle Management software company PTC has announced that Neil Barua will be its new CEO from February 2024. Barua was previously President of PTC’s Service Lifecycle Management business.
Sean O’Neill becomes Chief Product & Technology Officer at Syncron, a company providing supply chain and pricing optimization solutions for clients in industries such as automotive, construction, mining, agriculture and industrial equipment. O’Neill is the former Chief Product Officer of the KKR-backed GfK, who recently merged with NielsenIQ.
Cloud based email security provider Mimecast has appointed Marc van Zadelhoff as its new CEO. He was previously CEO of Devo Technology.
IRIS Software Group, a software provider of accountancy, payroll, HR and education solutions, has announced the appointment of Alys Reynders as Chief Marketing Officer. Reynders is a former Chief Marketing Officer of D2L, an E-learning platform provider.
Nicola Marlin becomes Chief Product Officer at Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime data and analytics software provider, which is backed by the PE firm Montagu. Marlin was Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Citeline before taking up her new position.
Database software company MongoDB appoints Jim Scharf as its new Chief Technology Officer. Previously Scharf was Vice President, AWS Identity at Amazon.
French fintech firm Sopra Banking Software (SBS) has appointed Tobias Unger as its new Chief Operating Officer. Over the last two decades, he has held senior positions at banks and financial services firms including Merrill Lynch, UBS Investment Bank and Falcon Private Bank, as well as with technology firms such as Switzerland-based core banking software provider Avaloq.
Onfido, an identity verification software company backed by Softbank and TPG, has appointed Daniel Keller as CTO. Keller was previously CEO of Visable Labs.
Moses Velasco becomes Senior Vice President Product Management at Smartly.io, a company creating AI-powered advertising platform. Velasco was previously VP Products FMCG, Media & Retail for the KKR-backed GfK.
Quadient, a software provider of business process automation and customer experience management, appoints Petra Wolf as Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining Quadient, Petra held Head of Worldwide SMB Marketing at Amazon Web Services.
Financial operations management software company BlackLine appoints Emily Campbell as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Most recently, Campbell held the position of Chief Marketing Officer at Infinite Electronics, an electronic components supplier.
WorkForce Software, a workforce management solution provider for large enterprises, appoints Bill Shaheen as Chief Revenue Officer and promoted Nicole Neumarker to Chief Operating Officer. Shaheen is a former board member of the company and held executive positions at companies like Oracle. Neumarker is a former Chief Technology Officer of the company.
Internet
Kevin Cornils joins Beauty Pie as Chief Executive Officer, an online beauty membership club selling luxury makeup and skincare products, from Peloton Interactive, where he served as Chief Commercial Officer.
Online hair and beauty marketplace Treatwell has appointed Claire Davenport as CEO. Davenport was previously CEO of Notonthehighstreet.com.
Pockit, a digital bank for unbanked and low income consumers, has appointed Gareth Griffith as COO. Griffith was previously COO of digital mortgage provider Habito.
Payments network Boku has appointed Stuart Neal as its new CEO. Neal was previously with Twilio, a provider of software for customer engagement.
Twilio,the customer engagement platform that drives real-time, personalized experiences for today’s leading brands, today announced that Khozema Shipchandler, formerly President of Twilio Communications, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and will join the company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.
Fitness app Strava has appointed Michael Martin as CEO. Martin was previously GM for YouTube Shopping.
John Felton has been named as the new CFO for Amazon Web Services (AWS). Felton has spent the last nineteen years working with Amazon.
PayPal appoints Archie Deskus as Chief Technology Officer and Jamie Miller as Chief Financial Officer. Deskus joined PayPal in 2022 as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Miller joined PayPal from EY where she served as Global Chief Financial Officer.
Credit score and reporting company ClearScore has appointed Brian Cole as its new Chief Financial Officer. Cole previously served as Head of Product North America at Visa and Chief Executive of Barclaycard.
Peloton, best known for their fitness equipment and digital classes, appoints Nick Caldwell as Chief Product Officer. Caldwell was a General Manager of Twitter until 2022.
Anat Sneh-Matalon is appointed as Chief Marketing Officer at Doctify, who provide reviews of healthcare professionals. Sneh-Matalon was previously Chief Marketing Officer at fintech company WorldRemit.
Payments network Volt has appointed Irina Chuchkina as CMO. Previously she was CMO of Thunes.
Games
Jim Whitehurst becomes Unity’s new CEO. Whitehurst has held President and CEO positions at Red Hat and IBM prior to joining Unity. Unity is one of the most popular platforms for building computer games.
Merge Mansion developer Metacore appoints Sérgio Laranjeira as its new Chief Technology Officer, and the first key hire at the company’s new Berlin studio. Laranjeira was Senior Director of Engineering at Delivery Hero most recently.
Mobile game developer Hutch has appointed Peter Hansen-Chambers as co-CEO to work alongside Shaun Rutland. Hansen-Chambers was previously CFO and CRO.
Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, appoints Marc Merrill as Chief Product Officer. Merrill is a co-founder of the business and has been with the company since 2006.
Amsterdam-based developer and publisher My.Games appoints Elena Grigorian as its new Chief Executive Officer. Grigorian is promoted from Chief Strategy Officer.
Danish game developer and publisher Flashbulb Games hires Pim Holfve as its Chief Executive Officer. Holfve previously served as Chief Executive Officer at Avalanche Studios.
Call of Duty publisher Activision appoints Natalya Tatarchuk as its Chief Technology Officer. Prior to this role, Tatarchuk held Chief Architect, VP, Wētā Tools at Unity.
Mobile casino games developer and publisher Gaming Realms appoints Suki Sandhu as its Chief Product Officer. Sandhu was most recently Product Director at Inspired Entertainment.
Shuji Utsumi has been named as CEO of Sega America and Europe. Utsumi has been with Sega since 1996.
Veronique Lallier has been appointed as IO Interactive’s Chief Development Officer. Lallier previously worked at Warner Bros. Entertainment as Vice President of Digital Publishing International.
Egil Strunke has been hired as Starbreeze’s new Chief Strategy Officer. Strunke was previously COO for Embracer Group.
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