VELL BLOG

Tech companies have increasingly been feeling the investor pressure to refresh their board of directors. Several companies are focusing on diversity and adding female directors. Here we have compiled the female board appointments in tech from June 10 to September 16, 2017.

Recent Appointments 

Accenture Appoints Estee Lauder’s CFO Tracey T. Travis, 55, as Board Member Tracey T. Travis

PayPal appoints media exec and President, BBC Worldwide Ann Sarnoff, 55, to its Board of Directors

Intuit appointed Deborah (Deb) Liu, leader of Facebook's developer and commerce businesses, to its board

Paychex’s board has appointed most recent EVP & CMO of FireEye Kara Wilson, 47, to board. Wilson is now CMO at Rubrik

September 4, 2017 

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter. We endeavour to catalogue all open technology CEO roles (as of 8/31/2017)  and latest appointments for the month of August 2017. 

Do let us know if you see any that we are missing! We love to find why we missed one and we will reverse engineer what sources we could have found.... 

The average length of time the searches are open is3.6 months, up from 2.97 months earlier this year. There is little variance across geographies.

This month's trends.... 

By the numbers, overall:

• Total Open CEO Roles: 41
• New CEO Appointments: 37 CEOs (2 women or 5%, 35 men)

Uber Selects Expedia Chief Dara Khosrowshahi for CEO Role Replacing Travis Kalanick

Uber Technologies voted to appoint Expedia’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, 48, as its new CEO, after an extensive executive search following Travis Kalanick resignation in late June this year.Dara Khosrowshahi

Khosrowshahi has been the CEO and President at Expedia since 2005. He has served as a member of Expedia’s Board since completion of Expedia’s spin-off from IAC/InterActiveCorp in August 2015. Immediately prior to the IAC/Expedia spin-off, he was CEO of IAC Travel.  Before that, he had held a series of executive roles at IAC, including EVP and CFO, as EVP of Operations and Strategic Planning, and President of USA Networks Interactive. Prior to joining IAC in 1998, Khosrowshahi worked at Allen & Company from 1991 to 1998.

Most important hiring and departures from June 11 to August 25, 2017

Several technology vendors announced changes to their board of directors in the said time period. We have tried to capture the most important and interesting ones, categorizing them under few noticeable patterns. 

Chairman Changes

• Cerner Announces New Chairman after Sudden Demise of Chair/CEO Neal Patterson. Jason ChenCerner announced that Neal Patterson, chairman and CEO, passed away on July 9, 2017, at 68 years of age, due to unexpected complications that arose after a recent recurrence of a previously disclosed cancer. Cerner Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of the Board Cliff Illig, 66, has been named chairman and interim CEO.
• IDT Appoints Board Member Ken Kannappan as Chairman. Kannappan has served on IDT's Board since January 2015, after previously serving in the role of IDT Board Chairman from 2000 to 2008. John Schofield has resigned as Chairman in anticipation of his upcoming retirement. 
• Acer Combines Chair-CEO Roles. Jason Chen was named Chairman in addition to his continuing role as CEO. George Huang steps down from the chairmanship but remains on the Board. Chen joined Acer in January 2014 as Corporate President and CEO.

August 21, 2017

Welcome to the Vell Leadership Update 47th monthly edition, for the 31 days ending August 15, 2017.

We’ve seen a lot of shakeups this past month, as 87 new heads of technology have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs. Quite a few new tech executive roles have opened up, as well.

Following is an overview of this month’s trends....  

Infosys’ CEO Vishal Sikka Steps Down; Interim CEO AppointedVishal Sikka

Vishal Sikka, 50, has resigned as the MD and CEO of Infosys over differences with the founders on governance issues. Sikka will now be the Executive Vice-Chairman of the company. He joined Infosys in June 2014. He was the first CTO at SAP before joining Infosys. He is credited with accelerating SAP’s development processes, transforming its innovation culture and leading several successful product co-creation initiatives with clients.

The struggle between Infosys and its founders began in February this year after founder and former chairman Narayana Murthy accused the company of corporate governance lapses.

In the past couple of months, there are several companies that have multiple announcements, which we cover below. Some of the patterns:

• Multiple heads of India; lots of regional appointments 
• Chief People Officers or senior HR leaders with Diversity as a primary domain and Ann Sarnoff
• Many analytics appointments

Note: We covered Uber Technology Changes in a separate blog post as Uber itself has had too many changes

Board Announcements (one announcement)

• Alphabet Appoints Google Chief Sundar Pichai, 45, to its Board.
• Texas Instruments Appointed its COO Brian T. Crutcher, 44, to Board.
• PayPal Appoints Media Exec and President, BBC Worldwide Ann Sarnoff, 55, to its Board of Directors.

August 8, 2017 

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter. We endeavour to catalogue all open technology CEO roles (as of 7/31/2017)  and latest appointments for the month of July 2017. 

IMPORTANT NOTE!  

THREE TWEAKS TO THE SET OF COMPANIES 

#1 - Including more smaller companies, especially if they are a trend or just we deem cool.

#2 - Including more North American companies that some of you may or may not consider "tech" but are definitely getting a big footprint in digital  / tech.  

#3 -  Increasing the size cut-off for companies that are not in North America/ EMEA and don't have a specific interesting trend of coolness factor. 

The average length of time the searches are open is 2.97 months, down from 3.8 months earlier this year. There is little variance across geographies.

Microsoft Announces Departure of Jim Dubois as CIO; Appoints New President in Russia Jim DuBois

Microsoft CIO Jim DuBois is leaving the company. DuBois is a more than 20-year Microsoft veteran who became the company's interim CIO in 2013 and permanent CIO the following year. He went on sabbatical earlier 2017.

Microsoft appointed T. Bochenek as new Microsoft President in Russia. Now he keeps the COO position at Microsoft in Russia.

July 18, 2017

Welcome to the Vell Leadership Update 46th monthly edition, for the 30 days ending July 14, 2017.

We’ve seen a lot of shakeups this past month, as 130 new heads of technology have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs. Quite a few new tech executive roles have opened up, as well.

CHANGED IN THIS EDITION

We have included a broader number of titles (like in the past month) - and data,  analytics, and Chief Digital Officers roles that are tech related only (not roles that are focused on other functional roles, e.g. marketing). 

Following is an overview of this month’s trends....  

July 7, 2017 

BAE Systems Names Former Senator to its Board of DirectorsKelly Ayotte

BAE Systems announced that former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte, 49, has been appointed to its board of directors for a three-year term. From 2011 until January of this year, former Sen. Ayotte worked across party lines in Congress on numerous domestic and foreign policy issues. She served on several Senate committees, chairing the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security. Previously, from 2004 to 2009, she was the first female to serve as New Hampshire’s attorney general, appointed by both Republican and Democratic governors.

Rockwell Automation Appoints TSYS CIO as Newest Board Member Patricia Watson

Rockwell Automation announced that Patricia Watson, 50, has been elected to the company’s board of directors. Watson is senior EVP and CIO at Total System Services (TSYS). She currently serves as a board director for Texas Capital Bancshares.

Salesforce Appoints Chief Communications Officer from Starbucks Corey duBrowa

Salesforce announced that Corey duBrowa will join the company as EVP and Chief Communications Officer. Most recently duBrowa served as SVP, Global Communications for Starbucks. During his seven-year tenure, he led the development and execution of global communications strategies to enhance and protect the Starbucks brand and corporate reputation as it grew from forty countries to seventy-five.

June 20, 2017

Welcome to the Vell Leadership Update 46th monthly edition, for the 30 days ending June 14, 2017.

We’ve seen a lot of shakeups this past month, as 125 new heads of technology have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs. Quite a few new tech executive roles have opened up, as well.

A little bit of Vell news: we are announcing our new website... it has been a long time coming! Do check it out....  www.vell.com. Feedback is greatly appreciated. First of each error found will get a Vell trinket!

Travis KalanickUber Technologies’ CEO Travis Kalanick, 40, has stepped down from his role. He will continue to serve on the board of directors.  Five of the major shareholders in the company – Benchmark Capital, Fidelity, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital and Menlo Ventures, demanded the CEO’s resignation. 

Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009 and led it to be the largest U.S. ride-hailing service and among the biggest globally. Prior to Uber, he co-founded Red Swoosh in 2001 that specialized in file-sharing technology and managed to sell it to Akamai Technologies for nearly $19 million in 2007. Before Red Swoosh, he co-founded Scour with his UCLA batch mates in 1998 which offered an Internet search engine and file-sharing services.

Uber Technologies’ month's long investigation into its own culture has now extended into its most senior ranks.  

The Holder Investigation Findings. On Tuesday morning (June 13th, 2017), former US Attorney General, Eric Holder and his law firm issued a report with 13 recommendations, as published by the New York Times Link to Eric Holder's Report Recommendations by NYT). The recommendations included transferring some of the CEO’s responsibilities to the COO and appointing an independent Chairman.  

Uber Technologies’ CEO Travis Kalanick, 40, has stepped down from his role. He will continue to serve on the board of directors.  Five of the major shareholders in the company – Benchmark Capital, Fidelity, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital and Menlo Ventures, demanded the CEO’s resignation. 

FleetCor Welcomes Well-Known Non-Profit CEO to BoardHala Moddelmog

FleetCor Technologies appointed Hala Moddelmog to its Board of Directors. An accomplished operating executive and non-profit CEO, Moddelmog has served in President and CEO roles for more than 20 years. Moddelmog served as President of Arby’s Restaurant Group, held the CEO position with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and is currently the first female CEO of the metro Atlanta Chamber.

TCS Independent Director Retires from Board 

Tata Consultancy Services said independent director Vijay Kelkar has stepped down from the board upon reaching the retirement age set by the IT services company. Kelkar, a Padma Vibhushan award winner, is an Indian economist and academician. He has been on the board of TCS since 2010. 

Microsoft Appoints New VP for Its Asia Pacific Operations

Microsoft appointed Andrea Della Mattea as its new VP of its Asia Pacific operations. Andrea Della Mattea joins Microsoft from Insight Enterprises. As the new VP of the Asia Pacific region, Della Mattea will lead Microsoft's business across the region, including over 2,000 employees and more than 11,000 Microsoft certified partners.