VELL BLOG

April 17th, 2018

Welcome to the 55th Edition of the Vell Leadership Update for the 31 days ending April 15, 2018. 

• 121 new technology leaders have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs.
• 8 % of these roles were filled by women
• The majority of these roles are filled with people hired externally (77%)
• There are 44 open roles

April 3, 2018

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter.

We endeavor to catalog all open technology CEO roles (as of 3/31/2018) and latest appointments for the month of March 2018.  

The average length of time the searches are open is 4.3 months, down from 5.2 last month. There is little variance across geographies. 

Twitter’s Chief Information Security Officer to Leave after Three Years In Role

Twitter’s CISO Michael Coates steps down from his role to launch his own security startup. Coates joined the company in January 2015. He had joined from Shape Security, where he was the Director of Product Security. Earlier in his career, he held roles at Mozilla, Aspect Security and Motorola.

March 18th, 2018

Welcome to the 53rd Edition of the Vell Leadership Update for the 31 days ending February 17, 2018.

• 84 new technology leaders have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs. 
• 14 % of these roles were filled by women
• The majority of these roles are filled with people hired externally (71%)
• There are 41 open roles 

March 1, 2018 

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter.

We endeavor to catalog all open technology CEO roles (as of 2/28/2018) and latest appointments for the month of February 2018.   

The average length of time the searches are open is 5.2 months, up from 4.4 months last month. There is little variance across geographies

Vell Executive Search captures the most recent board appointments in tech, from October 29, 2017 to February 8, 2018.

Tech Giants

Alphabet Names Board Veteran as Chairman to Succeed Schmidt. Alphabet appointed John L. Hennessy, 65, former President of Stanford University, to serve as Executive Chair of Alphabet’s Board. Hennessy has served on the Board since April 2004 and Lead Independent Director since April 2007. Eric Schmidt, 62, becomes technical advisor to the company while continuing to serve on its board. Alphabet said that Canadian-born Shirley M. Tilghman, 71, 19th President of Princeton University, also retired from the board effective Feb. 15, 2018.

February 20th, 2018

Welcome to the 53rd Edition of the Vell Leadership Update for the 31 days ending February 17, 2018.

We’ve seen a lot of shake-ups, as 109 new technology leaders have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs. 

February 1, 2018

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter.

We endeavor to catalog all open technology CEO roles (as of 1/31/2018) and latest appointments for the month of January 2018.  

The average length of time the searches are open is 4 months, up from 4.4 last month. There is little variance across geographies. 

Vell Executive Search captures the most recent female board appointments in tech, from November 23, 2017 to January 28, 2018.

Tech Giants Welcoming Women on Board

Microsoft Elects Former US Secretary of Commerce as Newest Board Member. Entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist and former United States Secretary of Commerce Penny S. Pritzker, JD, 58, joins as director of Microsoft.

Broadcom Appoints Former Benchmark Electronics CEO as Independent Director. Broadcom appointed Ms. Gayla J. Delly, 57, as an independent director of the company. Ms. Delly served as CEO of Benchmark Electronics.

Happy Holidays!!! and all the best for 2018!!

Welcome to the 52nd Edition of the Vell Leadership Update for the 31 days ending January15, 2018. 

We’ve seen a lot of shake-ups, as 65 new technology leaders have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs.

Much activity happened in the past three months or so in the Giant Tech Companies. We have categorized these in roughly three categories: 

1. Multiple complex changes, due to either massive restructurings, promotions from within, activist investors or stock troubles;
2. Board and CEO changes or other Significant changes
3. Changes by functional area: Presidents/COO/GMs, Sales, Marketing , Product and CFOs.

January 3rd, 2018 

Happy New Year 2018!

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter.

We endeavor to catalog all open technology CEO roles (as of 12/31/2017) and latest appointments for the month of December 2017.  

The average length of time the searches are open is 4 months, up from 3.9 months earlier this year. There is little variance across geographies. 

Happy Holidays!!! and all the best for 2018!!

Welcome to the 51st Edition of the Vell Leadership Update for the 29 days ending December 15, 2017. 

We’ve seen a lot of shake-ups, as 64 new technology leaders have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs.

CVS Health CIO Stephen Gold Steps Down
CVS Health's CIO and EVP of Technology & Operations Innovation, Stephen J. Gold, 58, resigned to "pursue professional opportunities outside of CVS Health". The resignation was not related to CVS’ recent $69 billion acquisition of Aetna. Gold joined CVS in 2012 as SVP & CIO. 

Gold was previously SVP and CIO for Avaya, guiding all aspects of the company’s technology strategy, as well as leading IT business operations and systems globally. 

Prior to joining Avaya, Gold was the EVP, CIO and Corporate CTO for GSI Commerce. 

December 16th, 2017

Welcome to our Software Industry Newsletter.

In this newsletter, we report on Software Board & Exec  Leadership Moves from September 24th to December 12th, 2017. They are roughly organized by size.

Comments Welcomed and Appreciated! 

Dora Vell 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.* 617-530-1260 * www.vell.com

Microsoft Elects Former US Secretary of Commerce as Newest Board Member. Entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist and former United States Secretary of Commerce Penny S. Pritzker, 58, joins as director of Microsoft.

SAP Names COO Christian Klein, 37, to Executive Board to Lead Global Business Operations. 

Adobe Promotes Scott Belsky, 37, to Product Chief and EVP, Creative Cloud. Scott Belsky is the former VP of Products at Adobe, leading the Creative Cloud mobile product strategy.

December 5th, 2017 

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter.

We endeavor to catalog all open technology CEO roles (as of 11/30/2017) and latest appointments for the month of November 2017.  

The average length of time the searches are open is 3.9 months, down from 4.4 months earlier this year. There is little variance across geographies.

In This Edition 

• Want a  Tech Board Seat? A Vell Study Reveals Backgrounds in Demand
• Summary Trends & Stats -  Open Tech CEO Roles & Latest Appointments
• Open CEO Roles as of November 30th, 2017
• Tech CEOs Appointed in November 2017
• Vell Research & Insights Summary
• Featured Vell Placements

Vell Executive Search captures the most recent female board appointments in tech, from September 17 to November 22, 2017.

Tech Giants Welcoming Women on Board

eBay appoints Adriane Brown and Diana Farrell to its Board - Ms. Brown, 59, is former CEO, Honeywell Transportation Systems. Ms. Farrell, 59, is the Founding President and CEO at JPMorgan Chase Institute, a global think tank and former McKinsey.

Fidelity National Information Services Appoints Louise M. Parent, 67, as Director - A former EVP and general counsel of AmEx, Parent has more than 35 years of experience in the financial industry. Parent retired from American Express in 2013.

Square Announces Ai Expert Anna Patterson, 52, as Newest Board Member - Patterson is the Founder and Managing Partner at Gradient Ventures, google’s AI focused venture fund.  Patterson is also VP of Engineering at Google and most recently helped to integrate AI into products across Google.

November 28, 2017

Welcome to the 50th Edition of the Vell Leadership Update for the 24 days ending November 16, 2017.  

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! 

*And for Canadians, hope you enjoyed the relative quiet  during the US Thanksgiving! 

We’ve seen a lot of shake-ups, as 50 new technology leaders have stepped up, including new CTOs, CIOs, tech & ops execs and CISOs. 

November 6th, 2017 

Welcome to our Technology CEO Transitions Newsletter.

We endeavor to catalog all open technology CEO roles (as of 10/31/2017) and latest appointments for the month of October 2017.  

The average length of time the searches are open is 4.4 months, up from 4.09 months earlier this year. There is little variance across geographies.

This month's trends....  

By the numbers, overall:

• Total Open CEO Roles:  46   
• New CEO Appointments: 66 CEOs (8 women or 12%, 58 men).

What were the important tech board changes in the most recent couple of months? This leadership report covers tech board changes from 8/26 to 10/29 in 2017.  

We have three categories, roughly organized by company size. Industries/ categories per CapIQ classifications.

• The Giants ($100b+ market cap): Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, Cisco
• The Software Companies: Paypal, Salesforce, Intuit, eBay, RedHat, ServiceNow, Twitter, Square, Citrix, Splunk, Fortinet, FireEye and any others.
• Others (Telecom, Hardware, Services, Payments): HP, Inc., Infosys, Ericsson, TSYS, Micro-Semi, TSYS, FLIR, Cypress Semi., Cree, Convergys, Blackhawk Networks, Boingo, ScanSource and others.

Some basic stats:

19.7% of the new board seats went to women;
15.6% of the board seats removed were women held seats.