Displaying items by tag: CEO

Tenable, the exposure management company, today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Steve Vintz and Mark Thurmond as co-Chief Executive Officers on a permanent basis. Following an extensive search process that considered both internal and external candidates, the Board concluded that Vintz and Thurmond are best positioned to move the company forward. The decision reflects the Board’s confidence in the strength of their leadership following a successful interim period during which they drove significant operational and strategic momentum. The Board also intends to appoint Vintz and Thurmond to the Board immediately following the company’s annual shareholder meeting to be held on May 14, 2025.

Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading cybersecurity company providing complete protection against complex threats for all sized businesses, announced the appointment of Ketan Tailor as Chief Customer Officer. With more than 20 years of leadership experience, Tailor joins Barracuda at a pivotal time as it elevates customer experience initiatives amidst accelerating growth of its cybersecurity platform.

MaxMine, a technology and services solution for open-pit mine sites, has appointed Shaun Mitchell as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Rohit Selvaratnam as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Hybrid platform for data, analytics, and AI provider Australia and New Zealand Cloudera has announced the appointment of Leo Brunnick as Chief Product Officer.

Comprehensive platform powers multi-agent systems, enhances customer experiences, boosts productivity, and automates complex business processes with flexible AI autonomy

GUEST OPINION:  With AI reshaping industries at unprecedented rates, findings from the 2024 CISCO Live Report suggest Australian companies are trailing, with only four percent ready to leverage the technology, a decline from the previous year.

Across APAC use cases for AI and cloud adoption are countless including enhancing cybersecurity through to transforming network resiliency, but there’s much more to be leveraged here. 

For example as  companies continue facing fast-paced changes to customer experience needs, including new demands for seamless digital experiences, real-time support and hyper-personalisation – sophisticated AI-driven capabilities becomes critical.

Some of Australia’s largest companies are betting big on AI too, including Telstra’s recent $700m AI investment with Accenture. 

Yet many businesses struggle to translate AI investment into tangible business value. AI projects often remain siloed, security concerns slow adoption, and enterprises lack the AI-ready infrastructure needed to scale.

But the remit is clear: get AI ready or risk falling behind. 

This poses questions company executives need to be asking, but first let’s get clear on where the key challenges lie:

Infrastructure Limitations:

Many organisations lack the necessary IT infrastructure to support AI initiatives – this hamstrings innovation efforts from the outset. Only 13% of Aussie companies possess the graphics processing units (GPUs) to handle future AI demands, and a mere 17% have comprehensive security measures to protect data within AI models .

Talent Shortage:

It’s no secret there’s a scarcity of skilled AI professionals in Australia, presenting a huge barrier to AI readiness. This talent gap limits companies' ability to effectively deploy and manage AI solutions.

Unmet Return on Investment (ROI) Expectations: 

Despite substantial investments in recent years, many Aussie companies are finding that AI initiatives are not delivering on anticipated returns. This has led to skepticism and slowed adoption rates.

These challenges aren’t industry specific either, but remain an issue across the board. So how do we bolster the AI adoption and readiness of Aussie companies? There are six questions forward-thinking CEO’s and CTO’s need to be asking themselves about AI:

1. Are we clear on our AI strategy and use cases?

With almost 70% of Australian enterprises investing in AI, and an additional 23% saying AI adoption is in their 12 month road map, it’s clear that Australian companies know AI readiness is a must-do, but a clear strategy is essential to maximise its value.

• What business problems are we solving with AI? And what could we be solving?
• Do we have a clear roadmap for integrating AI into our operations, products, or customer experience?

2. Do we have the right data infrastructure in place?

In Australia, 80% of consumers now expect personalised digital interactions and yet only 35% of enterprises say they’re confident in their AI data readiness to meet this demand.  And customer experience is just one consideration in your AI infrastructure plan.

• Is our data accurate, accessible, protected and well-organised?
• Are we leveraging internal and external data sources to unlock AI’s potential? 
• Do we have AI-Optimised customer experience (CX) infrastructure?
• What support should we invest in to do this better?

3. Do we have the right talent and expertise?

With the demand for AI infrastructure accelerating, the industry-wide skills gap will continue to hamstring AI adoption if not addressed in an innovative way. In-house talent is just one part of the equation.

• Do we have skilled data scientists, AI engineers, and domain experts?
• What channel partners and external experts are required to meet our strategy needs?
• Are our employees being upskilled to work alongside AI systems?

4. Is our organization culturally prepared for AI adoption?

AI readiness isn’t just about technology - embedding the right mindset into company culture is critical for adoption, too. Change is often met with resistance, and needs to be managed accordingly especially when it can be interpreted as a threat to peoples jobs.

• Are we fostering an AI mindset across teams?
• What is our plan to address change management and employee concerns about AI integration?
• How will we communicate these changes effectively to all stakeholders including leadership, employees, clients, investors and customers?

5. Are our governance and ethical frameworks robust?

As Australia moves increasingly towards tightening regulations around AI and AI adoption, enterprises are responsible for ensuring their AI models are fair, transparent, and compliant. And third party vendors and partners need to be held accountable, too.

• Do we have safeguards to ensure AI decisions are transparent, fair, and compliant with regulations?
• How are we mitigating potential biases in our AI models now and into the future?
• Is the technology we utilise from third party vendors and partners transparent? How do we hold them accountable to this?

6. Are we measuring the ROI of AI initiatives effectively?

While AI investment in Australia continues to grow, only 30% of Australian companies have clear, measurable ROI metrics on this ⁵. To drive successful AI adoption getting clarity on ROI is vital.

• Do we have metrics to evaluate the success of AI-driven projects? 
• How are we ensuring AI investments directly align with business goals and drive growth?
• Do we have the right strategic AI partners on board to achieve these objectives?

To understand how AI ready your company is, start by asking questions. Whilst AI remains cloudy and uncharted territory for many, have the courage to dive in and embrace it – the risk of not doing so is increasingly exponential.

The Board of Directors of Manhattan Associates Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH) announced that Eddie Capel, Manhattan’s President and CEO, retired from his position on 12 February. He will continue to serve Manhattan in the role of Executive Vice-Chairman of the Board, assisting with CEO transition and special projects. Mr. Capel will be succeeded by Eric Clark, who has been serving as CEO of NTT Data North America. Mr. Clark will also join the Manhattan Board.

COMPANY NEWS:  Engineering leader to oversee global technology direction

Telco provider Superloop has announced that BigAir co-founder and former Superloop executive Jason Ashton will join its leadership team from 3 March 2025 in a newly formed role as Group Executive, Corporate Development & Smart Communities. 

Cloud-native network detection and response (NDR) company ExtraHop has announced Rob Greer has joined as its Chief Executive Officer;

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has announced Chief Executive Officer Scott Gregson will be leaving to take up the role of CEO of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

COMPANY NEWS:  Patterson will oversee the integration of the LogRhythm and Exabeam partner programs, lead Exabeam global partner strategy and drive ecosystem growth

Insight Partners owned Veeam expands investor base in a $2 billion secondary equity offering led by TPG with participation from Temasek, Neuberger Berman Capital Solutions, and others

COMPANY NEWS: – Veeam^® Software, the #1 global leader in Data Resilience by market share, announced an expansion of its shareholder base in a $2 billion secondary offering, valuing the company at $15 billion. This transaction was led by TPG (NASDAQ: TPG) with participation from Temasek, Neuberger Berman Capital Solutions, and other key investors, reinforcing Veeam’s position as a global leader in the rapidly growing data resilience market.

The no-cost kit equips users with essential resources and tips to defend against scams ahead of the holiday season

Security awareness training and simulated phishing platform provider KnowBe4 has announced the release of its new 2024 Holiday Resource Kit, “designed to strengthen users' cyber defences during the festive season”.

Cybersecurity platform KnowBe4 has released its Q3 2024 Phishing Report findings revealing that HR and IT-related phishing emails claim a significant 48.6% share of top-clicked phishing types globally.

Infotrust has announced a series of strategic leadership appointments that will accelerate the company’s growth trajectory and strengthen its market position heading into 2025.

Sunshine Coast, NEXTDC and Google will partner on developing a new landing point in Australia for the Tabua trans-Pacific subsea cable that will connect the United States and Australia to Fiji.

Triple revenue growth, strategic alliances and refreshed partnerships drive for identity- driven cyber resilience for Australian organisations

COMPANY NEWS; Semperis, a pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience, has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Australian businesses in safeguarding their cybersecurity environment.

Exclusive webinar exploring the evolving role of the CTO in today’s tech landscape.  Nov 21, 2024 11:00 AM - Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra 

Peak Insight, a specialised Australian Cisco partner dedicated to enhancing customer engagement and employee collaboration through customer experience, hybrid work, and secure networking solutions, has announced the appointment of Stefano Pesic to the new role of Chief Executive Officer, and Steven Kruize as General Manager of Sales.