IMDb
After a valiant 35-year legacy, IMDb CEO Col Needham says that's wrap and hands over the reigns to COO Nikki Santoro in a historic move. Needham founded the biggest source for information on movies, TV shows, and the celebrities that star in them back in 1990 from his database of movie information. Fast-forward a few years, and the database giant was one of Amazon’s first acquisitions in 1998. Needham will transition to executive chair of the most popular movie website today with over 250 million monthly visitors.
Microsoft
Young resigns as Head of Business Development for Microsoft’s venture fund M12. Under Young’s leadership, the tech goliath acquired video game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion and invested in tech startups Outreach, PsiQuantum, Innovaccer, etc. Needham also spearheaded the securement of Microsoft as Netflix’s sole partner for their ad-supported tiers and fostered relations with OpenAI in artificial intelligence research. Young leaves a big hole in the ranks at Microsoft.
PepsiCo
Former President of PepsiCo Foods Canada gets promoted to CEO of PepsiCo Foods U.S. Ferdinando will assume leadership of the $21 billion snack division that houses American treasured snack brands such as Lays, Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos, etc. With the $1.2 billion acquisition of Siete Foods, the Mexican food brand, and the full ownership of Sabra and Obela, refrigerated dip and spread brands, Pepsi Foods U.S. is diversifying its portfolio. A new CEO is the perfect combo.
Birkenstock
The German phenom sandal company, Birkenstock, appoints Ivica Krolo as the new CFO effective February 1. Previous partner and CEO of EMH Partners, Krolo has a solid background in finance, auditing, taxation, and legal & corporate administration. The 250-year-old newly public company, known for its contoured footbed, exceeded expectations as it reported its highest quarterly revenue earnings in Q3 of 2024 at €565 million ($625 million). The current CFO, Erik Massmann will step down on January 31 and will aid in transitional efforts.
REI
Largest co-op in the US, outdoor gear and apparel company REI, hires new CEO Mary Beth Laughton ahead of 2025 and 2026 plans to expand store locations in 6 states. Laughten’s experience packs a punch as a previous REI board member, CEO of Athleta, Head of Nike global direct-to-consumer, and more. Eric Artz retires his gear after a 12-year history with the company, 6 of those serving as President & CEO. Laughten will assume the role of President on February 3 and take on the CEO role effective March 31.
Invisible Technologies
Ex-Global Head of QuantumBlack Labs, McKinsey’s AI software development and R&D hub, Matt Fitzpatrick joins AI value chain company Invisible Technologies as CEO. With a $500 million valuation, the private data pre-training company differentiates itself by delivering human expertise with cutting-edge AI technology to SMBs.
BigBear.ai
Decision intelligence solution company BigBear.ai appoints McAleenan as CEO. McAleenan brings key governmental expertise to the AI sector, having served as Secretary of Homeland Security and Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under Trump’s first administration. Having also founded Pangiam, an AI and biometrics company for trade and travel, BigBear.ai acquired it in 2024 for a $70 million all-stock transaction.
Consilio
Consilio, the global legal tech services company, appoints Todd Herndon as its new CFO. With the recent launch of the solution AI PrivDetect, which enhances the accuracy and speeds up the time length it takes for privilege review, Herndon will lead Consilio in profitability efforts, growth, and maneuvering the changing legal tech space.
Illumio
Breach containment company Illumio has hired Karl Van den Bergh as its new CMO. Karl was previously the CMO at Gigamon, a deep observability and hybrid cloud security company specializing in securing multi-cloud environments. At Illumio, Karl will oversee the Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) platform and lead global marketing and growth efforts.
Fiserv
Payment processing giant, Fiserv finds a successor to Bisignano following his election to lead the Social Security Administration by Trump. Michael P. Lyons will start as President and CEO-elect today. Bisignano will continue as CEO until June 30 unless he is confirmed as commissioner of the Social Security Administration before then. Lyons previously served as PNC Financial Services Group’s president.
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