Splunk Gets a New Customer Chief

Splunk has promoted its SVP of Customer Success, Katie Bianchi, to SVP and Chief Customer Officer.

Reporting to recently appointed CEO Gary Steele, Bianchi will continue her leadership of the organization’s global Customer Success and Professional Services team. Her elevated title likely denotes a higher internal status and a more prominent seat at the decision-making table.

In a press release, Steele called Bianchi a “strategic and transformational leader” and said that as the company’s customer chief, “she will continue to bring her expertise and proven leadership to elevate customer voices, drive long-term success and scale our business with the customer’s needs front and center.”

Bianchi, who first joined Splunk in 2018, has held several leadership roles throughout the Data-to-Everything company’s technical support, customer success management, renewals, and strategy and operations organizations.

Before joining Splunk, Bianchi spent 16 years at General Electric, where she most recently served as the Chief Revenue Officer for Global Support at GE Digital. Throughout her career at the conglomerate, she also held leadership roles at GE Oil & Gas, GE Energy, GE Infrastructure Sensing and GE Consumer & Industrial.

“It is an honor to lead Splunk’s world-class customer success and professional services team as we proactively partner with organizations to help them achieve faster time to value, strengthen their security posture, accelerate digital transformations and enhance resilience,” Bianchi said in a statement.

Bianchi’s elevated role at the head of Splunk’s customer success team will be crucial in helping the company retain its growing list of subscription-based clients and ensure continued recurring revenue growth.

At the end of last year, the company reported over $3.1 billion in total annual recurring revenue (ARR), up from $2.3 billion the year prior. This quarter Splunk expects a total ARR of around $3.9 billion.

Splunk is scheduled to report its earnings results for the first quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, which ended April 30, on May 25.

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