SolarWinds Appoints Lewis Black as Chief Financial Officer
SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI) has appointed Lewis Black as its new Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, effective August 2024. Black brings over 25 years of strategic finance expertise, having previously held significant roles at AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Avaya, Citrix, and Actian. He will succeed J. Barton Kalsu, who will step down on August 15, 2024, after 17 years at the company but will remain in an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition. SolarWinds CEO, Sudhakar Ramakrishna, praised Black for his extensive experience in transforming tech companies and expressed enthusiasm for the company's future growth under Black's financial leadership.
- Lewis Black's appointment brings 25+ years of strategic finance expertise to SolarWinds.
- Black has a strong background with significant roles at AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Avaya, Citrix, and Actian.
- Black’s experience includes CEO and CFO positions, showing a strong leadership track record.
- SolarWinds is undergoing a transformation, and Black’s expertise in tech company transformations is highlighted as critical.
- Outgoing CFO J. Barton Kalsu had a 17-year tenure, indicating stability and long-term leadership within the company.
- The current CFO, J. Barton Kalsu, has resigned, which may cause temporary uncertainty.
- The transition period until August 2024 may lead to a prolonged phase of adjustment.
- No immediate financial gains or positive impacts were reported in relation to the appointment.
Black brings over 25 years of strategic finance expertise in IT platform transformation and expansion, operational scaling, and growth acceleration
Lewis Black, Chief Financial Officer, SolarWinds (Photo: Business Wire)
Black brings over 25 years of experience in the information technology space, having served in financial and operational roles at AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Avaya, and Citrix. He most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Actian, a hybrid data management, analytics, and integration company, from 2020 to 2023 and as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2018 to 2020, with responsibility for the company’s financial and capital management strategies, strategic and operational planning, and driving the operational execution.
“Lewis brings tremendous experience in transforming tech companies, which will be invaluable to us,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President and CEO of SolarWinds. “As part of our own ongoing transformation, we look forward to leveraging his vast experience—and we are enthusiastic about this new phase of SolarWinds.”
“I am honored to join SolarWinds and help lead the company through its next phase of growth,” said Black. “For over 25 years, SolarWinds has helped customers transform their businesses with simple, powerful, secure solutions. I’m excited to work with our customers, partners, and employees to set a new trajectory for our ongoing growth.”
Prior to Actian, Black served as Chief Financial Officer of Nexmo, Inc., a leader in the communications platform as a service (“CPaaS”) segment of the cloud communications market, and then as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Nexmo line of business after the company’s acquisition by Vonage Holdings Corp., where he scaled the Nexmo line of business while integrating the business into Vonage. Black graduated from
Black will succeed J. Barton Kalsu, who tendered his resignation on June 6, 2024, in order to explore other professional opportunities. Kalsu will remain as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer through August 15, 2024, and has agreed to serve in an advisory capacity to support an orderly transition.
“Bart’s many contributions to SolarWinds over the past 17 years helped shape the company we are today, having shepherded two public offerings and a take-private,” Ramakrishna said. “On behalf of every Solarian, I thank him for his exceptional leadership and wish him great success in his future endeavors.”
The company is filing a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission today.
Connect with SolarWinds
#SWIcorporate
#SWI
About SolarWinds
SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) is a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with a comprehensive and unified view of today’s modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs) to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available hybrid IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers’ needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.
The SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design, Orion, and THWACK trademarks are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates, are registered with the
© 2024 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240610442125/en/
Media Contacts
John Eddy
Goldin Solutions
Phone: +1-646-660-8648
solarwinds@goldinsolutions.com
Jenne Barbour
SolarWinds
Phone: +1-512-498-6804
pr@solarwinds.com
Investor Contact
Tim Karaca
SolarWinds
ir@solarwinds.com
Source: SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC.
FAQ
Who is the new CFO of SolarWinds as of August 2024?
What is Lewis Black's professional background?
When will J. Barton Kalsu step down as CFO of SolarWinds?
What is the stock symbol for SolarWinds?
Who is the CEO of SolarWinds?
