Snow Appoints New CEO and Expands Executive Leadership Team
Stockholm and Austin, Texas – January 30, 2019 – Snow Software, global leader in technology intelligence and automation solutions, today announced the appointment of Vishal Rao as Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds founder Axel Kling, who is stepping down as CEO after growing the company into a market leader with over 4,000 customers worldwide. Kling will remain on the Board of Directors. The company also named Rachel Mooney as Chief People & Culture Officer and James Denena as Chief Financial Officer. These appointments round out a globally diverse management team with the experience needed to support Snow’s next era of growth and maturity. In 2018, the company added several other key executives, including Ken Schock as Chief Revenue Officer, Sanjay Castelino as Chief Marketing Officer, and Alastair Pooley as Chief Information Officer.
“This is an important growth stage for the company, and I am humbled to lead Snow at such an exciting time,” said Rao. “Our opportunity continues to expand with the mass adoption of enterprise cloud services, IaaS, IoT, and edge computing. We are uniquely positioned to empower businesses to gain complete visibility into their technology stack, then use those insights to optimize efficiency and effectiveness while ensuring regulatory compliance and data protection. I would like to thank the Board and Axel for this opportunity, and I am excited for us to build on Snow’s successes and momentum as we move the company forward.”
Vishal Rao, Chief Executive Officer
Rao previously served as the President & Chief Operating Officer at Snow. He joined Snow’s Board of Directors in 2016, and in 2018 took on an operating role overseeing all functions of the business. During that period, Rao contributed to the company crossing the $100 million revenue mark and made several executive appointments to further accelerate growth. Prior to Snow, he held leadership positions at Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK) and Cloudera (NYSE: CLDR), both of which realized material revenue milestones and successful IPOs during his tenure. Rao will remain on Snow’s Board of Directors.
“I’m delighted to welcome Vishal as the next CEO of Snow,” said Kling. “Having invited Vishal to join our Board three years ago, I know he brings the drive and experience needed to take the company to the next level. The past fifteen years have been an incredible journey, and I very much look forward to working with Vishal and supporting Snow as a Board member.”
“In 2018 we brought Vishal into an operating role to help Snow take the next step in its evolution, growing beyond $100 million in revenue and becoming one of the most admired companies in enterprise software,” said Mike Risman, Chairman of the Board at Snow and Managing Partner at Vitruvian Partners. “I’m thrilled to support Vishal in this final step of transitioning to CEO. I want to thank Axel for his leadership and passion as CEO, and I look forward to our continued collaboration on the Board of Directors as we partner to support the Snow team.”
“We are excited by the momentum that Snow has shown under Vishal’s operating leadership,” said George Kadifa, board member and Managing Director at Sumeru Equity Partners. “As he takes on the expanded role of CEO, we are confident that the team will realize the opportunity in front of them, helping customers around the world maximize the promise of digital transformation.”
In addition to Rao’s appointment, two new executives joined Snow’s leadership team.
Rachel Mooney, Chief People & Culture Officer
Mooney will be responsible for global HR strategy and operations, enhancing and aligning employee experience across the organization, and enabling Snow to attract, retain and develop top talent. She joins Snow from Vodafone (NASDAQ: VOD), where she led strategic and operational HR for group corporate functions and global shared services, driving enhanced productivity and effectiveness across Sales, Marketing, Finance and Technology. Previously, Mooney led organizational culture for Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) across EMEA as well as the company’s human resources function in Ireland, with a relentless focus on accelerated growth and innovation. Mooney will be based in the U.K.
James Denena, Chief Financial Officer
Denena comes to Snow with extensive financial and business development experience and a proven record for driving growth within public global organizations. Most recently, Denena was Vice President of Global Finance & Corporate Development for PROS (NYSE: PRO), a cloud software company with customers in more than 40 industries and 55 countries. He also served more than a decade at Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) in various senior finance, business development, and M&A roles. During his career, Denena has led multiple equity capital raises and completed more than 20 M&A and capital formation transactions. Denena will be based in the U.S.
“We’re assembling a highly capable and well-rounded executive team ready to take Snow to the next level and I’m pleased to welcome Rachel and James as the newest members of the team,” said Rao.
“In Rachel, we gain an accomplished business executive who understands the critical link between developing great people and a company’s ability to grow and transform,” he continued. “She brings both passion and expertise in the full breadth of people and organizational capabilities, operating within start-ups, scaling and established businesses – key to our growth journey.”
“James is an equally critical hire for us at this juncture,” said Rao. “As CFO, he brings tremendous experience building out strong finance teams and leading strategic initiatives. James is equal parts financial disciplinarian and growth-minded leader, which makes him ideally suited for Snow as we expand and optimize the business.”