F5 Announces New Leadership Roles to Drive Heightened Agility, Productivity, and AI Innovation
Tom Fountain appointed Chief Operating Officer, Chad Whalen named Chief
Revenue Officer, Kunal Anand becomes Chief Technology and AI Officer
INDIA, SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 - F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced three new
leadership roles designed to drive heightened agility, productivity, and AI
innovation.
Tom Fountain, formerly F5’s Executive Vice President of Global Services
and Chief Strategy Officer, becomes F5’s Chief Operating Officer. As COO,
Fountain is responsible for driving operational velocity and advancing
execution, productivity, and efficiency company wide. He will continue to
oversee Global Services and lead F5’s digital transformation.
F5 also is streamlining its go-to-market functions, combining sales and
marketing under former Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Chad
Whalen, who now takes on the role of Chief Revenue Officer. As CRO, Whalen is
responsible for driving revenue growth, including continued growth across F5’s
software solutions, and successfully executing F5’s land-and-expand strategy
across its more than 20,000 large enterprise, service provider, and government
customers globally.
Finally, F5 is reinforcing its commitment to innovation in AI,
including incorporating generative AI across its product families. Recently
appointed Chief Technology Officer, Kunal Anand, becomes Chief Technology and
AI Officer, expanding his responsibilities to include F5’s company-wide AI
strategy.
Each of these new roles is effective immediately and all will report to
F5 President and CEO, François Locoh-Donou.
“Our customers rely on F5 to keep them ahead of the rapid pace of IT
infrastructure change. With these leadership changes, we are setting the stage
for our next phase of growth, evolving F5 to drive heightened agility and
productivity while prioritizing continued rapid innovation where it matters
most to customers,” said François
Locoh-Donou, F5 president and CEO.
F5 also announced it has launched an external search to replace current
Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Kara Sprague. Sprague has
accepted an opportunity to become CEO of a private technology company and will
be leaving F5 in November 2024.
“Kara is an incredible leader who has made innumerable contributions to
F5, including serving as a driving force behind our successful transition to a
software-led business,” said Locoh-Donou.
“In her leadership roles at F5, Kara has been instrumental in expanding and
evolving our solutions portfolio with a constant focus on what matters most for
customers. We wish her the very best in her future role.”
For F5 executive background and biography information please
visit F5.com/company/leadership.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding, among
other things, transitions in F5’s executive leadership and business innovation.
These, and other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor
provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the
forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors. Such
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as
assumptions and other factors that, if they do not fully materialize or prove
correct, could cause the actual results, performance, events (including
leadership performance) or achievements (including business innovation) of the
Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, events
or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such
factors include, but are not limited to: integration of and results from
executive leadership changes, F5’s ability to attract, train and retain
qualified personnel; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in
our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current
reports on Form 8-K and other documents that we file or furnish from time to
time, which could cause actual results, performance, events or achievements to
vary from expectations. All forward-looking statements in this press release
are based on information available as of the date hereof and qualified in their
entirety by this cautionary statement. F5 assumes no obligation to revise or
update these forward-looking statements.
About F5
F5 is a multicloud application security and delivery company committed
to bringing a better digital world to life. F5 partners with the world’s
largest, most advanced organizations to secure every app—on-premises, in the
cloud, or at the edge. F5 enables businesses to continuously stay ahead of
threats while delivering exceptional, secure digital experiences for their
customers. For more information, go to f5.com.
(NASDAQ: FFIV)
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F5, its partners, and technologies.
F5 is a trademark, service mark, or tradename of F5, Inc., in the U.S.
and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
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