DEVOPSdigest

Puppet announced the appointment of Sanjay Mirchandani as CEO and a member of the board of directors, replacing founder Luke Kanies, who will remain a strong advocate for the company as a member of the board.

Mirchandani is an industry veteran with a track record in leading rapidly-growing global organizations, including VMware, EMC and Microsoft. He joined Puppet in May of this year as the company’s first-ever president and chief operating officer. Mirchandani’s experience in growing global operations, expertise in the IT industry, and knowledge of Puppet’s business made him the ideal candidate for the position.

“Given his experience building and scaling fantastic teams, Sanjay has the experience, energy and ideas to drive the future growth of Puppet,” said Kanies, founder and member of the board of directors at Puppet. “I look forward to supporting his work as he leads Puppet in bringing software automation to the entire market.”

Prior to joining Puppet, Mirchandani served as corporate senior vice president and general manager at VMware for Asia Pacific and Japan. Before this, Mirchandani held several management positions at EMC, including CIO of the company’s award-winning IT organization. He also led the company’s Global Centers of Excellence, emerging markets and international development initiatives. Prior to EMC, Mirchandani held several field-based senior management roles at Microsoft over an 11 year period.

“Puppet is a truly revolutionary company. In a short time, Puppet has grown to become the market-standard platform for IT automation – helping customers deliver and operate their software no matter where it runs,” said Mirchandani. “I have enormous respect for Luke. He built a company that has transformed the industry. I am honored to continue what he started and lead the business as we embark on an exciting new period of growth. I look forward to working with our talented team, customers, partners, and community to scale the use of Puppet worldwide through product innovation, go-to-market execution, and operational excellence.”

“More than 30,000 companies already use Puppet to deliver better software faster,” said Gerri Elliott, Puppet board member. “But Puppet is just getting started. As software becomes a fundamental part of how every company does business, the need for Puppet will only grow. The Puppet board is delighted to have Sanjay leading the company through the next phase of growth. His passion, vision and track record of building great businesses will help ensure Puppet can help any company become a great software company.”