Sprinklr has confirmed the appointment of Rory Read as the company’s new CEO and President, effective immediately.
The former Vonage head honcho will take over from current co-CEOs Ragy Thomas and Trac Pham.
Thomas will transition to the role of Advisor to the CEO and continue to serve as Founder and Chairman of the Board.
Pham, on the other hand, will move into an unspecified “advisory” position and step away from the Board of Directors.
In a LinkedIn post, Thomas wrote that the move was “an exciting new chapter for Sprinklr that will continue our momentum and achieve what we’ve always known is possible.”
Rory is an exceptional leader capable of driving transformational change and sustainable growth.
“He joins with a commitment to further strengthen our foundation and cultural values, accelerate our product innovation, and enhance our customer and partner success.”
With a resume of high-profile positions at the likes of IBM, Lenovo, and Dell, Read shot to prominence in July 2020 when he took over as CEO at Sprinklr’s CCaaS rival Vonage.
During his tenure, Read oversaw the development of a prominent enterprise communications portfolio that included CCaaS, UCaaS, and CPaaS solutions.
He also proved instrumental in the sale of the company to Ericsson in 2021 for a whopping $6.2BN. After, he became a Senior Vice President at Ericsson and Head of its Business Area Global Communications Platform, before stepping down in January this year.
Given Sprinklr’s accelerating business in the CCaaS market, Read’s extensive experience in the sector likely made him the standout candidate.
Indeed, during a recent earnings call, Thomas spoke candidly about some of the struggles that his company has endured in scaling with the demand for its Sprinklr Service CCaaS platform.
This was, in part, due to the unexpected success of landing several megadeals – with the likes of Deutsche Telekom and BT – so early on in the vendor’s CCaaS journey. That resulted in the company having to effectively incorporate “40 years of expertise” to scale its contact center business to meet global demand and attract more enterprise business.
This involved forming regional partnerships, establishing global carrier relationships, and developing customized solutions to meet specific market regulations.
Thomas described this early learning and expansion period as “building our own internal muscle.”
“I’d say it is probably the first quarter that we feel like the bulk of the heavy lifting and development is done.”
With the “heavy lifting” out of the way, Sprinklr will hope that the appointment of Read will help take its CCaaS game to the next level, a point touched upon by the CEO himself:
I am honored that Ragy, Trac and the Board have entrusted me to lead Sprinklr through our next phase of growth and scale.
“I see a tremendous future ahead for Sprinklr and believe in our ability to build and execute a strong strategic vision that will bring tangible value to customers with our AI-powered platform.”
For Simon Harrison, Founder and CEO of Actionary, Read’s CCaaS expertise and technology experience also tallies with Sprinklr’s broader goal of becoming a leader in the customer experience management (CXM) sector.
Harrison explains how the vendor is targeting improvements in knowledge, workforce, and case management as it looks to position itself as an “operating system for all customer conversations.”
Sprinklr continues to innovate in ways that blur the lines of CCaaS and CRM application value.
“Rory is a very seasoned technology executive with relevant experience gleaned from three decades of leadership responsibility for operational and business transformation success,” he concluded.
No More Co-CEOs
Having announced Trac Pham as its new co-CEO in June of this year, the shared leadership experiment lasted less than five months.
At the time, the plan was for Pham to transition from his interim Chief Operating Officer position to taking full control of Sprinklr’s operational underbelly. In doing so, Thomas would be free to focus more on product and vision.
While the company has not commented on the decision to scrap its co-CEO strategy, and Thomas praised Pham for his “exceptional partnership and dedication”, the shortness of the combined reign may raise questions.
Sprinklr’s enterprise communications competitor, RingCentral, experienced a similar situation last year when its new CEO, Tarek Robbiati, departed after only three months in the role.
However, there have also been positive examples of enterprise tech vendors that have appointed co-CEOs from diverse backgrounds to bring in fresh perspectives and skills, including Oracle, SAP, and Workday.
More News from Sprinklr
Last week, Sprinklr unveiled 70 new features in its latest update to the Sprinklr Service CCaaS platform.
The enhancements focus on improving knowledge management, workforce efficiency, and case management.
Additionally, the update includes advancements to the AI-driven Digital Twin module, which automates customer interactions and acts as a co-pilot to support employees in various departments.
