Medallia has confirmed to CX Today that CEO Joe Tyrrell vacated his post on April 19.
Tyrrell had held the role since March 2023, but now leaves citing personal reasons.
In steps Mike Lipps, Chairman of Medallia’s Board of Directors, who will take the CEO hotseat on an interim basis as he leads the search for a full-time replacement.
A spokesperson for Medallia shared the news with CX Today, stating:
Joe’s last day was April 19, but he is available and working with Mike on the transition.
Lipps brings decades of senior leadership experience to the role, having previously held the CEO mantle at LexisNexis, insightsoftware, and Intelerad Medical Systems.
However, Lipps is unlikely to stay as CEO for long, as he plans to return to his role as Chair of the Board once the full-time CEO search comes to a close.
That full-time CEO will try to build further momentum at Medallia, with the vendor enjoying several significant successes during Tyrrell’s short stint at the helm.
Perhaps most notably, Medallia became the standalone market leader in Customer Feedback Management – according to the 2023 Forrester Wave.
The vendor also led the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Voice of the Customer (VoC) Platforms 2024.
Meanwhile, Medallia surpassed the one million weekly active AI users milestone, launched several GenAI-fuelled innovations, and onboarded many big brands.
New clients include the likes of BSH Group, Royal Jordanian, and Smoothie King – which join a client roster that features brands such as Airbnb, Johnson & Johnson, and Mercedes-Benz.
Yet, Tyrrell has now moved on, and Lipps wanted to share his – and the board’s – support for the former CEO in a statement to CX Today.
“Joe made the difficult decision to step away for personal reasons, and the board supports him in that,” said Lipps. “I am stepping in on an interim basis while we look for a new CEO.
I’ve been the chairman of Medallia’s board of directors, working closely with the executive team, and we are handling this transition with care.
Before Tyrell’s short stint, he served as President of ICE Mortgage Technology, leading three wholly-owned subsidiaries of Intercontinental Exchange.
In addition, he brought 30 years of experience helping businesses introduce innovations in automation, AI, and data-driven workflows.
As such, he seemed a shrewd appointment to help guide Medallia into the GenAI era and replace the retiring CEO, Leslie Stretch.
Yet, Tyrell had a lot on his plate, managing the ten acquisitions his predecessor had made in the five years leading up to his appointment.
Of those, Medallia’s 2022 roll-up of Thunderhead is perhaps the most memorable, enabling the vendor to shift into the customer journey orchestration space.
However, its acquisitions of brands like CXTeam also allowed Medallia to establish a deep base of consulting and ISV partners – a significant differentiator in its traditional VoC market.
After all, these partners can help customers extract even more value from Medallia’s portfolio – which impresses in its analytics and automation capabilities.
These are likely strengths that the new CEO may wish to build upon, either through product innovation or further acquisitions.
