Accelent Fills CTO Post for Beam Solutions
January 24, 2018 – Demand for top technology executives continues to gain momentum.
Chief technology officer hiring, in fact, is expected to grow 18 percent by 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. It’s a trend that is keeping executive search firms well occupied.
Executive search firm Accelent recently placed Andreas Bayer as the chief technology officer of Beam Solutions in San Francisco. Managing director John Boehmer led the assignment along with partner Maura McShane.
Mr. Bayer has over 20 years of experience delivering software solutions to the financial industry. His resume includes work for PayPal and its Xoom money transfer service as well as 14 years of teaching advanced software design at the University of California, Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension. At PayPal, he provided strong technical leadership to the Xoom risk engineering team integrating into PayPal’s global risk environment.
Prior to that, he formed and led a team which designed and built Xoom’s proprietary fraud detection and regulatory compliance ecosystem from the ground up. Before Xoom, Mr. Bayer worked as open source developer and enterprise lead developer at MuleSoft and CollabNet.
“I am extremely thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Ben Duranske (CEO) and everyone else on the team to make a change in the compliance industry that traditionally lags a decade behind,” said Mr. Bayer. “With Beam, everything I could wish for came together – start from the beginning again, focus on regulatory compliance covering the wider financial industry, leverage latest technologies, disrupt the compliance solution provider market with new tools, AI and machine learning, and lastly take on challenges in the new world of blockchain technologies.”
Beam Solutions was founded by industry veterans with deep experience in compliance, regulatory affairs, machine learning and data. The company is supported by an experienced group of directors, advisors and investors, said Beam Solutions. Its scalable technologies incorporate new data sources for its banking, securities, and fintech partners, helping them make the financial system safer and maximizing the value and utility of critical compliance resources.
Accelent is an executive talent acquisition and integration firm that serves technology clients in the internet, e-commerce and digital media space as well as the enterprise SaaS software sectors. The firm has completed a number of searches in the general e-commerce arena for companies such as Borderfree, Fluid and ShopKeep.
Mr. Boehmer has built his professional career around the technology industry. His executive search experience and business-building background has served hundreds of companies in the internet, e-commerce and digital media space as well as the enterprise and SaaS software sectors. His clients have ranged from venture-backed emerging and mature growth companies to global large-cap media and software concerns. He has completed engagements across almost every organizational function, including CEO, COO, CFO, CTO and heads of sales, marketing and product development.
Technology Sector Heating Up
The booming technology sector, vibrant even when the economy was softer, shows little sign of retreat, according to a host of recruiters who service the talent needs of companies across the field. It continues, in fact, to produce capabilities and services that few imagined just a decade ago.
But a recently conducted survey of global executives by Odgers Berndtson and Forrester Research revealed that 84 percent of companies lack the necessary talent base to execute a digital transformation.
“The ubiquitous deployment of technology across the globe has made mobile, big data, e-commerce and social media highly competitive sectors for talent,” said Charley Polachi, co-founder and partner of Polachi Access Executive Search. He said he is also seeing a growing frequency and awareness of hacking and data breaches, putting cybersecurity leaders in big demand.
Recruiting CTOs
A number of executive search firms have placed CTOs in recent months. Here’s a look at a few from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
The Lancer Group, a La Jolla, CA-headquartered executive search firm, recently placed Bjorn Bjerkoe as CTO of Daxko, a provider of member-based health and wellness software solutions. Mr. Bjerkoe has over 15 years of experience leading operational and software development teams across the application software space.
ON Partners recruited Krishna Vedula as CTO of 365 Retail Markets. Mr. Vedula brings 20 years of experience leading global technology organizations in companies experiencing explosive growth, both organic and inorganic. He will be integral to 365’s efforts to increase its market share and new product introductions.
McDermott & Bull placed former IBM executive David Bartlett as CTO with Panasonic Avionics Corp. The search was conducted by Rod McDermott, CEO and co-founder; Craig Sabina, principal consultant; Jared Moriarty, associate principal consultant; and Amanda Lange, recruiting associate.
Search Solution Group placed Dr. Harish Hiriyannaiah as CTO of Sonavex. The search was spearheaded by Ashley Bowman, business development manager, and Josh Mensinger, recruiting leader. Dr. Hiriyannaiah has an extensive background in image processing, medical imaging and machine learning technologies.
The McCormick Group placed David Mihelcic as chief technology and strategy officer at Juniper Federal. Mr. Mihelcic is the former chief technology officer at the Defense Information Systems Agency. In his new role, Mr. Mihelcic will drive technological innovation and new product development for the company.
Calibre One recruited Artem Fishman as chief technology officer of music streaming service SoundCloud. Partner Thomas Green led the assignment. In his new role, Mr. Fishman will be responsible for leading the company’s international engineering organization, in addition to shaping its technical vision and strategy.
WinterWyman placed Aatish Salvi as chief technology officer at Teikametrics. Senior VP and partner Tracy Cashman led the search. As CTO, Mr. Salvi will execute Teikametrics’ vision and scale its market-leading technology platform while also overseeing the firm’s engineering and product teams. Previously, he was vice president of engineering for Nanigans, Inc.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Will Schatz, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
