Renovata & Company Finds Chief Financial Officer for Cleo

August 4, 2023 – Global executive search and private equity advisory firm Renovata & Company has placed Sameer Katiyar as chief financial officer of Cleo, an ecosystem integration software company in Rockford, IL. Partner Jeff Yolen and consultant Judie Norkaitis led the assignment.

Mr. Katiyar will oversee the company’s global finance, accounting, legal, and corporate IT functions. “Sameer brings more than 20 years of experience in the software and technology sectors to his new role,” says Mr. Yolen. “He has held CFO and other leadership positions overseeing financial planning and analysis, treasury, corporate development, operations, and business transformation in public company and private-equity environments.”

“Sameer has precisely the right acumen and background for a rapidly scaling global SaaS business like Cleo, and we are thrilled he’s joining us,” said Mahesh Rajasekharan, Cleo’s president and CEO. “I have every confidence he can partner across the organization and further strengthen our strategic focus, capital allocation, and operational execution as we continue to innovate aggressively to meet our customers’ needs and drive Cleo’s profitable growth.”

Strong Experience

Before joining Cleo, Mr. Katiyar was CFO at SAI360. Prior to that, he was CFO of Infogix Inc. At both companies, he drove successful growth initiatives leading to exits. He also held several strategic finance positions during a 15-plus year career with Sabre Corp.—most recently as vice president, finance; and vice president, finance and general accounting, Sabre Asia Pacific. Mr. Katiyar earned a BE degree from the University of Gorakhpur in India and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

“I joined Cleo because I see a well-run business poised for accelerating long-term growth as it shapes and leads the rapidly evolving ecosystem integration software category,” said Mr. Katiyar. “I’m looking forward to working with all my new colleagues as well as Cleo’s 4,100-plus customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders as we work to unlock Cleo’s full potential.”

Related: Renovata & Company Recruits CEO for Vivino

Founded in 1976, Cleo  helps customers discover and drive value through moving and integrating B2B enterprise data. Backed by H.I.G. Capital, Cleo gives customers strategic, “outside-in” visibility into the critical end-to-end business flows across their ecosystems of partners and customers, marketplaces, and internal cloud and on-premise applications. This enables companies to increase business agility, accelerate onboarding, modernize business processes, and capture new revenue streams by improving their digital ecosystems with robust application, B2B, and data-integration technologies.

Private Equity Search & Advisory Firm

Renovata & Company partners with financial sponsors, their portfolio companies, and public corporations to deliver leaders and investment insights. The search firm’s executive recruiting activities are focused on search assignments covering board-level mandates, which include board directors, CEOs, CFOs, and other C-suite executives, as well as investment professionals and operating partners. The firm provides strategic counsel to clients across the technology, digital, business services, industrial, consumer, and retail sectors.


Renovata & Company Recruits CEO for Boost.ai
Renovata & Company has placed Jerry Haywood as chief executive officer for Boost.ai, a global leader in conversational artificial intelligence for Fortune 1000 companies. He will succeed founder and current CEO Lars Ropeid Selsås, who will give greater focus to product development and innovation. “Jerry has more than 20 years of enterprise technology experience and has held various sales and senior leadership positions at IBM, Cisco, and Salesforce,” said Thomas Jepsen, partner at Renovata & Company. “He’ll use these leadership skills to build upon the solid foundation Boost.ai has created over the past six years.”


Renovata & Company has relationships with over 50 of the top 100 private and growth equity firms globally. Its private equity advisory services include diligence support, backable executive introductions, and deal sourcing delivered by its affiliate, L Capital Advisors. The firm also makes equity co-investments alongside its private equity clients through its investment affiliate, L Capital. The search firm is privately held and operates from five offices across two continents: Boston, Hamburg, London, New York, and San Francisco.

Mr. Yolen, who is based in Boston, serves as executive vice president of diligence and advisory. He advises private equity clients on CEO, CFO, and board searches for technology companies. Working with CEOs, Mr. Yolen also leads engagements for C-level go-to-market roles. He also leads many of the firm’s pre-deal advisory engagements and is responsible for business development and account management across the firm’s client portfolio.

Ms. Norkaitis is responsible for driving C-suite executive searches for growth and private equity-backed portfolio companies. Based in Chicago, her focus encompasses a range of industries, including technology, tech-enabled services, business services, consumer and energy. Ms. Norkaitis brings 20 years of experience in partnering with search consultants and heads of talent to help drive all aspects of the search process for her own firm; she has been responsible for leadership and team buildouts across various sectors worldwide.

Related: Renovata & Company Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for Bitmovin

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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