Savage Partners Recruits CEO for EnterpriseDB
August 10, 2023 – Todd Savage of Savage Partners has assisted in the recruitment of Kevin Dallas as the new CEO for EnterpriseDB (EDB), the leader in accelerating Postgres in the enterprise. He succeeds president, CEO, and chairman of the board Ed Boyajian, who will remain on the company’s board of directors. Following last year’s majority growth investment from Bain Capital Private Equity, which helped fuel innovations in EDB’s Postgres and cloud offerings, and the continued sponsorship of Great Hill Partners, the appointment of Mr. Dallas is another step to accelerate scalable, profitable growth for the company, according to EDB. “Bain and Great Hill are two of the best investors in middle-market growth equity,” said Mr. Savage. “They have a ‘tiger by the tail’ with EnterpriseDB and the Postgres movement. Kevin Dallas immediately recognized this massive market opportunity and has a tremendous track record as a software leader and will help take EnterpriseDB to the next level and way beyond.”
“We are grateful for Ed’s leadership and all he has done to drive innovation, foster strategic partnerships, and position the company for accelerated growth,” said Max de Groen, partner at Bain Capital Private Equity. “As we look to the future, Kevin is a transformative leader with extensive experience aligning culture around a compelling vision and focused execution to pursue and create new markets for some of the world’s largest and most impactful technology companies.”
“Ed has built EDB into the market leader in Postgres; at the same time, Postgres has risen to become the world’s most sought-after database,” said Drew Loucks, managing director at Great Hill Partners. “That is not a coincidence. Kevin’s extensive experience across technology companies and forward-leaning approach to innovation make him the ideal leader to chart EDB’s future.”
Mr. Dallas brings three decades of experience driving digital innovation and growth at technology companies, most recently as CEO at Wind River, a TPG portfolio company. As CEO, he accelerated the software company’s growth culminating in its $3.5 billion acquisition by Aptiv in 2022. Before that, Mr. Dallas spent nearly 25 years with Microsoft, where he most recently served as the corporate vice president for cloud and AI business development.
“Under Ed’s leadership, EDB has modernized the database management systems of customers around the world with its advanced innovation in Postgres,” said Mr. Dallas. “It is an honor and a privilege to step in and lead the company’s next phase focused on the intersection of data and AI. The growth opportunity ahead is significant, and we continue to drive innovation to accelerate our customers’ digital transformations. I look forward to working with our talented team, the board, Bain Capital, and Great Hill Partners to realize the company’s full potential in the growing intelligent systems economy.”
“After 15 years of leading EDB, and 54 quarters of consecutive growth, I’m incredibly proud of this company, our employees, the innovation we’ve driven, and our impact on customer success,” said Mr. Boyajian. “We’ve built EDB into a great company, and my decision to step forward and focus on board work ushers in a new phase in the company’s evolution. Kevin is a phenomenal leader, and we are confident that we’ve made the right choice to guide EDB towards an extraordinary future ahead.”
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EDB provides enterprise-class software and services that enable businesses and governments to harness the full power of Postgres, the world’s leading open-source database. With offices worldwide, EDB serves more than 1,500 customers, including financial services, government, media and communications, and information technology organizations.
Proven Boutique Search Firm
Founded in 2005, Savage Partners is a boutique, retained executive search firm specializing in partnering with high-growth technology firms. The focal point of Savage Partners is information technology, with a particular emphasis on software, E-commerce, and internet-enabled companies. “By focusing exclusively on the technology segment, we are able to leverage our broad understanding of the market’s dynamics and its trends into meaningful relationships with the executives who are its driving force,” the search firm said.
Since co-founding the firm, Mr. Savage has completed over 200 senior executive searches for middle market, private equity backed technology firms in infrastructure software, SaaS, E-commerce, consumer internet, and mobile space. Throughout his career, he has completed hundreds of executive searches, with experience ranging from early-stage venture backed companies to working high-growth private equity backed, middle-market companies. Previously, Mr. Savage worked for Heidrick & Struggles and Ramsey Beirne Associates. He also built the internal recruiting function at Time Warner.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
