SPMB Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for NinjaOne
April 25, 2025 – Kevin Barry of SPMB Executive Search has helped to place John Sapone as the new chief revenue officer of NinjaOne. “It was a privilege to help bring aboard a proven revenue leader whose impact at companies like Snowflake, ServiceNow, Nimble Storage, and Data Domain speaks for itself,” Mr. Barry said in a LinkedIn post. “John’s track record scaling world-class teams and delivering results makes him the ideal leader to guide NinjaOne through its next phase of growth. Thank you to co-founders Sal Sferlazza and Christopher Matarese for entrusting SPMB with this critical hire, and to Brad Delaplane for the partnership along the way. It’s searches and outcomes like these that make the work so rewarding. Can’t wait to see what’s ahead for the NinjaOne team.”
“NinjaOne has completely disrupted the endpoint management market, and we’re growing thoughtfully to continue to exceed our customers’ needs,” said Sal Sferlazza, CEO and co-founder at NinjaOne. “John’s servant style leadership and deep expertise from ServiceNow, Snowflake, and other top enterprise companies, are perfect for NinjaOne and will help us continue to increase productivity, reduce risks, and lower IT costs for our existing and future customers.”
Mr. Sapone has led some of the most successful high growth sales teams in the history of enterprise technology. Most recently, as senior vice president of sales at Snowflake, he led a team of hundreds that took the business from $1 billion to $4 billion in revenue. As VP of sales for commercial and emerging markets at ServiceNow, Mr. Sapone was brought in to build a new business unit that reached $1 billion in revenue. Before ServiceNow, he served in revenue leadership roles at a variety of pre-IPO and high growth companies – including as VP of sales at Nimble Storage, where he helped the company through a successful IPO, and as VP of sales at Data Domain, which is now part of Dell EMC.
At NinjaOne, Mr. Sapone will lead the global revenue teams to continue to build on the company’s growth and further drive success for its customers. “The opportunity at NinjaOne is unlike anything I’ve seen in my career,” he said. “The number of endpoints organizations use to propel their business is skyrocketing, which means automating endpoint management has never been more essential. The company’s founder-led, passionate culture and unmatched dedication to customer success are clear differentiators for NinjaOne. I look forward to working with my fellow Ninjas and our partners to help our customers become more profitable, productive, secure, and efficient.”
Mr. Sapone’s appointment comes on the heels of NinjaOne announcing a $5 billion valuation and $500 million in Series C extensions that will drive research and development focused on autonomous endpoint management, autonomous patching and vulnerability remediation, and expanded IT use cases that improve employee experiences with devices.
For over 40 years, SPMB Executive Search has worked alongside its clients to build executive teams that ensure venture capital and private equity-backed game-changers achieve scale, and position multi-billion-dollar public companies to unlock innovation. Specializing in technology and innovation, SPMB recruits upper management and board members to growth-oriented companies in tech, consumer, and sustainability industries. SPMB has also placed dozens of senior executives at the portfolio companies of leading private equity firm partners including Blackstone, KKR, and TPG.
Related: SPMB Recruits CFO for Emergence Capital
Mr. Barry joined SPMB as a managing partner and co-owner in 2004. Having completed over 400 retained searches, he has worked with a number of standout companies that have achieved categorical success in their respective markets. Recruiting CEOs, GMs, and vice president-level executives, Mr. Barry’s clients include Google, eBay, ServiceNow, VMWare, and Salesforce.com. More recently he has worked with Stripe, PagerDuty, Algolia, Major League Baseball, and Airbnb. Prior to joining SPMB, he played a key role at Pierce & Crow, a technology-focused search firm.
Go1 Search
SPMB recently placed Caitlin Haberberger as the new CFO of Go1. “On behalf of Steven Popper and our financial officer practice, SPMB Executive Search is thrilled to congratulate our client Go1 on welcoming Caitlin Haberberger to the executive team as chief financial officer,” the firm said in a LinkedIn post. “Caitlin’s proven track record of scaling high-growth SaaS companies, combined with her expertise in strategic finance leadership and M&A, makes her an exciting addition to Go1’s world-class team as they continue to transform corporate learning and development globally. Wishing Go1 continued success in the new year with the addition of Caitlin to its leadership team.”
Leading and Scaling with Talent
Talent has become the cornerstone of value creation in private equity, shaping the success of portfolio companies and driving superior returns. As traditional levers like financial engineering and cost optimization face diminishing returns, private equity firms are increasingly focused on leadership and operational excellence to unlock growth. The role of talent leaders has never been more critical—they are the architects of transformative strategies, aligning people and processes to maximize organizational potential and achieve sustainable scalability.
Hunt Scanlon Media is convening hundreds of operating partners, chief talent officers, and executive recruiters at the Harvard Club in New York on May 15, 2025. We will examine the vital role talent professionals play in driving value creation—from shaping investment strategies and operational initiatives to fostering leadership excellence and organizational growth.
Ms. Haberberger is a seasoned CFO with a track record of driving growth and value in high-growth, venture backed tech companies. Ms. Haberberger most recently served as CFO of Mezmo. She was brought on as the first CFO after Series C financing to build finance, accounting, IT, legal, and general business operations at this $40 million ARR venture backed data observability company.
Go1 is the world’s content expert and largest learning ecosystem powering the pursuit of potential. With expertly curated content spanning more than 80,000 courses from hundreds of industry-leading providers, Go1 delivers a seamless experience for both L&D leaders and employees in a single, easy-to-use platform. The company has raised over $400 million in funding from investors AirTree Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Five Sigma, Insight Partners, Madrona, Salesforce Ventures, SEEK Investments, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Y Combinator.
Related: SPMB Completes Search for NewView Capital
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
