In a surprise move just nine days into 2025, Kaseya announced that longtime CEO Fred Voccola has given up the CEO’s seat and is now the company’s board vice chairman.
In a conversation with ChannelE2E at Dattocon 2024 in Miami, Florida, Voccola hinted that Kaseya would be making some big announcements in January and February 2025 -- February 13, to be exact -- and later this spring at Kaseya Connect. Is this one of them?
Dan Olds, principal analyst at Olds Research, told ChannelE2E that since Kaseya was performing well “over a sustained period of time and the lack of any other red flags,” he was not able to speculate on what led to the leadership move. “If it were family or health-related, or [if he was] just tired of the grind, something like that would typically be alluded to in some way in the announcement,” said Olds. “I have no idea what could be going on here, but listen closely, another shoe will drop sooner or later.”
Kaseya released a statement asserting that Voccola, who has led the cybersecurity and IT management software company as CEO for 10 years, is making the move to “focus on long-term innovation and strategy while helping the board hire a new CEO to run day-to-day operations as Kaseya enters its next phase of growth and lays the foundation for a potential public offering."
In the statement, Voccola said that with Kaseya “coming off the strongest quarter and year in our history, now is the right time for me to step up into the role of Vice Chairman and hand over operating responsibilities to a new CEO.”
In response to several questions from ChannelE2E about the surprise announcement, Xavier Gonzalez, Kaseya’s chief communications officer, said in an emailed statement, "Fred joined as CEO over 10 years ago, and accomplished far more than he initially set out to do in this role. After the introduction of the highly successful Kaseya 365 last year, both Fred and the board believe it's the right time for him to step up into the role of vice chairman and find a new leader to usher Kaseya into its next phase."
Is There More to the Story?
Shelly Kramer, managing director and principal analyst for theCUBE Research, told ChannelE2E, “When I see news like this, I immediately wonder if there is more to the story.”
"[Voccola] has often been described as ‘hard charging’ and ‘outspoken,’" Kramer said. In cases where executives abdicate their role, there's often speculation that they may have been involved in something that could potentially have a negative impact on the company as a whole had they continued in the role, she said.
In this case, continued Kramer, “transitioning to the board and being involved in the search for a new CEO is a soft landing, indicates to me that if there is something negative at play, it can't be too negative or he would have been fully removed. All in all, it looks like onward and upward is the path Kaseya is taking, and it's a reminder to us all that no one, at any level in any organization, is (or should be considered) irreplaceable.”
Since Voccola took the CEO role in 2015, Kaseya has grown from a single-product provider into a comprehensive platform with over $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, according to the company.
Kaseya is owned by private equity firm Insight Partners. Mike Triplett, the managing director of Insight Partners, said in a statement that Voccola’s move to vice chair “will enable him to focus on the long-range innovation and go-to-market strategies that will ensure Kaseya’s long-term success and prepare the company for a potential IPO.”
Kevin Thompson, a member of the Kaseya board and CEO of Tricentis, which is also owned by Insight Partners, will play a key role in Voccola’s transition and will help Voccola identify the company’s next CEO, according to Kaseya.
Voccola’s Background at Kaseya
Voccola led Kaseya as CEO through record growth through his 10 years inside the company. He came to Kaseya from Yodle’s Brand Networks Division, where he served as president and general manager, providing digital and market automation products to SMBs. He also previously served as the president at Nolio, Inc., a DevOps SaaS company, before it was sold to the former CA Technologies. He also co-founded and served as president and CEO of Trust Technology Corp. before it was sold to FGI Global. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
In an illuminating Q&A with ChannelE2E in February of 2023, Voccola spoke on a wide range of topics and initiatives he was working on inside the company.
