I’m excited to share the news, just out this morning, that Mark Davies will soon join Automattic as Chief Financial Officer.
I joined Automattic as CFO in 2012 when we had about 100 employees and were in the early days of scaling the business. I had helped organizations grow from that level before; my skills and passions were an excellent fit. Since then, we’ve built Automattic to over 1,100 people, increased revenue by 10x, and welcomed some fantastic new investors. It’s been amazing.
I’m as passionate about Automattic today as I was when I first arrived. But we are a different organization at a different stage that needs a different set of skills and experience from its CFO. When we began this search in January, I had three attributes in mind for an ideal candidate: the know-how, record of success, and interest in building finance for companies of thousands of staff and billions of dollars in revenue across multiple business lines; fluency with the subscription business model; and enough experience working with iconic founders to keep up with Automattic’s inimitable Matt Mullenweg.
Mark matches those attributes perfectly and is an exceptional fit with what Automattic needs now. He has built and managed successful finance teams at large organizations ranging from Vivint to Alcoa to Dell. He spent the past six years building a recurring revenue business. And he spent a decade working closely with Michael Dell, one of technology’s most iconic founders. It’s rare to complete a search with a 100% hit rate on your ideal attributes. With Mark, I believe we did.
The only bittersweet thing is that it means I’ll spend less time with the teams I’ve built over the past few years. As I’ve said here on this blog, I consider these to be some of the most talented, committed, and passionate people on earth. I am so proud to have been able to lead and learn from them. It was important to me that they be in good hands with a new CFO; I’m confident they will be.
Welcome, Mark! I believe you’re going to have a huge impact at Automattic and look forward to supporting your transition into the role.
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