Hootsuite has named a new CEO, Tom Keiser to replace their founder, Ryan Holmes. After a search for nearly eight months, Holmes will finally hand over the reins of his Vancouver based tech company to Tom Keiser.
Tom Keiser, the former chief operating officer at Zendesk, headquartered in San Francisco, will take over Hootsuite on July 6. During his four year stint with Zendesk, Keiser has been known to drive up the annual revenue from $200 million to nearly $1 billion and an employee strength from 1000 to 4000 employees.
Holmes had launched this startup, in 2008 to enable users to handle multiple social media accounts and provide analytics on them. In 2019, the company was valued at $750 million, with about 1000 employees, 15 offices globally, and serving up to 200,000 paying customers.
Holmes’s thoughts on social media “reckoning”
He mentioned that he is stepping down as CEO with thoughts of “reckoning” underway for social media accounts, Facebook, and Twitter. Adding to it, he also said that a bit of government insight is required on the tech giants, similar to what happened to newspapers, radio, and television about 15 years after they reached a critical mass.
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Referring to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he mentioned that companies that have transformed the workplace, politics, and society need to be held accountable for their influence. Cambridge Analytics, a political data firm had allegedly gained access to the private information of millions of Facebook users after it was hired for US President Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016.
Tom Keiser, the new CEO for Hootsuite
In the company news release, Keiser said that he is excited and proud to join the company, a pioneer in social media management software, and is looking forward to building off the momentum created at Hootsuite to help lead it in the next stage of growth.
Before his employment at Zendesk, Keiser also served as the executive vice president of global product operations for Gap Inc., which owns Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores. Both Zendesk and Gap Inc are companies, traded in the New York Stock Exchange.
Holmes will continue as board chairman for Hootsuite. As for his future, he plans to spend more time with his family and keeping himself busy with initiatives including his League of Innovator charity. This charity is aimed at helping budding entrepreneurs to accelerate business projects in Canada.