Teradata names Steve McMillan as new CEO
Teradata on Thursday announced that its board of directors has named Steve McMillan as the company's new president and CEO. McMillan, who most recently served as EVP of Global Services at F5 Networks, will take the helm on June 8. He will also join Teradata's board of directors.
McMillan's appointment follows a period of tumult for Teradata, which is in the process of transitioning to a subscription business.
Teradata's current interim president and CEO Victor Lund will step down from the company's board of directors once McMillan has joined the company. Lund took charge in November, after the previous CEO, Oliver Ratzesberger, stepped down after less than a year in the role. As Tony Baer noted for ZDNet, the CEO switch was surprising at the time, given that Ratzesberger had been groomed for the position after launching Teradata's transformation process.
Mike Gianoni, chairman of the Teradata Board of Directors, praised McMillan as a "proven leader with tremendous operational experience and business acumen." He added, "He has a unique ability to bring people together to achieve outstanding results and drive companywide transformations to the cloud. His vision for how data will be leveraged around the world is precisely what Teradata needs as we accelerate our transformation, customer success, product innovation, and return to growth."
At F5, McMillan was responsible for more than half of worldwide operations, overseeing the company's worldwide services organization, including global support, consulting and services teams. Prior to that, he held senior leadership roles at major, blue-chip companies, such as Oracle and IBM.
"It is a privilege to have the opportunity to lead Teradata in the next chapter of its growth strategy," McMillan said in a statement. "Leveraging insights from data has never been more important, and Teradata is leading the way in helping global enterprises unlock real business value from this asset. Teradata has a unique position in a large market, best-in-class technology, a blue-chip customer base, and talented employees. I intend to take a customer-led approach and bring my collaborative and open leadership style to this great franchise to advance its strategy and to ensure Teradata is the partner of choice for customers around the world who need hybrid, cloud-based solutions."
Teradata also published its Q1 2020 results on Thursday and saw its shares fall nearly 10 percent after failing to meet revenue expectations.
Total first quarter revenue was $434 million, down from $468 million a year prior. Teradata said that in the second half of March, the company saw a significant number of deals postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively impacted its Q1 results.