After just a year and a half in the role, Kirill Tatarinov is out as president and CEO of Citrix.
Citrix Systems released a statement Monday evening announcing that David J. Henshall, chief financial officer and chief operating officer, has been appointed as the new president and CEO effective immediately.
While the company offered no real reason for the change, it said that the separation with Tatarinov was mutual. Tatarinov posted on Twitter shortly after acknowledging the change, and looking towards the future.
Today, I am stepping down as CEO @citrix. Proud of what we achieved & confident in their future. Amazing turnaround. Onwards!
— Kirill Tatarinov (@KirillTatarinov) July 10, 2017
According to the Citrix board, Henshall and the leadership team will ‘drive the company’s long-term strategy and growth’ regarding the company’s cloud transformation. That strategy includes a ‘series of strategic initiatives intended to drive operating margin expansion, increase capital return, and facilitate further investment in accelerating Citrix’ transformation to a cloud-based subscription business and in high-growth areas such as data security and analytics services’.
“We have a talented team at Citrix, and I am honored to lead Citrix through this new chapter. We have created an impressive platform of best-in-class products and services that customers and partners rely on every day to embrace the future of work. I can assure you that we will continue to deliver and innovate for our customers and partners as we move forward as a more powerful Citrix. Citrix will also leverage [Robert Calderoni, executive chairman of the Citrix board]’s extensive experience successfully leading software companies through a transition to the cloud and establishing subscription-based businesses,” said Henshall.
For more information on the future of Citrix, stay tuned to the company’s upcoming second quarter earnings call this August.
This CEO change comes just a few months after Citrix was rumored to be working with Goldman Sachs to sell the company. Additionally, Citrix hired a new global channel chief at the beginning of the year. At Citrix Synergy 2017 this May, the company announced a new cloud-first solution.
Mark M. Coyle, senior vice president of finance at Citrix, will take over as interim CFO for the time being. Citrix has retained an executive search firm to assist with the official CFO and COO appointments.
