Global business applications provider Infor has announced a planned leadership transition through which Kevin Samuelson, who has served as Infor’s CFO, has been named Chief Executive Officer.
Charles Phillips, who has served as CEO since 2010, has been named Chairman of Infor’s Board of Directors. Samuelson will also join Infor’s Board of Directors.
Samuelson is one of the longest tenured executives at Infor, having spent 14 years between M&A and CFO roles. Samuelson was instrumental in driving strategic acquisitions for Infor, helping grow the company from $35 million in annual revenue, to $3 billion, as well as securing enduring investment partners. Samuelson has also been actively involved in a broad array of Infor’s operational and sales activities and has played a key role in several of the company’s recent large customer wins.
“Charles’s guidance and leadership helped shape this company into a market leading provider of multitenant, cloud-based ERP applications. Our vision is to build on Infor’s impressive trajectory, continually evolve our range of SaaS products that allow for quick and material ROI and value add for our customers and provide first-class service at every step of the journey,” said Samuelson.
Phillips’s tenure as CEO has seen unprecedented growth and expansion of Infor with more than $2.5 billion invested in product design and development in the past five years.
Phillips, in addition to Samuelson and Soma Somasundaram (President and CTO), have played critical roles in overseeing and perfecting Infor’s current product suite and shifting the company to the cloud. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Phillips will focus on strategy development, customer relationships, and new acquisitions.
Phillips said, “I’m extremely proud of the team’s accomplishments during my tenure. It is the right time to evolve our executive leadership as we continue to drive innovation in the industry. Kevin is a talented leader and I look forward to working with him and our experienced team as Chairman. I am confident Kevin and his leadership team will take Infor to the next level of growth, successfully implement our business strategy, and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Infor has great people and is poised for growth in its unique mission as the first industry cloud company.”
Infor has made several additional senior leadership appointments that support the evolution of the company’s operating model to enhance sales, service and customer functions by geography, as well as support its long-term growth strategy:
• Soma Somasundaram, who has been with the company for over two decades, will take on the newly created President of Products position, in addition to maintaining his current role as CTO.
• Jay Hopkins has been promoted from Chief Accounting Officer to CFO.
• Cormac Watters has been promoted to General Manager, Head of International Markets.
• Rod Johnson has been promoted to General Manager, Head of Americas.
All leadership appointments announced today are effective immediately.