Uptake names Kayne Grau as CEO
Uptake announced the appointment of its President, Kayne Grau, to the role of Chief Executive Officer along with his election to its Board of Directors. Founder Brad Keywell will transition to the role of Executive Chairman of the Board.
Grau’s expanded leadership role will focus on fortifying Uptake’s unique industrial intelligence while enhancing the ease of deployment and speed to value of Uptake’s products. Keywell will remain active in Uptake’s growth, continuing to establish and expand strategic relationships with customers, partners, and industry.
“I could not be more excited to pass the torch to Kayne as Uptake embarks on our next phase of expansion and growth,” said Brad Keywell, Executive Chairman of Uptake. “Kayne’s strong leadership as our President, his commitment to the excellence of Uptake’s industrial intelligence products, and his passion for our people and our customers have been integral to our growth and helped to position us for future success. Kayne brings both strategic vision and deep operational expertise to the CEO role, and I have the utmost confidence in him and our entire executive leadership team going forward.”
Since Uptake appointed Grau as President last September, the company has experienced significant customer growth. In February 2021, Uptake acquired ShookIOT, deepening its global footprint in the chemical, oil, gas, and process industries through cloud-native operational technology (OT) data management.
With deployments in 20 countries, Uptake recently expanded its relationship with the U.S. Beverage and Frito-Lay fleets of PepsiCo. Uptake’s products are also now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace and have simple integration plug-ins to legacy systems, including IBM Maximo, SAP, Infor EAM, and Oracle.
“Uptake’s mission –– framed by industrial intelligence delivered through proprietary data and easy-to-deploy, simple-to-use products –– has galvanized industrial operators to harness the immense value within their data,” said Grau. “Today, Uptake is unique in its ability to transform messy and confusing industrial data into actionable insight. I am honored that Brad has entrusted me as CEO, and our entire team is focused on growth that builds on our momentum.”
Prior to Uptake, Grau held various executive roles at KAR Global. He led the creation of its data analytics business unit and data products and services, extending its presence across physical, online, and digital auction marketplaces for used cars.
Grau was previously the CEO at DRIVIN, a company he co-founded with Brad Keywell, until its acquisition by KAR in 2017. Before then, he served in various management roles at Music Dealers, Cars.com, Allstate, and Apartments.com, where he was CTO at the time of its sale to the CoStar Group in 2014 for $585 million.
Looking toward the future of industrial analytics, Grau added: “Outcome-oriented insights from Uptake help companies in Chicago, across the U.S., and around the world optimize the investments they have already made. Our products are delivering verified results in ESG initiatives, helping operators calibrate CapEx and reduce OpEx, and creating new sources of visibility to enable greater reliability and productivity.
Uptake prides itself on being a seamless partner to industries, accelerating digital transformation, and enabling increased sustainability while mitigating risk.”