LiveAction appoints Francine Geist as CEO
LiveAction announced that the company’s Board of Directors has appointed Francine Geist as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
A B2B software industry veteran, Geist has served as LiveAction’s Chief Financial Officer since joining the company in 2019 and has since taken on successive responsibilities as the Chief Operating Officer and more recently as President. Steve Stuut has retired from his role as CEO and been named Executive Chairman and a member of the LiveAction Board.
“Over the last several years, LiveAction has seen record growth, heavily invested in product innovation, and continued to build a world class team designed to help customers and partners overcome the most advanced networking and security challenges,” said Steve Stuut, Executive Chairman at LiveAction. “It’s been an honor to serve as the CEO at LiveAction and work with a talented leader like Francine, whose leadership ability was very visible from when she first joined my team. She’s been heavily involved in guiding the strategic direction of LiveAction, resulting in the company delivering record growth in 2021.
“Francine led several key initiatives, including a shift to a subscription-based software model and a focus on customer success, which led to a greater than 350% increase in net new ARR. Her keen understanding of the networking and security space, combined with her leadership skills and expertise in leading performance driven GTM teams, will ensure the company continues this momentum in the future.”
Geist has more than 25 years of senior management experience, leading financial strategy, operations, and GTM for B2B software and data companies. Prior to LiveAction, she served as the Deputy CFO and VP of Finance at INTTRA, a software and network business for the shipping industry where she led the company through a successful exit and sale to E2Open.
She also previously served as the VP of Global Sales Operations and Finance at TravelClick, a private-equity sponsored global provider of cloud-based data solutions for maximizing hotel revenue, and spent 10 years with Dun & Bradstreet, a leading provider of B2B commercial information and insights. Geist began her career with Deloitte & Touche and has an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
“The world has experienced unprecedented challenges over the last two years and Steve’s leadership as CEO has been crucial to LiveAction’s continued success. His knowledge will continue to be invaluable as the Executive Chairman and member of the board,” said Mike Triplett, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “On the flip side, we’re extremely excited that Francine will be stepping into the CEO leadership role and we’re confident in her ability to lead this next phase of growth for LiveAction and its customers. She’s a proven leader that has demonstrated throughout her career that she drives results and builds strong teams.”
“Leading enterprises around the world rely on LiveAction’s network performance monitoring and security solutions to gain visibility into their networks and to remediate problems quickly. With the launch of ThreatEye NV earlier this year, we’re working to give our customers a unified platform for security incident detection and response,” said Francine Geist, CEO at LiveAction. “Steve has done a fantastic job laying the foundation for future growth and I am committed to investing in product innovation, and operational excellence to drive business growth and better support our customers and partners.“