Cloudreach founder Noren steps aside as CEO

Pontus Noren moves up to vice chairman role, with former Microsoft VP Aaron Painter coming in as chief exec

Cloudreach co-founder Pontus Noren has stepped aside as the firm's CEO to become vice chairman.

Noren (pictured), who founded Cloudreach in 2009, will be replaced by Aaron Painter, who was most recently based in China as a Microsoft VP and general manager.

The management change comes after Cloudreach was acquired by private equity firm Blackstone last year.

Noren said: "I could not be more proud of all that the Cloudreach team has accomplished over the past nine years, and the role we have played in changing the IT industry forever.

"Cloudreach has achieved tremendous expansion and scale, making this an opportune time for me to transition to my new role as vice chairman and provide continued support to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us.

"Aaron's experience, combined with his leadership and global immersion, uniquely positions him to lead Cloudreach and I look forward to supporting the company's continued progress under his direction."

Microsoft and Amazon partner Cloudreach has around 600 employees and services 250 enterprise customers.

New CEO Painter said: "I am excited to take on this role at such an important time of digital transformation.

"Cloud computing has become universally available, and similar to the early days of electricity, the opportunity for innovation at scale comes from the applications which become connected, the massive amounts of data collected, and the business insights that become actionable.

"Cloudreach has the proven solutions, cloud-native culture, and industry experience to enable any organisation to become a digital leader in this new paradigm."