Former Splunk CEO Doug Merritt becomes new leader for Aviatrix

The cloud networking start-up has hired Splunk’s former chief exec as its new president, CEO and chairman, while Aviatrix’s current leader heads for the exit

Splunk's former CEO, Doug Merritt, is taking the reins as CEO, president and chairman of cloud networking specialist Aviatrix Systems.

The company's current leader, Steve Mullaney, who propelled Aviatrix to achieve a $2bn valuation in 2021, will be leaving next month.

Aviatrix has been led by Mullaney for the past four years. He was the former CEO of Nicira, which was purchased by VMware in 2012, but came out of retirement to join Aviatrix in 2019 as the cloud computing market was growing significantly.

"[My] sweet spot as a leader is the $1 to $100 [million] stage, and Doug is elite at the $100 [million] to $1bn stage," Mullaney said to CRN in a statement via email.

Mullaney will be leaving the company and passing the baton to Merritt on July 6, 2023.

"Merritt will succeed Steve Mullaney, who for the past four years has built Aviatrix into an industry-defining enterprise cloud networking and network security company," said Aviatrix in a statement.

New CEO looks forward to ‘next phase' of Aviatrix

Merritt was previously president and CEO of Splunk before leaving in 2021 after private equity giant Silver Lake invested $1bn into Splunk.

During his six-year tenure as CEO, he led shifts in the company's technology roadmap, financial model, and go-to-market approach. Under Merritt's leadership, Splunk grew sales from the equivalent of $100m in annual recurring revenue (ARR) to nearly $3bn in 2022, Aviatrix touted.

"In my due diligence, it became evident that Aviatrix is leading the creation of a massive new category and that Fortune 500 companies already view Aviatrix as their trusted partner for secure cloud networking," said Merritt in a statement. "I'm grateful to Steve for instituting a ‘customer for life' mentality, backed by an incredible team, committed to driving innovation while putting customers first.

Merritt added that he looks forward to "leading the next phase of what is emerging as an iconic enterprise infrastructure company."