Akamai Announces CEO Succession

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- 

• Tom Leighton, Akamai Co-Founder, to become CEO effective January 1, 2013
• Company to host Investor Summit on March 11, 2013

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) today announced that the Akamai Board of Directors has elected company Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Tom Leighton to become CEO of Akamai effective January 1, 2013.  He will succeed Paul Sagan who announced earlier this year that he intended to step down as chief executive by the end of 2013.  Dr. Leighton and Mr. Sagan will remain Akamai directors, and Mr. Sagan will become a senior advisor to the company, working with Dr. Leighton on business strategy and to ensure a smooth management transition. 

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100225/AKAMAILOGO )

The company also announced today that it will host an investor summit at the Boston Marriott Cambridge on Monday, March 11, 2013, for Akamai management to present key company priorities, product roadmaps and insights into major IT trends related to security, cloud computing, mobile, video, and big data.

Since co-founding Akamai in 1998, Dr. Leighton has been responsible for Akamai's technology vision and has been one of the principal architects of the company's strategic direction while serving as Chief Scientist, as a member of Akamai's senior executive team, and on the Board of Directors.  Dr. Leighton is a renowned Internet technologist and has been a key driver of Akamai's transformation from Internet startup to leading cloud infrastructure services platform.  He has played a major role in charting the course for many of Akamai's key product innovations, strategic accomplishments, and technological breakthroughs, from site and application acceleration to Web security and cloud infrastructure services.

"Akamai is extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding executive with Tom's business and technology experience to lead Akamai's next phase of growth," said Mr. Sagan.  "He is an innovator with a deep understanding of the shifting landscape in public and private clouds, distributed computing platforms, and Internet security.  Tom has earned the trust and respect of our customers, partners, employees, and shareholders through his hard work and vision over the past 14 years.  He is supported by a highly experienced management team, and I join in the Board's unanimous support and confidence in Tom's ability to continue driving Akamai forward."

"We've made tremendous progress building Akamai by developing innovative cloud infrastructure services while continuing to grow our content delivery services," said Dr. Leighton.  "I am proud of what we have accomplished as a team, but I'm even more excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, driven by the pervasive use of the Internet in today's hyperconnected world.  Akamai is extremely well positioned to offer innovative new solutions on our unique Intelligent Platform that are designed to help our customers succeed by harnessing the power of cloud computing, mobile solutions, online video, and big data, all while protecting their business from the increasing threat of cyber attacks."

The company announced in April that it was starting an independent director-led search to name a new CEO to succeed Mr. Sagan, who has served as CEO since 2005.  Under Mr. Sagan's leadership, the company surpassed $1 billion dollars in annual revenue, completed numerous strategic acquisitions, and emerged as a leader in Internet performance and cloud infrastructure services.  "Working with Paul for more than a decade has been a tremendous experience," said Dr. Leighton, "and I look forward to continuing to collaborate closely with him in the future."

"When we began evaluating our options for the next CEO of Akamai, our objective was simply to have the best possible leadership team in place for continued growth and innovation in the years ahead, and that's what we're doing with Tom's appointment," explained Martin Coyne II, Lead Director of Akamai's Board.  "We conducted an exhaustive review of the company's strategy and opportunities as we evaluated a broad range of potential candidates.  We are confident that naming Tom is the best and most natural evolution of management responsibility at Akamai."

George H. Conrades, Chairman of the Akamai Board, added, "Innovation has been fundamental to Akamai's success from the beginning and will be even more so in the future. Tom has led Akamai's focus on innovation since day one, working directly with customers and partners on breakthrough technologies for leveraging the power of distributed computing.  As a Board, we are excited about Akamai's prospects for delivering even greater customer value under Tom's leadership.  We also are extremely grateful for Paul's outstanding contributions to Akamai's success and his sterling record of accomplishment that built Akamai into an S&P 500 company. We are delighted that he will continue in an active role supporting Tom and the entire leadership team."

Prior to founding Akamai, Dr. Leighton was a Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT and a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).  Dr. Leighton holds numerous patents involving content delivery, Internet protocols, network algorithms, distributed computing, cryptography, and digital rights management.   From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Leighton served on the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), during which time he chaired the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity.  Dr. Leighton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.

About Akamai
Akamai^® is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere.  At the core of the Company's solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing extensive reach, coupled with unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise.  Akamai removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud.  To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to delay in developing or failure to develop innovative new service offerings or functionalities, and if developed, lack of market acceptance of such service offerings and functionalities or failure of such solutions to operate as expected, and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.