Virtana, San Jose, CA: Kash Shaikh, President & CEO

Company: Virtana, Palo Alto, CA
Company Description: Virtana delivers the industry’s first unified observability platform for migrating, optimizing, and managing application workloads across public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. With Virtana Platform, enterprises can confidently speed cloud adoption and reduce cloud operating costs by simplifying management of their IT environments.
Nomination Category: Information Technology Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Information Technology Executive of the Year
2022 Stevie Winner Nomination Title: Kash Shaikh

  1. Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated information technology executive's achievements since the beginning of 2020, OR an essay of up to 650 words? (Choose one):
    An essay of up to 650 words
  2. If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video:

    Over-attainment of revenue, Introduced core culture behaviors, Introduced Virtana Platform, Named Coolest Cloud by CRN, Customer-first Company by Gartner, Best Software/SaaS Company , Most Influential CEO, Authentic Leadership Award 

  3. If you are providing an essay of up to 650 words, place it in the following space:

    Total 333 words used.

    Kash began his role as CEO and President during the pandemic, coming from an executive leadership position at Dell; the situation required him to immediately connect and communicate with the entire Virtana team (virtually) to establish confidence and trust. Given his passion for servant-based leadership, as shaped by many mentors, he felt it crucial to connect and see how he could help right away. This employee-centric mindset came easily to Kash; he came from very humble beginnings with no running water in Pakistan and worked his way up to running a technology company in Silicon Valley. He is incredibly humble and hardworking. 

    Kash believes that the job of a CEO is to create a compelling vision and strategy, then rally the company to execute. A CEO also needs to remove friction for employees so that they can deliver their best work and grow professionally and personally. Doing that remotely was an additional layer of complexity, but what was accomplished throughout this time is something to be extremely proud of and these notable metrics confirm his success. 

    In his first year alone, Kash and the Executive Leadership Team led Virtana to: 

    1. YTD 120% over-attainment of revenue, leading to profitability ahead of the plan

    2. Introduced Channel-led and Product-led growth (PLG) strategies

    3. Introduced Virtana Cultural Core Behaviors and a Remote-first culture

    4. Introduced the Virtana Platform

    Additionally, Virtana was recently named:

    1. One of the 100 Coolest Cloud Companies in the world by CRN
    2. Customer-First by Gartner based on our 5-star customer ratings on Gartner's peer insights.
    3. One of the 10 Cloud companies reducing public cloud cost by Business Insider.
    4. Best ‘Software/SaaS Company’ by Best of San Jose
    5. Virtana Platform was named one of the domain-centric AIOps platforms by Gartner

    Kash was named Most Influential CEO of 2021 and was awarded the Authentic Leadership Award by the National Diversity Council. All of this was achieved due to a dedicated and motivated workforce, evidenced by a 4.7 star company rating onGlassdoor and Comparably based on employee feedback.

  4. In bullet-list form, provide a brief summary (up to 150 words) of up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of the nominated information technology executive since the beginning of 2020:

    Total 116 words used.

    1. YTD 120% over-attainment of revenue, leading to profitability ahead of the plan

    2. Introduced Channel-led and Product-led growth (PLG) strategies

    3. Introduced Virtana Cultural Core Behaviors and a remote-first culture

    4. Introduced Virtana Platform for Radically Simple Hybrid Cloud Transformation and Cost Management

    5. Virtana names Coolest Cloud Company in the world by CRN

    6. Customer-First by Gartner based on our 5-star customer ratings on Gartner's peer insights.

    7. One of the 10 Cloud companies reducing public cloud cost by Business Insider.

    8. Best ‘Software/SaaS Company’ by Best of San Jose

    9. Virtana Platform was named one of thedomain-centric AIOps platforms by Gartner

    10. Kash was named a Most Influential CEO of 2021 and awarded the Authentic Leadership Award by the National Diversity Council.

Attachments/Videos/Links:
Kash Shaikh
URL www.virtana.com/blog/virtana-joins-the-gartner-peer-insights-customer-first-program-for-itom-it-operations-management/