New Relic Inc., the observability company, announced the promotion of its new CEO Bill Staples effective July 1, 2021. Staples will succeed Founder & CEO Lew Cirne who will transition to Executive Chairman of the Board.

Cirne will continue his legacy and passion for his love of software as an inventor, technologist and strategist, and will continue driving transformational innovation for the company, its customers and the tech community. Lew Cirne, founder & CEO at New Relic noted:

“When we recruited Bill into the company, we thought that he would be the natural successor to me as CEO at the right time. With his immediate and profound impact on our platform and our Product organization, and now more broadly across the company with his inspiring vision, strategy and passion for our customers and their success, Bill has exceeded our highest expectations as a strategic thinker and operational leader, making now the right time to make this transition.”

Hope Cochran, New Relic Board Chair also commented:

“Bill’s transformational impact on New Relic has positioned the company for long-term success. With the foundation that Lew built and Bill’s leadership, New Relic has a very bright future ahead and a clear path to accelerate growth as the leader in observability.”

Staples joined New Relic as chief product officer in early 2020 and was later promoted to president & CPO. He has been a champion for the company’s embrace of open source and open telemetry and was instrumental in the company’s recent acquisition of Pixie Labs.

Staples worked previously at both Microsoft and Adobe, where he successfully led transformative product, cultural and technical innovation, helping both companies expand their cloud portfolios with developers and IT as the customer.

“I am incredibly humbled and grateful for the confidence of the New Relic Board and leadership team in trusting me with the opportunity to lead New Relic into the future. It’s an honour and a privilege to work among such an incredibly talented and genuine team–I’m inspired every day by our culture of innovation and each and every Relic’s passion for delivering value to our customers every day.”

Lew Cirne has been a prolific inventor and innovator for around twenty-three years. Early in his career, he held senior technical positions at Apple and Hummingbird Communications, Cirne also founded Wily Technology.