Akamai Technologies Inc. announced the execution of its transition plan by promoting James Benson, Akamai’s senior vice president of Finance, to succeed J. Donald (JD) Sherman as executive vice president and chief financial officer. The changes will take effect March 1.
Sherman is leaving to become president and chief operating officer of marketing software company HubSpot, having served as Akamai’s chief financial officer since 2006.
Benson will report directly to Paul Sagan, Akamai’s president and CEO. He joined Akamai from Hewlett Packard in 2009, having served previously as vice president, Finance/Operations and chief financial officer for HP’s Americas Technology Solutions Group. Earlier, Benson held a series of executive positions in finance at HP, Compaq Computer Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp.
In other Akamai news, Akamai Technologies Inc. announced Wednesday that it has acquired Blaze Software Inc., a provider of frontend optimization (FEO) technology, for an undisclosed amount in a cash transaction. The acquisition is expected to complement Akamai’s site acceleration solutions with technology designed to optimize the speed at which a web page is rendered, regardless of end user device.
Based in Ottawa, Canada, Blaze was founded in 2010 as a cloud-based service to improve the speed and performance of websites and Web-based businesses.
Related links:
Benson press release – http://tinyurl.com/7deshuv
Blaze acquisition press release – http://tinyurl.com/88vmg2l
