Buildkite appoints Kevin Gounden as CEO to lead AI software push
Buildkite has appointed Kevin Gounden as its new Chief Executive Officer, adding to a recent series of executive hires as the company addresses its next phase in AI-enabled software delivery.
Kevin Gounden's appointment follows the company's recent expansion of its leadership team, including new Chief Technology Officer James Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer Jay Wampold, and Chief Financial Officer Francine Hackett. The company's software delivery platform is used daily by engineering teams within well-known organisations such as Airbnb, Block, Canva, Cruise, Culture Amp, Elastic, Lyft, PagerDuty, Pinterest, PlanetScale, Rippling, Shopify, Slack, Tinder, Twilio, Uber, and Wayfair.
Gounden brings over 20 years of experience leading technology businesses and global product organisations. Before joining Buildkite, he served as Chief Product Officer at Lightcast and Randstad, where he oversaw innovation and led product strategy and global expansion in over 70 countries. His background includes founding and leading SaaS ventures, alongside expertise in technical and operational management of large-scale software platforms.
"I'm extremely excited to be joining Buildkite at such a pivotal moment for the company, the developer ecosystem, and the software industry as a whole," said Gounden. "Buildkite's software delivery platform has become the gold standard for the world's top companies and engineering teams, and I look forward to working with this talented team to accelerate our product innovation, extend our global impact, and help more customers of every size and type deliver world-class software with confidence."
Barry Crist, Chairman of the Board, commented on Gounden's appointment, stating, "Kevin brings exceptional product leadership, technical depth, and entrepreneurial drive to Buildkite. His experience scaling global technology businesses and developing enterprise-grade solutions makes him the ideal CEO to guide Buildkite's next chapter of growth and innovation."
Expanded leadership
James Wilson, who became Chief Technology Officer in February, has more than two decades of experience leading engineering teams and managing cloud and AI/ML transformation at companies including Apple, AWS, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He was most recently Chief Digital Technology Officer at WooliesX, where he focused on digital transformation and customer innovation. His track record includes leading iOS platform development at Apple and deploying machine learning for network monitoring at AWS.
Jay Wampold, Chief Marketing Officer, joined the business in February 2024, and brings almost 30 years of marketing leadership in technology. Previously, he has held senior marketing positions with Isilon Systems, Chef Software, Amazon Web Services, Pulumi, and CommerceIQ. Wampold was instrumental in promoting DevOps practices at Chef Software and in developing the "FinOps" category at Cloudability, which preceded its acquisition by Apptio.
The company's finance function is now led by Francine Hackett, Chief Financial Officer, who took up the position in December 2024. Hackett has experience in financial leadership and business operations with firms including Tractor Ventures, Pearson, and Randstad RiseSmart. She is credited with strategic risk management, oversight of mergers and acquisitions, business transformation, and digital finance initiatives, and is known for her commitment to governance and organisational excellence.
Board confidence
The company's board has underlined its confidence in the new leadership team. Crist commented, "We welcome Kevin, James, Jay and Francine at a time when the board has never been more confident about Buildkite's future. Our expanded leadership team brings unparalleled expertise and a shared passion for empowering developers everywhere. Together, we are uniquely positioned to accelerate innovation, drive global growth, and help customers of every size deliver world-class software with greater speed, scale, and confidence."
