Impala has appointed Marisa Sires as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Guy Miasnik, who will remain Executive Chairman of the Board.
Sires takes on the role with immediate effect after serving as Chief Product Officer since 2024. In that position, she led the company's technology and product organisation and worked on customer accounts, product development, and artificial intelligence strategy.
The leadership change comes as the New York-based company expands its work with foundations, nonprofits, and philanthropic networks. Impala sells data and software tools for organisations in the philanthropic sector.
Miasnik will continue to oversee governance and long-term strategy, while Sires assumes day-to-day leadership of the business. The transition follows a period of growth under Miasnik, during which annual recurring revenue rose 60% and the customer base surpassed 150 paying organisations.
During that time, Impala combined separate products into Impala Suite 2.0, a unified set of tools for grantmakers, nonprofits, networks, and consultants. It also introduced Philanthropy Hubs and launched its MCP Server, an early move to make its data available within AI environments.
Sires joined Impala in 2024 and has spent much of her career in product and technology roles. Her background includes software as a service, mobility, and real estate technology, including sectors that have often received limited technology investment.
She also helped secure and expand some of the company's largest customer relationships. Impala said she made product development more agile and predictable while remaining closely involved with customers and sales teams.
Commenting on the appointment, Miasnik said Sires had played a central role in shaping the company's direction in product and AI.
"Marisa brings a rare combination of product leadership and a customer-focused approach to solving problems," said Guy Miasnik, Executive Chairman of the Board, Impala. "She understands the technology, but she also listens closely to organizations and turns complex needs into products they can actually use. She has been instrumental in developing Impala's AI strategy and is the natural leader to carry it forward."
Sector focus
Impala positions itself as a provider of data intelligence for philanthropy, serving foundations, nonprofits, and networks seeking to understand funding relationships and decision-making patterns. Its products are built around the practical workings of the sector, including relationships and ecosystem dynamics.
Its customers include the Robin Hood Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Minnesota Council on Foundations. The focus reflects a broader push among specialist software providers to apply AI tools to sectors with complex, fragmented data sets and relationship-driven workflows.
Sires framed the company's next phase around how organisations use data, not just how they access it.
"Philanthropy is at an inflection point," said Sires. "The opportunity is to give organizations not just better data, but the ability to put that data to work in pursuit of their missions. AI can help them move from finding information to understanding what it means and acting on it. Impala has built the trusted data foundation to make that possible, and I'm excited to lead the company as we expand what organizations can do with it."
Board member Jeffrey Neiman, who is also Lead Investor at the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, said the board viewed Sires as central to the company's development to date.
"Impala has become essential infrastructure for how the philanthropic sector operates, and its trajectory reflects just how much this space needs better intelligence and technology," said Neiman. "Marisa has been central to building Impala into what it is today, and we're confident she will maintain the company's growth as it takes on an even larger role in the sector."