Splunk announced that Godfrey Sullivan, Splunk President and CEO, has informed the Board of Directors that he will retire as President and CEO effective November 19, 2015.
The Board has appointed Doug Merritt, who previously served as the Company’s SVP, Field Operations, as President and CEO of the Company and has appointed Merritt to the Board of Directors, effective Thursday, November 19, 2015.
Sullivan will remain on the Board and serve as non-executive Board Chair. Sullivan will continue to work closely with the Board and with Merritt to ensure a smooth transition and implementation of Splunk’s long-term strategy.
“Since joining Splunk in 2008, Godfrey has been an outstanding and inspirational leader, growing the Company from 750 customers and $18 million of annual revenue to over 10,000 customers and trailing 12 month revenues of nearly $600 million,” said John Connors, lead independent director. “Godfrey has led Splunk to become the market leader in operational intelligence software, both in the cloud and on premises. He has also built a deep and talented management team that is well positioned, with Doug Merritt’s leadership, to continue Splunk’s momentum, disruptive innovation and success for many years to come.”
“Doug brings enormous management, sales, product and marketing skills to his new role,” Connors continued. “As senior vice president for field operations for Splunk, Doug has consistently delivered outstanding financial results. He has continued to build a world-class field organization and channel that are taking Splunk and its customers to new levels of success. Doug has served as a CEO and has also held senior leadership roles at large enterprise companies including Cisco, SAP, and PeopleSoft. We look forward to his continued outstanding performance as President and CEO and as a member of the Board.”
“I have never felt more excited about Splunk’s people, products and market opportunity,” said Sullivan. “Customers are delighted with the value our products deliver and are expanding their use of Splunk solutions across their organizations. We have incredible talent throughout the organization who are enabling our customers’ success every day and are the foundation of our future growth. I've enjoyed driving the Board's ongoing succession planning and appreciate their focus on this important process. With the outstanding financial results that we are reporting today and the outlook for the rest of the year and FY17, I have concluded that now is the right time for me to make the logical progression to non-executive chair. I am pleased to pass the President and CEO baton to Doug, an enormously capable leader and executive.”
“I am extremely honored and thrilled to become President and CEO of Splunk - one of the most disruptive, innovative and successful companies in technology,” said Merritt. “We will continue our laser focus on becoming the data fabric for businesses, government agencies, universities, and organizations. Our innovative products, outstanding people, and over 10,000 enthusiastic customers form a solid foundation upon which to build our future growth and success. I look forward to working with Godfrey on a smooth transition.”
Doug Merritt has served as SVP of Field Operations at Splunk since 2014. Prior to joining Splunk, Merritt served as SVP of Products and Solutions Marketing at Cisco Systems, from 2012 to 2014. From 2011 to 2012, he served as CEO of Baynote, a behavioral personalization and marketing technology company. Previously, Merritt served in a number of executive roles and as a member of the extended Executive Board at SAP A.G., from 2005 to 2011. From 2001 to 2004, Merritt served as Group VP and GM of the Human Capital Management Product Division at PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle Corporation). He also co-founded and served as CEO of Icarian (acquired by Workstream Corp.), a cloud-based company, from 1996 to 2001. Merritt holds a B.S. from The University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
The Latest
According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...
Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...
IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...
Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...
In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ...
In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...
In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...
In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...
In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...
From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...