Tableau appoints Adam Selipsky as new CEO

Tableau Software announced that it has appointed Adam Selipsky as president and chief executive officer effective September 16. Christian Chabot, Tableau’s co-founder and current CEO, will continue to serve as chairman of Tableau’s board of directors.

“Adam is going to take Tableau to the next level,” said Chabot. “His experience in making AWS the world’s leading cloud platform, his passion for servicing customers at a global scale, and his authentic team player attitude make him an extraordinary fit for Tableau.” Continued Chabot, “He is the right person to lead Tableau to the next stage of growth.”

Adam Selipsky has spent over a decade building Amazon Web Services, one of the most successful technology platforms in the world. His leadership helped grow AWS from a start-up into a multi-billion dollar business and establish it as the undisputed market leader in cloud computing. Selipsky currently serves as Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Support for AWS. Prior to joining Amazon, he was an executive at RealNetworks, leading the video subscription and media player division. Before that, he was a Principal at Mercer Management Consulting, a strategy consulting firm. He holds an A.B. in Government and an MBA from Harvard University.

“I’m incredibly excited to join the Tableau team,” said Selipsky. “Tableau has that rare combination of a passionate customer base, leading products, amazingly talented people, dedication to technology innovation, and momentum in the market. The company is positioned to become the new world standard in analytics. I’m honored to join the leadership team and all the great people that have fueled Tableau’s disruption of business analytics. As we add capabilities for our customers, deepen our enterprise presence, and expand into the cloud, our mission remains unchanged – to help people see and understand their data.”

John McAdam, lead independent director and chair of the nominating and governance committee of Tableau’s board of directors stated, “Tableau has pioneered a new age in data analytics by dramatically reducing the complexity needed for customers to truly make use of their data. Bringing Adam on board will lead Tableau into the next stage of growth.”

Christian Chabot will remain actively involved in the company as chairman of the board of directors. He will continue to assist the company with long-term strategy and customer evangelism. Chabot served as Tableau’s CEO for 14 years and helped grow the company into a technology pioneer with over 46,000 customer accounts. “We’re just getting started in our journey,” Chabot added, “Tableau has the capability to become the standard for how people work with data, and in doing so to grow into a globally recognized technology brand. With the company’s scale and success to date, we have the opportunity to broaden our leadership team as we continue to delight customers and to build the company.”

Additionally, Tableau is bolstering its technology leadership. Chris Stolte, Tableau’s co-founder and Chief Development Officer, will transition to Technical Advisor and Andrew Beers will take the leadership of the product development team as Chief Development Officer. Francois Ajenstat, one of the company’s long-time product leaders, will be elevated to a new position as Chief Product Officer, reporting to Beers.

“Andrew has been with Tableau from the very beginning as one of our first developers. He’s been instrumental in leading our engineering team to build the best analytics platform in the world. I look forward to continuing to partnering with Andrew as we build the next phase of our company,” said Stolte.

“Tableau is a transformational technology company,” commented Brooke Seawell, Tableau board member. “We are thrilled to have Adam as our CEO. The next five years are going to be extraordinary for the company, and I have no doubt that the greatest impact of Tableau on the world is yet to come.”