Board of Directors

Sudhakar Ramakrishna joined SolarWinds as President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2021. He is a global technology leader with nearly 25 years of experience across cloud, mobility, networking, security and collaboration markets. He most recently served as the CEO of Pulse Secure®, a leading provider of secure and zero trust access solutions for Hybrid IT environments, where he was responsible for all aspects of business strategy and execution. Prior to Pulse Secure, Mr. Ramakrishna served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Enterprise and Service Provider Division at Citrix®, where he had responsibility for Citrix’s portfolio of virtualization, cloud networking, mobile platforms and cloud services solutions. Mr. Ramakrishna also has held senior leadership roles at Polycom, Motorola and 3Com. Mr. Ramakrishna is an experienced public and private company board member. Mr. Ramakrishna is a partner at Benhamou Global Ventures, a leading venture capital firm investing in emerging startups in the fields of security, analytics and applications. Mr. Ramakrishna earned a master’s degree in computer science from Kansas State University and a master’s of management degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

William Bock has served on our board of directors since October 2018. Mr. Bock has served as a board director and advisor for a number of technology companies, since his retirement from Silicon Laboratories Inc. (“Silicon Labs”) (NASDAQ: SLAB) in 2016. Mr. Bock, previously, served as President of Silicon Labs from 2013 to 2016 and as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Silicon Labs from 2006 to 2011. From 2001 to 2006, Mr. Bock participated in the venture capital industry, principally as a partner with CenterPoint Ventures. Before his venture career, Mr. Bock held senior executive positions with three venture-backed companies, Dazel Corporation, Tivoli Systems and Convex Computer Corporation. Mr. Bock began his career with Texas Instruments. Mr. Bock currently serves on the board of directors of Silicon Labs and is Board Chairman of SailPoint Technologies (NYSE: SAIL). He previously served on the board of directors of Convio (NASDAQ:CNVO), Entropic Communications (NASDAQ: ENTR) and Borderfree, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRDR). Mr. Bock also serves on the boards of directors of several private technology companies. Mr. Bock holds a B.S. in computer science from Iowa State University and a M.S. in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University.

Douglas Smith has been an Industry Partner of Motive Partners GP, LLC, an investment firm focused on technology enabled companies that power the financial services industry, since June 2020 and previously served as an Adviser from September 2019 to June 2020. Mr. Smith also served as a senior advisor to Silver Lake from 2016 to 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Smith was the Co-Founder of Anaplan, Inc. where he held a variety of roles from 2009 to 2018. Previously, he was Global Chief Operating Officer of Capco. Prior to Capco, Mr. Smith served as an Operating Partner with Symphony Technology Group. Earlier in his career, he held positions including Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Mercury Interactive, co-head of the software practice at Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, LLC, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Computervision, Inc. Mr. Smith currently serves on the board of directors of InvestCloud, Inc. and ServiceMax, Inc. and previously served on our Board from January 2018 to May 2018. Mr. Smith holds an M.A. in International Relations and Affairs from Northeastern University and a B.A. in Economics from Union College.

Seth Boro has served on our board of directors since February 2016. Mr. Boro has served as a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo since 2013. He was a Principal with Thoma Bravo at its founding in 2007 and became a Partner in 2011, serving in that capacity until becoming a Managing Partner in 2013. Prior to that time, Mr. Boro served in roles with a predecessor of Thoma Bravo since 2005. Mr. Boro previously was with the private equity firm Summit Partners and with Credit Suisse. Mr. Boro currently serves on the board of directors of several software and technology service companies in which certain investment funds advised by Thoma Bravo hold an investment, including Barracuda Networks, Inc., Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE: DT), ConnectWise, LLC, Hyland Software Inc., Imperva, Inc. and Sophos Group Ltd., among others. Mr. Boro received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a graduate of Queen’s University School of Business (Canada), where he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Kenneth Y. Hao has served on our board of directors since February 2016. Mr. Hao is currently the Chairman and Managing Partner of Silver Lake and based in Menlo Park, CA. Mr. Hao has led investments in a range of technology industry leaders across a range of sectors and geographies. His portfolio companies have included Alibaba Group and ANT Financial, Broadcom (and its predecessor Avago), Network General (acquired by NetScout), Seagate, Smart Global Holdings, Symantec and UGS (acquired by Siemens). Mr. Hao currently serves as a director on the boards of portfolio companies NortonLifeLock, ServiceMax, and Splunk.

Prior to joining Silver Lake at its launch in 1999, Mr. Hao was with Hambrecht & Quist (now part of JP Morgan) from 1990-1999, where he served as a Managing Director. Outside of Silver Lake, Mr. Hao serves on the boards of UCSF and Universal Tennis. Mr. Hao graduated from Harvard College with an AB in economics.

Michael Hoffmann has served on our board of directors since October 2018. Mr. Hoffmann has served as a Principal at Thoma Bravo since January 2018 and joined Thoma Bravo as a Vice President in August 2014. Mr. Hoffmann was previously an associate with the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners from 2010 to 2012. Prior to Providence Equity Partners, Mr. Hoffmann was an investment banking analyst with Citigroup Global Markets Inc. from 2008 to 2010. Mr. Hoffmann received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University. Mr. Hoffmann currently serves on the board of directors of several software and technology services companies in which certain investment funds advised by Thoma Bravo hold an investment, including ConnectWise, LLC , Empirix, Inc. and Riverbed Technology, Inc.

Dennis Howard has served on our board of directors since September 2020. Mr. Howard has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Charles Schwab & Co, Inc. since 2016 and previously served as its Senior Vice President, Core Technology Services from 2014 to 2016. Prior to Charles Schwab, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Visa Inc. and in various other information technology roles at Visa across a number of disciplines, including development of enterprise systems, data and analytics and client-facing product development. Prior to Visa, Mr. Howard worked in technology at Commerce One, Inc. and other firms and served in several roles in the public sector. Mr. Howard holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Masters of Public Policy and Administration from Baylor University.

Catherine Kinney has served on our board of directors since October 2018. Ms. Kinney has over 35 years of experience in securities regulation and management. Ms. Kinney retired from NYSE Euronext in March 2009, having served as the president and co-chief operating officer of the NYSE Euronext from 2002 to 2008. From 2007 to 2009, she served in Paris, overseeing global listings, marketing and branding and served as part of the integration team following the merger of The New York Stock Exchange and Euronext in April 2007. Ms. Kinney joined the NYSE in 1974 and held management positions with responsibility for several divisions, which include client relations from 1996 to 2007, trading floor operations and technology from 1987 to 1996 and regulation from 2002 to 2004. Ms. Kinney currently serves on the boards of directors of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) and QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: QTS). Ms. Kinney previously served as a director of NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N). Ms. Kinney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Iona College. Ms. Kinney has also received honorary degrees from Georgetown University, Fordham University and Rosemont College.

James Lines has served on our board of directors since February 2016. Since 2002, he has been an Operating Partner for Thoma Bravo and is now a Senior Operating Partner. Mr. Lines’ prior experience includes service in various financial management capacities at affiliates of AMR Corporation (American Airlines), including as Chief Financial Officer of The SABRE Group; as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ITI Marketing Services, a private tele-services firm backed by Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner; and as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of United Surgical Partners, an international operator of surgery centers and hospitals. Since 2003, Mr. Lines has served on the board of directors of 24 software and technology service companies in which Thoma Bravo held an investment. He currently serves on the board of directors of six software and technology service companies in which Thoma Bravo holds an investment, including ABC Financial Services, LLC, Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE: DT), Hyland Software, Inc., Imprivata, Inc., Qlik Technologies, Inc. and Riverbed Technology, Inc. Mr. Lines earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Easwaran Sundaram has served on our board of directors since February 2020. Mr. Sundaram has served as Operating Executive at Tailwind Capital since March 2021. Previously, Mr. Sundaram served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Digital & Technology Officer of JetBlue Airways Corporation from 2017 to February 2021 and as Executive Vice President of Innovation and Chief Information Officer from 2012 to 2017. Since January 2016, Mr. Sundaram has served as Oversight Officer & Investment Committee Member for JetBlue Technology Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of JetBlue Airways Corporation that incubates, invests in and partners with early stage startups. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain Operations and Global Chief Information Officer at Pall Corporation and served in a senior supply chain management role at PSS World Medical, Inc. (now McKesson Corporation). Mr. Sundaram also serves as a director of WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE: WCC). Mr. Sundaram holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Madurai Kamaraj University, a Supplemental Degree in Logistics Management from the Institute of Rail Transport, India and a Masters of Science in International Transportation Management from State University of New York Maritime College.

Michael Widmann has served on our board of directors since February 2020. Mr. Widmann is currently a Director of Silver Lake, which he joined in 2011. Previously, he worked in the Technology Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse. He currently serves on the board of directors of TEG Pty Ltd. Mr. Widmann received a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Cathleen Benko has served on our board of directors since November 2021. A former Vice Chairman and Managing Principal of Deloitte LLP, Ms. Benko was previously Deloitte Consulting’s first global e-Business leader and first Chief Talent Officer, where she devised more agile and inclusive career development models. Ms. Benko is also a member of the Board of Directors and compensation committee of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE), a member of the Board of Directors, compensation committee chair and audit committee member of Prime Impact Acquisition I (NYSE: PIAI), and member of the Board of Directors of WorkBoard (private). She serves as chair of the Harvard Business School/NC Advisory Council and a member of the board of directors for several nonprofit organizations including Stanford’s Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, American Corporate Partners, National Association of Corporate Directors, the International Women’s Forum and Life Skills For Soldiers. Ms. Benko holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.S. from Ramapo College of New Jersey where she was awarded the President’s Award of Merit, the school’s highest distinction.