Sonar, the leading provider of solutions for clean code, today announced Kevin Thompson, chairman and CEO of Tricentis and former president and CEO of SolarWinds, has joined its board of directors. As a seasoned business and finance leader, Thompson brings more than two decades of C-suite experience, at some of the world’s leading enterprise software companies, to the Sonar board. With experience leading both large public corporations and high-growth scaleups, he is uniquely suited to help Sonar scale its growth, compete in new markets and capture larger market share.
“Kevin’s expertise in building world-class executive teams and scaling operations will help to navigate the stage of growth Sonar is experiencing today,” said Olivier Gaudin, CEO and co-founder of Sonar. “I am very excited to have Kevin on the board of directors and am looking forward to working with him on structuring the company for our next phase of growth.”
Prior to Tricentis, Thompson served SolarWinds for a total of 15 years; as president and CEO from 2010 to 2020, and as CFO and COO from 2006 to 2010. Under his leadership, SolarWinds grew its revenue from $30 million to $1 billion and he led the company through a successful IPO in 2009, its transaction to go private in 2016 and its second IPO in 2018. In addition to his tenure at SolarWinds, Thompson has gained deep experience advising organizations in the tech community, and served as a board member of NetSuite for 10 years prior to its sale to Oracle for more than $10 billion in 2016. Prior to joining SolarWinds, Thompson was CFO of Red Hat, Inc. He also currently sits on the board of Blackline.
Thompson’s board appointment comes on the heels of Sonar’s $412 million funding round led by new and existing investors, bringing the company’s valuation to $4.7 billion. Sonar will use the investment to grow its go-to-market team globally as the company drives toward $1 billion in revenue.
“The business model and growth trajectory of Sonar is highly reminiscent of the position SolarWinds was in when I joined the company, but with a stronger focus on product-led growth and untapped levers on the go-to market side, which indicates significant growth potential,” said Thompson. “Sonar’s market has no limit – there is a need for better, stronger source code and software, and Sonar is clearly meeting that demand in the right way.”
