Wowza Expands Leadership Team to Support Growth
Builds on market and product expansion following Flowplayer acquisition and Wowza Video debut
DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wowza, the leading live and video on demand (VOD) platform for more than 6,000 customers globally, today announced three new executive hires amid a period of significant growth and product innovation. Capitalizing on the sustained adoption of its pioneering deployable Engine technology as well as more than 50% compounded cloud annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth over the past two years, Wowza’s most recent growth investment is marked by the addition of Michael Phillippi as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Mark Lockwood as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Matt Thompson as Vice President of Marketing and follows Wowza’s hiring of Erin Sawyer as Chief Financial Officer in early 2022.
Wowza’s strategic hires in technology, sales and marketing were selected based on significant executive experience in building, scaling and commercializing deployable and cloud-based, developer-focused technologies. Today, Wowza’s high-availability video platform is trusted by developers and technology teams at discerning institutions across industries such as NASA, SONY, Facebook, Jewelry TV, University of Oregon and thousands more globally.
According to a study by Vantage Market Research, the global live video streaming market alone is growing at nearly 25% and will reach more than $4b within the next several years. Wowza has led innovation in live streaming since its founding in 2007. Wowza’s acceleration into SaaS video solutions during 2022 has included achieving SOC 2 compliance, acquiring Sweden-based Flowplayer and launching Wowza Video, its next generation all-in-one cloud-based developer platform for both live and on demand video streaming. Clearhaven Partners (“Clearhaven”), a Boston-based software focused private equity investment firm, has supported Wowza in continued product and company investment since the firm’s initial investment in 2021.
“Wowza is a known innovator and pioneer in video. We believe that innovation is defined in many ways, not only in technology but also in the operational excellence to serve our customers and market,” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder of Wowza. “I’m thrilled to welcome Michael, Mark and Matt to our leadership team as well as Erin, who joined earlier this year. The talent and experience of our expanded team reflects Wowza’s continued commitment to growth and innovation, and to the upholding standards of excellence in all that we do.”
Phillippi joins Wowza as CTO with more than 25 years of SaaS and infrastructure technology leadership experience. He will lead Wowza’s global engineering and continued product scale, having previously served as CTO of Canto and VP of Technology at Lyxt, Inc. Lockwood, who brings more than 15 years of SaaS experience from ID.me and Logi Analytics, will oversee sales, marketing and customer success divisions as Wowza’s CRO. Sawyer brings more than 15 years of strategic finance and accounting experience to Wowza as CFO, having previously served in senior finance roles at Emburse, Vertafore and Lexis Nexis. Thompson will lead demand generation and marketing strategy as VP of Marketing, and joins Wowza from Soprano Design and AT&T.
“Wowza and Clearhaven have operated as strong partners since our initial investment in 2021,” said Michelle Noon, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Clearhaven Partners. “With our shared objectives aligned on Wowza’s ongoing innovation and profitable growth, we are thrilled to continue to support the company through technology investments, acquisitions and the addition of these exceptional executives who complement Wowza’s existing leadership team well.”
To learn more about Wowza, visit wowza.com. To explore career opportunities at Wowza, visit wowza.com/careers.
About Wowza
Wowza is the experienced and trusted partner for reliable, scalable video solutions. For more than 15 years, Wowza has powered 35,000+ video implementations globally across a range of end markets, including media, enterprise, government, aerospace, healthcare and more. Wowza’s video on demand and live streaming solutions solve the most challenging aspects of video for its customers, ensuring reliable, secure experiences that businesses can trust from a SOC 2 compliant provider. For more information on how Wowza can serve as the solution you start with and the partner you scale with, visit wowza.com.
About Clearhaven Partners
Clearhaven Partners is a Boston-based private equity firm focused exclusively on software and technology investments. Clearhaven was founded by an investor-operator team to partner with growing, differentiated companies with at least $20 million in recurring revenue. Clearhaven brings a collective 50+ years of software investing and operating experience to its portfolio companies through its partnership approach and its value creation playbook to help companies scale profitably. Visit us at www.clearhavenpartners.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Lindsey Henn
PR for Wowza
lindsey@lindseyhennpr.com
+1 626.893.4228