John Cahill and
Ram Krishnan to join Board effective immediately
SAN
FRANCISCO, Dec. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Autodesk,
Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced the appointment of two new
independent directors to its Board of Directors. John Cahill, former Chairman and CEO of Kraft
Foods, and Ram Krishnan, Executive Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer of Emerson, will join the Autodesk Board as
independent directors effective immediately. Their appointments
follow a comprehensive search process led by the Corporate
Governance and Nominating Committee and aided by a leading
independent search firm. In addition, Lorrie Norrington has informed the Board of her
intention not to stand for re-election at Autodesk's 2025 Annual
General Meeting.
"We are thrilled to welcome John and Ram to the Autodesk Board,
both of whom have proven track records of leading large and complex
organizations," said Stacy J. Smith,
Chairman of the Autodesk Board of Directors. "Their appointment
enhances the breadth and depth of experience and expertise on the
Board and reflects our unwavering commitment to continue providing
effective oversight of Autodesk's strategy, which is generating
significant shareholder value."
Mr. Smith continued, "John brings a track record of strong
leadership, financial acumen, operational expertise, and value
creation. As Chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods, he oversaw the merger
of Kraft and Heinz to create one of the world's largest food and
beverage companies. John also served in a variety of leadership and
financial roles at Pepsi Bottling Group, including as Chair and
CEO, where he was instrumental in its separation from PepsiCo and
the execution of its IPO."
"Ram adds tremendous industry and technological expertise, as
well as customer insight, which will be highly valuable to Autodesk
as we continue to transition our business model and optimize our
go-to-market strategy. As COO at Emerson, Ram has helped to lead
its transformation into a leading industrial technology and
software company, particularly in complex lifecycle automation,
including overseeing the acquisition of National Instruments and a
majority ownership stake in Aspen Technology. We look forward to
partnering with Ram as the Board works to support Autodesk's
strategic efforts to create value for shareholders."
"The appointments of John and Ram bring further top-tier
leadership and global business experience to Autodesk at an
important time in our journey," said Andrew
Anagnost, Autodesk President and CEO. "I look forward to
working closely with them to benefit from their insights and
guidance, as we continue building on our momentum and executing
against our goals to drive growth, enhance margins, deliver robust
free cash flow, and create value for shareholders."
"I am honored to join the Autodesk Board of Directors," said
John Cahill. "Autodesk has a strong
reputation of innovation and industry leadership, and I am excited
to leverage my expertise and work with the rest of the Board to
contribute to its strategic execution and profitable growth."
"Autodesk's leading technology, disciplined approach, and track
record of success clearly demonstrate the company's continued
strength and momentum," said Krishnan. "I look forward to joining
the Board and leveraging my experience in support of Autodesk's
long-term success."
The addition of these independent directors is part of
Autodesk's longstanding commitment to strong corporate governance.
The Autodesk Board is comprised of an independent and engaged set
of directors with diverse expertise and experience to effectively
oversee the execution of Autodesk's strategy to enhance shareholder
value. With these appointments, the Autodesk Board has added five
new independent directors in the last six years. Autodesk intends
to reduce the size of the Board by its 2025 Annual General
Meeting.
"It has been an honor and privilege to serve on the Board of
this outstanding company during a period of transformational
growth," said Ms. Norrington. "I am confident that this Board will
continue to work with Autodesk's management team to oversee the
company's strategy to deliver long-term shareholder value, and I
look forward to great progress in the months and years ahead."
Mr. Smith said, "We greatly appreciate Lorrie's extraordinary
contributions to Autodesk over the years. Her deep technology and
operational expertise have helped propel the company's success and
created tremendous shareholder value. She has been
instrumental in driving strong corporate governance. On
behalf of the full Board, I thank Lorrie, and wish her all the best
in her future endeavors."
About John Cahill
John Cahill previously served as
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods Group from 2014
to 2015 and Chairman from 2012 to 2014, where he leveraged his deep
global business and strategy experience, including in his oversight
of the 2015 merger of H.J. Heinz Co. and Kraft Foods Group. He then
assumed the role of Vice Chair of the Kraft Heinz Company, a role
he has served in since 2015. Prior to joining Kraft Foods, Cahill
was an Industrial Partner at Ripplewood Holdings LLC, a private
equity firm, from 2008 to 2011, giving him a strong grounding in
financial oversight and the perspective of an investor. He
previously served in a variety of leadership positions at The Pepsi
Bottling Group, Inc., including as CFO, COO, and most recently
Chairman and CEO. In addition to the Kraft Heinz Company, Cahill
currently serves as a director on the boards of American Airlines
and Colgate-Palmolive. Cahill earned a Bachelor of Arts from
Harvard University, and a Master of
Business Administration from the Harvard
Business School.
About Ram Krishnan
Ram Krishnan currently serves as Executive Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer of Emerson, a global industrial technology
and software leader. In this role, he oversees the business
segments, global sales, supply chain, information technology,
mergers and acquisitions, and strategy. He brings to Autodesk deep
experience in managing a global industry leader's evolution to
support both inorganic and organic growth, having helped to lead
Emerson's transformation into a leading industrial technology
company, including through the acquisition of National Instruments
and a majority ownership stake in Aspen Technology. During his over
30-year tenure with Emerson, Krishnan developed extensive expertise
in operational execution and strategy development, having served in
a variety of roles including Group President of Final Control,
Group President of Flow Solutions, and Vice President of Profit
Planning and Perfect Execution, among others. Krishnan currently
serves as a director on the board of Aspen Technology. Krishnan
holds a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from the
Indian Institute of Technology, a
master's degree in materials engineering from the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, and a master's degree in business
administration from Xavier
University.
About Autodesk
The world's designers, engineers, builders, and creators trust
Autodesk to help them design and make anything. From the buildings
we live and work in, to the cars we drive and the bridges we drive
over. From the products we use and rely on, to the movies and games
that inspire us. Autodesk's Design and Make Platform unlocks the
power of data to accelerate insights and automate processes,
empowering our customers with the technology to create the world
around us and deliver better outcomes for their business and the
planet. For more information, visit autodesk.com or follow
@autodesk. #MakeAnything
Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its
subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand
names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective
holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services
offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without
notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical
errors that may appear in this document.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties, including quotations from
management and directors, statements about generating shareholder
value, goals, strategies, performance, results, board size, and all
statements that are not historical facts. There are a significant
number of factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from statements made in this press release, including:
our strategy to develop and introduce new products and services and
to move to platforms and capabilities, exposing us to risks such as
limited customer acceptance (both new and existing customers),
costs related to product defects, and large expenditures; global
economic and political conditions, including changes in monetary
and fiscal policy, foreign exchange headwinds, recessionary fears,
supply chain disruptions, resulting inflationary pressures and
hiring conditions; geopolitical tension and armed conflicts, and
extreme weather events; costs and challenges associated with
strategic acquisitions and investments; our ability to successfully
implement and expand our transaction model; dependency on
international revenue and operations, exposing us to significant
international regulatory, economic, intellectual property,
collections, currency exchange rate, taxation, political, and other
risks, including risks related to the war against Ukraine launched by Russia and our exit from Russia and the current conflict between
Israel and Hamas; inability to
predict subscription renewal rates and their impact on our future
revenue and operating results; existing and increased competition
and rapidly evolving technological changes; fluctuation of our
financial results, key metrics and other operating metrics; our
transition from up front to annual billings for multi-year
contracts; deriving a substantial portion of our net revenue from a
small number of solutions, including our AutoCAD-based software
products and collections; any failure to successfully execute and
manage initiatives to realign or introduce new business and sales
initiatives, including our new transaction model for Flex; net
revenue, billings, earnings, cash flow, or new or existing
subscriptions shortfalls; social and ethical issues relating to the
use of artificial intelligence in our offerings; our ability to
maintain security levels and service performance meeting the
expectations of our customers, and the resources and costs required
to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate
performance degradation and security breaches; security incidents
or other incidents compromising the integrity of our or our
customers' offerings, services, data, or intellectual property;
reliance on third parties to provide us with a number of
operational and technical services as well as software; our highly
complex software, which may contain undetected errors, defects, or
vulnerabilities; increasing regulatory focus on privacy issues and
expanding laws; governmental export and import controls that could
impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject
us to liability if we violate the controls; protection of our
intellectual property rights and intellectual property infringement
claims from others; the government procurement process;
fluctuations in currency exchange rates; our debt service
obligations; and our investment portfolio consisting of a variety
of investment vehicles that are subject to interest rate trends,
market volatility, and other economic factors.
Further information on potential factors that could affect the
financial results of Autodesk are included in Autodesk's Form 10-K
and subsequent Forms 10-Q, which are on file with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. Autodesk disclaims any
obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to
reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the
date on which they were made.
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SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.
