Jan 10, 2025

Fred Voccola out as Kaseya CEO: five things to know By Staff Writer on Jan 10, 2025 11:20AM Fred Voccola Kaseya this week announced that chief executive Fred Voccola has stepped down , ending a transformative 10-year tenure at the Miami-based IT service management company. Kevin Thompson, a Kaseya board member and chief executive of software company Tricentis, will assist the leadership team in operating the company while the search for a new chief executive begins. Thompson, who previously led SolarWinds for 15 years, expressed optimism about the company’s future, calling this period “transformative.” Voccola, one of the company’s largest shareholders, will become vice chairman of the company’s board, a role in which he will focus on strategic innovation and assist the board in selecting the next chief executive as the company considers a potential public offering. Under Voccola’s leadership, Kaseya has grown into a market leader with a robust platform generating over US$1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue. Following record-breaking financial results and the launch of Kaseya 365 in 2024, Voccola in a statement said now is the “right time” for Voccola to step into the vice chairman role and help turn operating responsibilities over to someone new. Here are five things to know about Voccola’s departure as chief executive. Kevin Thompson led SolarWinds through cyberattack, future N-able spinoff Kevin Thompson, who will be assisting the Kaseya leadership team in operating the company as the search for a new chief executive starts, isn’t an unknown when it comes to leading tech companies in a period of uncertainty and change. Hackers exploited vulnerabilities in SolarWinds’ Orion software platform, embedding malicious code known as "Sunburst" into a software update. At the helm of SolarWinds during this period was Thompson, who focused on damage control, transparency and collaboration with cybersecurity experts and government agencies. After the breach, Thompson told CRN that the SolarWinds MSP business was ready to take off and that the company was exploring ways to spin off that unit into a publicly traded company. “It says the MSP market is real,” Thompson told CRN in 2020. “It says the market is going to be here for a very long time." "It’s a market that is going to have growth for a number of years to come." "There’s a real opportunity to build big businesses serving that market." "In 2013, when we entered the market, I don’t think anyone would have said any of that.” Preparing for a ‘potential’ initial public offering Kaseya in its statement Thursday announcing the leadership change referred to a “potential” initial public offering for the company. “Given Kaseya’s amazing performance in 2024, fuelled by the launch of Kaseya 365, Kaseya’s next chief executive will need to continue the strong positive momentum of the company by effectively running the daily operations as it prepares for a potential public offering,” a Kaseya spokesperson said in an email. During Voccola’s tenure, the company has grown from a single-product vendor into a platform provider with more than US$1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue. In the last year the company has also strengthened its C-suite with the additions of a new CFO, CMO and chief human resources officer, as well as several key internal leaders. Kaseya facessStepped up competition from ConnectWise, N-able and MSP platform upstarts Kaseya’s leadership change comes at a pivotal moment in the MSP market. In September, Jason Magee, chief executive of ConnectWise, stepped aside and was replaced by Manny Rivelo, a security and networking leader who has promised to deliver a brand-new next generation end-to-end solution for MSPs to run their business, called Asio. Furthermore, in a move to bolster its cybersecurity and data protection capabilities, ConnectWise acquired Axcient and SkyKick in September reinforcing the critical role of data protection as the last line of defense against cyber threats. The deal provided ConnectWise with a full-fledged MSP-focused business continuity and disaster recovery offering to go head-to-head with Kaseya. Kaseya is also dogged by MSP stalwart N-able as well as newer, smaller competitors such as HaloPSA, NinjaOne, and Syncro. In November, N-able stepped up its security march with the acquisition of Washington DC-based Adlumin in a US$236 million deal that strengthens it cybersecurity and compliance offering for MSPs. In September, UK-based HaloPSA announced its partnership with NinjaOne to bring an all-in-one “top-tier” solution, giving MSPs another option for a “best in class” tool while competing with Kaseya’s offering, according to HaloPSA chief executive Tim Bowers. HaloPSA has doubled its revenue eight years in a row and now has US$100 million in revenue. The company expanded and recently opened up offices in Dubai and Florida. Syncro, meanwhile named former Continuum chief executive Michael George as its new chief executive in February 2024. Kaseya 365 adoption has been ‘unprecedented’ After launching Kaseya 365 in 2024, Kaseya said it has seen exponential growth and adoption of the platform. “Kaseya 365’s adoption in the market has been unprecedented, with thousands of MSPs adopting the solution since its launch in April,” the Kaseya spokesperson said. “The success of Kaseya 365, which culminated the journey that Kaseya began in 2015 with the goal of creating a complete, fully integrated platform to enable our customers to maximise efficiency and profitability, was a key driver of a record-breaking financial performance in 2024.” Kaseya 365, announced at Kaseya IT Connect last year, is a product that allows MSPs to manage, secure, back up and automate all their clients’ environments through one subscription and one license. “In this one subscription, in this one license, you get all of the functionality of RMM (remote monitoring and management), you get all of the essential things to secure your customer’s environment,” Voccola said at the time. “[It has] antivirus capabilities, third-party patching capabilities, ransomware detection, endpoint detection and response, MDR (managed detection and response) and managed SOC (security operations center)…and endpoint backup for every single endpoint in your client’s environment." "All of this in one subscription, one integrated license.” The chief executive reshuffle does not change strategic plan The move does not change the company’s strategic plan, said the spokesperson. “Customers can expect Kaseya to remain committed to delivering innovative products to customers while investing heavily in improving the customer experience and in continuing to develop our products,” the spokesperson said. The company will continue to hire “aggressively” on a global scale with plans to continue investing in its team in 2025 and beyond, despite some job cuts last year . Kaseya at the time said it had hired about 10000 people in Miami since the start of 2023 and employed more than 5000 people globally. Additionally, Voccola’s chief executive departure does not impact the naming rights of the Kaseya Centre arena in Miami, the spokesperson said. In 2023, Kaseya purchased the naming rights to the venue that is home to the Miami Heat basketball team for US$117 million .