Marketing software company HubSpot has brought on a new leader today—Akamai CFO JD Sherman. Sherman has been chief financial officer at Akamai for over 6 years.
Prior to Akamai, Sherman served as the chief financial executive of IBM’s $21 billion Systems and Technology Group. Over the course of 15 years at IBM, Sherman held senior executive positions in Finance, including Vice President, Finance and Planning, zSeries Server Division, and Assistant Controller of IBM Corporate Financial Strategy and Budgets.
He also served as CFO for semiconductor company CommQuest, which was acquired by IBM in March of 1998 for $200 million.
For background, HubSpot’s marketing software customers manage websites and generate leads. HubSpot, which just raised a massive $32 million from Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, Salesforce and others, has been on a bit of an acquisition spree and just bought Performable and OneForty.
Sherman’s addition represents more than just a talent win. His experience leading two public companies in the technology space could help HubSpot navigate a future in the public markets. The company says: We have been growing at record pace and want to build a company that can be successful in the public markets.
HubSpot CEO and co-founder Brian Halligan explained: “We always thought HubSpot could be a large, publicly traded company anchoring the software industry in Boston. Hiring a COO with public company experience is the next step on that path…We are on the same fast growth path of all the successful SaaS companies, and need to start preparing for an IPO. I know JD brings the right experience to our management team.”