SmartBear announces CEO transition

SmartBear has appointed Dan Faulkner, the company’s Chief Product Officer, as Chief Executive Officer. Frank Roe, who has led SmartBear to significant growth over the last five years, will transition from CEO to a strategic advisor role. Dan’s wealth of experience across product leadership, operational management, and global strategy, make him uniquely qualified to drive SmartBear into its next phase of innovation and growth amidst rapidly changing markets in the age of AI.

SmartBear announces CEO transition

"I want to thank Frank for his leadership over the past five years, and I’m honored to step into the role of CEO at such an exciting time for SmartBear,” said Dan Faulkner, CEO of SmartBear. “We’re helping our customers solve their toughest challenges faster and more efficiently while delivering their best work to their customers. I’m deeply committed to continuing this mission by fostering collaboration with our employees, customers, and partners. That collaboration, along with our commitment to investing in innovation, will be the foundation of our continued growth."

As SmartBear’s Chief Product Officer for the past three years, Dan has been a driving force behind the company’s evolution. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer at Boston-based Plannuh, Inc. He spent nearly 14 years at Nuance Communications, most recently as Senior Vice President & General Manager responsible for Nuance’s global service provider business. He led multiple acquisitions that helped to grow the company to 14,000 employees across 30 countries and $2 billion in annual revenue.

"SmartBear has been on an incredible journey, and I couldn’t be prouder of our sustained growth and success since becoming CEO five years ago,” said Frank Roe, now strategic advisor to SmartBear. “The company, its employees, partners, and customers are in great hands with Dan Faulkner at the helm. His vision, expertise, and dedication to innovation are exactly what SmartBear needs to navigate this next phase of growth.”

This leadership transition comes as SmartBear is set to execute on its transformative Hub strategy, a unique approach to modular platforms for application testing, API lifecycle management, and developer observability. The company is consolidating its popular developer tools into dynamic hubs to accelerate developer workflows, each hub powered by SmartBear HaloAI to create greater efficiencies for users.