Sprinklr Taps Rory Read as New CEO to Drive CCaaS Growth and Innovation

Sprinklr has announced Rory Read as its new CEO and President, effective immediately. This leadership shift follows the tenure of co-CEOs Ragy Thomas and Trac Pham, with Thomas transitioning to an advisory role while remaining Founder and Chairman of the Board. Pham will step into a new, unspecified advisory position and will no longer be on the Board of Directors.

Thomas described the appointment as an “exciting new chapter” for Sprinklr, highlighting that Read’s leadership would strengthen the company’s foundations, bolster product innovation, and further customer and partner success.

Read, whose background includes executive roles at IBM, Lenovo, Dell, and, more recently, Vonage, rose to prominence by transforming Vonage’s enterprise communications portfolio with CCaaS, UCaaS, and CPaaS solutions. His tenure culminated in the sale of Vonage to Ericsson in 2021 for $6.2 billion, after which he served as Ericsson’s Senior Vice President and Head of the Business Area Global Communications Platform. He left that position earlier this year.

Read’s extensive experience in the CCaaS sector aligns with Sprinklr’s aspirations to accelerate its service offerings in the rapidly evolving contact center market. During a recent earnings call, Thomas candidly discussed the operational challenges Sprinklr faced as it scaled its CCaaS platform, Sprinklr Service, to meet rising demand, especially after securing major clients like Deutsche Telekom and BT. To scale effectively, Sprinklr has been building partnerships, establishing carrier networks, and tailoring solutions to address regional compliance standards—a process Thomas described as “building our own internal muscle.”

With much of this groundwork completed, Sprinklr sees Read’s appointment as a move to elevate its CCaaS capabilities to new heights. Read expressed optimism about Sprinklr’s trajectory, stating his commitment to crafting a strategic vision that brings concrete value to customers through its AI-powered platform.

Industry experts, including Simon Harrison, Founder and CEO of Actionary, see Read’s background as a strong match for Sprinklr’s goal of becoming a leading player in customer experience management (CXM). According to Harrison, Sprinklr is focused on refining knowledge and case management processes as it positions itself as an “operating system for all customer conversations.” He commended Read as a seasoned leader with three decades of success in operational transformation and business strategy.

The decision to appoint Read marks an end to Sprinklr’s brief experiment with co-CEOs, which lasted less than five months after Trac Pham was elevated to the position in June. Initially, this shared structure was designed to let Pham focus on operational management while Thomas concentrated on product and vision. Despite Thomas’s praise for Pham’s contributions, the company has not disclosed specific reasons for the change.

The recent history of co-CEO models in tech has been mixed, with competitors like RingCentral experiencing swift CEO turnover, while others—like Oracle, SAP, and Workday—have demonstrated success with co-leadership approaches from diverse backgrounds.

Meanwhile, Sprinklr has unveiled 70 new features in its latest update to the Sprinklr Service CCaaS platform, which include enhancements to knowledge management, workforce efficiency, and case management. Updates also extend to the AI-powered Digital Twin module, which now more effectively automates customer interactions, supporting teams across departments.

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