VANCOUVER -- Hootsuite has named a new CEO to replace founder Ryan Holmes after his 12 years at the helm of the Vancouver-based tech company.
Tom Keiser, former chief operating officer of Zendesk, headquartered in San Francisco, will take over as of July 6.
Keiser helped drive the company's annual revenue from $200 million to nearly $1 billion during his four years at the firm that went from 1,000 to 4,000 employees, Hootsuite said in a release.
Holmes, 45, said the startup he launched, which allows users to manage multiple social media accounts and provides analytics on them, has about 1,000 employees and 15 offices globally, serving about 200,000 paying customers.
He's leaving the top job with thoughts of the “reckoning” underway for social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, said Holmes, who will stay on as chairman at Hootsuite.
The power the tech giants exert requires government oversight, he said, similar to what happened with newspapers, radio and television about 15 years after they reached critical mass.
