I had to miss this afternoon’s press conference with Mark Spencer and new Digium CEO Danny Windham. Pauline at MRB (Digium’s PR company) called as I was heading into the security checkpoint for my flight home. Tom Keating, however, recorded the entirety of the call. Others have commented on what this means, and generally speaking I agree with the view expressed by commenters like Garrett Smith and Owen Linderholm. Digium has taken a giant step forward with this move. Already profitable, they’ve now brought in talent to grow their channels to market, and the ecosystem of third parties building products that work with Asterisk. It’s just what the doctor ordered.Â
Since the summer when Digium took a venture investment from Matrix, various commenters have wondered publicly and privately how long Mark Spencer would stay as CEO. It wasn’t unexpected that Mark would eventually end up in a new role. Venture capitalists, after all, have a nasty habit of replacing founding CEOs. Sometimes it’s a happy ending, and sometimes not. What was clear on this call, however, was the easy relationship between Mark and incoming CEO Danny Windham. Windham has been a Digium board member for the last seven years, and it shows. From the very beginning of the call, you get the sense that this was Mark’s choice. It appears that not only is he comfortable with the decision, he’s eager to get to work in his new role.
Well done.Â
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
