NewsGator Names Kraft CEO

NewsGator has appointed Daniel Kraft as president and chief executive officer. JB Holston will assume the position of chairman of the board effective immediately.

PRESS RELEASE

NewsGator today announced the appointment of Daniel Kraft as President and Chief Executive Officer. Kraft brings nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience across various high technology disciplines to his role at NewsGator. JB Holston will assume the position of Chairman of the Board effective immediately.

Kraft will immediately assume responsibility for NewsGator’s global operations, working closely with the company’s seasoned executive management team to capitalize on the burgeoning Social Workplace market. NewsGator will pursue both organic and external growth opportunities.

Kraft is the founder of ifridge & Company, a strategic consulting and investment firm with a success record of building great technology companies such as Braintribe, Sitrion, and acrolinx. In addition, Kraft is an active board member of netmedianer, a European-based web and social media consultancy. Previously, Kraft held senior positions with several leading enterprise software and content management companies including Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Open Text Corporation and President and CEO at RedDot Solutions.

“Throughout his career, Daniel has demonstrated proven leadership and an ability to effectively grow businesses,” said Holston. “Daniel brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and a track record of relevant results to his new role at NewsGator. NewsGator has earned a tremendous leadership position in a rapidly growing business, and I look forward to working closely with Daniel to help the company accelerate under his leadership.”

Brad Feld, managing director at Mobius Venture Capital, the lead investor and a board member at NewsGator said, “Since JB first approached me with this idea a few months ago, I’ve been delighted to get to know Daniel. His energy, vision, and record of success will help catapult an already great company through its next stage of development. I look forward to continuing this amazing journey with Daniel, JB and the rest of the Board.”

Prior to his tenure at RedDot, Kraft held senior positions with Commerzbank Securities where he led investment banking transactions in the software market ranging from M&A, IPOs and venture investments.

“The Social Workplace provides an amazing opportunity to improve how we think about work and more importantly how we think about productivity,” said Kraft. “We are at the very beginning of this fundamental shift in the market and I see great potential to extend and expand our product lines to further help our customers meet their most important business objectives. The NewsGator team has done a phenomenal job bringing the power of social networking to the enterprise and I am excited to be a part of the next chapter.”

About NewsGator
As a Microsoft Globally Managed Partner, NewsGator is helping over four million paid users in industries across the globe propel the future of productivity. NewsGator Social Sites delivers robust social technology to the enterprise with proven scalability and security to flagship clients like Accenture, Adidas, Deloitte, Ericsson, General Mills, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kraft Foods, Merck & Co., Unisys Corporation, and the US Army. NewsGator delivers advanced social computing capabilities to Microsoft productivity and collaboration platforms, including SharePoint, Windows 8 tablets, SQL, Azure, Windows Phone 7, Lync, Office 365 and Dynamics and was honored as Microsoft’s 2011 U.S. Partner of the Year.