At the end of this year, I will step down as CEO of Mendix and hand over the baton to Tim Srock. Tim has been my trusted co-pilot for the past three years, carrying an ever-increasing scope of work and he has my full confidence to lead Mendix into the next phase of hypergrowth.
To say that leaving Mendix was a hard decision would be an understatement. Founding this company and being the CEO for more than 16 years has never been a job to me. It’s more than that, it’s part of me. Building Mendix from the ground up and seeing it grow through so many iterations, failures, and successes has been one of the craziest, most unexpected, most demanding, but most fulfilling and rewarding experiences I could have ever imagined. I am so proud of what we’ve built as a team, and how far we’ve come since that infamous day in Dudok café in Rotterdam where Derckjan, Roald, and I first got together to talk about how we were going to democratize application development.
As it turned out, that day we didn’t only start a new company, we ended up creating a whole new software category and a global movement of Makers that are now changing the way the world makes software. Mendix has gotten bigger in each of the last 16 years, and we’ve never been stronger than this moment. We are the clear leader in the market. We have an amazing team of 1400+ Mendixites that continues to expand quickly. We are the foundation of the Siemens Cloud strategy and every day we are benefitting from the Siemens brand and market access. At the same time, thanks to our unique position and growth mandate inside Siemens, we continue to thrive as an independent business and serve customers in all verticals.
Mendix is an amazing company with exceptional people, customers, partners, and community. Having been the CEO for so long has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime, and it is now time for me to pass the torch to Tim to take our people and customers forward. A strong foundation is in place, low-code is now a major category, we have a talented team and a clear strategy that stretches years into the future. I am proud and excited to hand over to Tim who, together with his team, has the vision and ambition to continue to innovate and revolutionize the market and continue to build a company for the ages.
I’d like to express a deep and profound thank you to my cofounders Derckjan and Roald, without whom Mendix wouldn’t exist. A big thank you to our customers, our partners, and our Maker community for the trust you put in me – you’ll be in good hands. I’d also like to thank Siemens leadership, especially Roland Busch, Cedrik Neike, and Tony Hemmelgarn for supporting our mission and recognizing that Mendix is a unique company and culture that needs to be nurtured, not integrated; many large companies can take example by your approach.
And finally, to all Mendixites, thank you for who you are and everything you do.
Go Make It!