Certinia has announced that Donald J. “DJ” Paoni has been appointed as CEO of the company. Paoni, former president of SAP North America, joins Certinia after over 25 years with the German ERP giant. Paoni will join Certinia’s Board of Directors and succeeds Scott Brown, who has stepped down after three years in the chief role.
Paoni has a proven track record of driving growth and innovation, strategy, profitability and customer success in the US and Canada, with experience overseeing more than 25,000 employees and 200,000 customer relationships. As a former SAP president, Certinia is betting on Paoni’s ability to enhance employee and customer engagement and also deliver a strong financial and operational performance to lead the company into its next phase of growth.
Paoni said: “I am thrilled to join such a talented team and to help lead Certinia forward as we set our sights on accelerating growth.
“Certinia has developed the leading PSA offering alongside powerful ERP and Customer Success solutions, built a robust, loyal customer base in a market with rapidly growing demand and cultivated a team-oriented culture where innovation thrives. I am very excited by the opportunity before us and look forward to working with the team to build on Certinia’s strong foundation for growth, better serve our customers’ evolving needs and expand Certinia’s position as the gold-standard system of record for end-to-end software for professional services organizations.”
Paoni continued: “On behalf of the Board and the entire company, I want to thank Scott [Brown] for his many contributions. Scott’s leadership has been essential in building the company, developing Certinia’s best-in-class product offering and establishing a strong culture and values. Certinia simply would not be where it is today without Scott’s exemplary leadership, and we are grateful for his contribution.”
Departing CEO Scott Brown commented: “I am incredibly proud of the Certinia team and the progress we’ve made advancing our product offering, growing our customer base and differentiating Certinia as the leader for PSA solutions. It has been a privilege to lead such a talented and highly engaged group of professionals who are so committed to the Company’s culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence.
“I have every confidence that Certinia will continue to thrive under DJ’s leadership and look forward to seeing many more achievements from this team in the years ahead.”
Over his 25 years with SAP, DJ Paoni additionally served as senior vice president for North America strategic customers, regional vice president of sales and other senior positions.
His experience also includes serving as director on Qualtrics’ board of directors during its transition to a public company and his continued work as a director at the GENYOUth Foundation, making an impact through national initiatives including in-school programs promoting student nutrition security, physical activity and leadership.
