SmartBear Announces CEO Transition

Somerville - March 2, 2020 - SmartBear, a leading provider of software development and quality tools, announced the promotion of Frank Roe to the role of Chief Executive Officer. Frank succeeds Justin Teague, who has decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer of the company for personal reasons. Justin will continue to contribute to the company’s growth as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Since joining the company in 2016, Justin has led the company through a period of record growth, more than doubling the size of the company, rocketing passed the $100 million revenue mark in that time period. Under Justin’s leadership, the company has experienced accelerated organic growth and product innovation. During his tenure, he also helped SmartBear broaden its product portfolio through key acquisitions and rapid, successful commercialization strategies of industry-leading products and open source communities such as swagger.io, cucumber.io, Zephyr, CrossBrowserTesting, HipTest, and BitBar.

“I am so proud of the SmartBear team which has rallied together from around the world and accomplished so much in a few short years,” said Justin Teague, outgoing CEO of SmartBear. “I have made the incredibly difficult decision to step aside as CEO for personal reasons. I have complete confidence in the company’s strategy and future under the leadership of Frank and the senior leadership team, and want to thank all of our employees and our customers for moving the industry forward in such great ways. I look forward to continue working with the company as Executive Chairman.”

Frank Roe joined SmartBear in 2018 as Chief Revenue Officer, following a successful career in senior leadership positions at Oracle, Progress Software, and other leading software organizations.

“I appreciate the opportunity to take over the helm of this great organization,” said Frank Roe.  “I am confident in the continued success and growth of SmartBear given our world class products and outstanding senior leadership team. I wish Justin all the best and look forward to working with him in his new role on the board.”

“We are enormously grateful to Justin for his leadership over the past four years,” said Brian Decker, Partner at Francisco Partners. “Under Justin’s leadership, SmartBear has more than doubled in size and is one of the leading providers of software development and quality tools in the world, and we look forward to continue working with Justin in his new role as Executive Chairman. We have full confidence in Frank and the rest of the leadership team at SmartBear and look forward to the Company’s next stage of growth.”

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm that specializes in investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has raised over $15 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 275 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. The firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit: www.franciscopartners.com