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After leading MongoDB through one of the most successful runs in enterprise software, CEO Dev Ittycheria is stepping down after more than a decade at the helm. The company announced Monday that Chirantan “CJ” Desai — currently president of product and engineering at Cloudflare — will take over as CEO on November 10. Ittycheria will stay on the board. In a news release making the announcement, Chairman of the MongoDB Board of Directors, Tom Killalea, said: “CJ brings an exceptional blend of product and engineering leadership, strong go-to-market execution, and firsthand experience scaling some of the world’s most transformative software companies.” Killalea added: “From driving organic revenue growth at ServiceNow to innovating for the enterprise at Cloudflare, CJ has consistently demonstrated the ability to lead at scale. His deep understanding and early deployment of AI in the enterprise will be invaluable as MongoDB continues to deliver for its customers. CJ has the unanimous support of MongoDB’s Board, and we are thrilled to welcome a leader of his caliber as our next President and CEO.” In an interview with CNBC, Ittycheria said the decision came out of a normal succession process. “Earlier this year, I would say as part of our normal succession planning process, the board asked me about my long-term plans and whether I could commit for another five years as CEO,” he said. “I thought long and hard about it, and I talked to my family, I talked to the board and ultimately realized I couldn’t make that kind of decision.” It marks the end of an era for MongoDB. Ittycheria took over in 2014, led the company’s IPO in 2017, and turned the New York-based database provider into a $30 billion business. Under his leadership, MongoDB grew from a developer favorite into a cornerstone of modern data infrastructure, challenging Oracle and other legacy players by offering flexible document-based storage. Ittycheria pushed MongoDB to prioritize cloud subscriptions, struck major deals with Amazon and Microsoft, and positioned the company to ride the generative AI wave. Revenue hit $591 million in the July quarter, up 24% year over year, while the company’s net loss narrowed to $47 million from $54.5 million. Its stock has surged fifteenfold since the IPO, closing Friday at $359.82. Desai steps into the role with deep experience across enterprise software. Before joining Cloudflare, he spent several years at ServiceNow, where he served as chief operating officer before resigning in 2024 after a policy issue tied to a government hiring matter. He’s also held leadership roles at EMC and Symantec. His first job out of college was at Oracle — the same company MongoDB has competed against for years. “We talked to people close to ServiceNow, as well as other people who know CJ really well, and we felt very, very comfortable that CJ is the right person to lead MongoDB in this next era,” Ittycheria said. Desai will split his time between New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s already thinking big. In his first statement as incoming CEO, he said he wants to grow MongoDB into a $5 billion-plus company “in a durable, profitable way,” and to make it “the gold standard for modern database technology, no matter what kind of workloads exist.” He didn’t provide a timeline. MongoDB said it expects to exceed the high end of its guidance for revenue and adjusted earnings per share in the fiscal third quarter. The company’s forecast had topped out at $592 million in revenue and 79 cents per share in earnings. Founded in 2007 by Dwight Merriman, Eliot Horowitz, and Kevin Ryan, MongoDB has become one of the most widely used databases in the world, downloaded over 40 million times and adopted by more than 7,400 customers across 100 countries. With Desai taking the reins, the company is heading into its next chapter — one built on a strong foundation that Ittycheria spent more than a decade shaping.
