The Rackspace Board of Directors voted to appoint a new CEO on Thursday as the outgoing CEO Kevin Jones stepped down, according to an SEC filing released on Monday. Amar Maletira, CFO of Rackspace since 2020, took over as chief executive officer the Friday after the vote.
Maletira becomes Rackspace’s fifth CEO since Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm, bought Rackspace for $4.3 billion in 2016 in a leveraged buyout.
In 2020, Apollo took Rackspace public again, sitting two of its own on Rackspace’s nine-member board of directors, alongside a third who formerly worked with Apollo.
Jones will join Apollo as an operating advisor. A spokesperson for Rackspace said Jones left his position as CEO to take on the new role at Apollo, but the terms surrounding his departure remain unclear.
When TPR ask whether Jones had left the company voluntarily, the spokesperson referred questions to Apollo. A spokesperson for Apollo did not immediately respond to TPR's request for comment.
The Rackspace spokesperson said Maletira will “continue to focus on delivering the strategy we have built” and that his appointment was approved by Rackspace’s board of directors to eventually realign the company into two business units.
In an investor call on Monday, Maletira told investors what they should expect from him and emphasized the long-term importance of any further disruption to Rackspace’s operations.
“All of these changes may cause some short-term disruption,” Maletira said on the call. “The change is, however, critical to position the company for long term success.”
In a prepared statement, Davis Sambur, Rackspace board member and co-head of Private Equity at Apollo, said Maletira is right for the job of chief executive.
“Amar brings broad management and leadership experience, and over the course of his career, he has helped transform several multi-billion-dollar technology businesses,” Sambur said. “He has also been instrumental in crafting Rackspace Technology’s new strategic direction and operating model.”
