Management Team

Luke Kanies | CEO / Founder

Luke founded Puppet and Puppet Labs in 2005 out of fear and desperation, with the goal of producing better operations tools and changing how we manage systems. He has been publishing and speaking on his work in system administration since 1997, focusing on development since 2001. He has developed and published multiple simple sysadmin tools and contributed to established products like Cfengine, and has presented on Puppet and other tools around the world, including at OSCON, LISA, Linux.Conf.au, and FOSS.in. His work with Puppet has been an important part of DevOps and delivering on the promise of cloud computing. He serves as a board member for the Software Association of Oregon.

Nigel Kersten | CTO

Nigel came to Puppet Labs from Google HQ in Mountain View, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of one of the largest Puppet deployments in the world. He’s been a sysadmin for Linux and Mac deployments since before Mac OS became a UNIX, and was voted one of the 25 Most Influential People in the Mac Technical Community in 2006.

Scott Campbell | Sales

Scott has played a prominent role in several startup software companies. Most recently, Scott spent 4 years as the Sr. VP of Global Sales at Jive Software. Prior to Jive, Scott spent 6 years at Tripwire, a leading provider of security and compliance solutions. While at Tripwire, Scott lead the Western Region Field Sales and Inside Sales organizations. Prior to Tripwire, Scott spent 5 years as the Director Sales at Rogue Wave Software, a provider of software development tools that had a successful IPO in 1997.

Julie Crawford | Finance & Administration

Julie has 17 years of financial, accounting, and business experience. Most recently, she ran her own financial consulting practice assisting fast-growing start-up companies. Earlier, as CFO/Corporate Controller of PolyServe, she played a key role in the company’s sale to HP. Prior to PolyServe, she served as a Senior Finance Manager at InFocus Corporation.

Randall Hansen | User Experience

Randall has been a design leader at consultancies and product companies for over ten years, deeply involved in open source the entire time. He’s been programming for 30 years and has been a professional system administrator. He is most passionate about creating high-quality, simple products that forge emotional connections with users.

Scott Johnston | Marketing, Product & Community

Scott brings to Puppet Labs more than 20 years of experience in technology, from software development to product marketing and IT operations to venture capital. He served in leadership roles in several industry-defining companies, including Netscape (acquired by AOL for $10 billion) and Loudcloud, parent of Opsware (acquired by HP for $1.6 billion). Most recently, before joining Puppet Labs he served as partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Alloy Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm.

Laura Stepp | Human Resources & Organization Development

Laura brings over 18 years of progressive experience in strategic human resources and organization development that spans multiple industries and a variety of global roles. Laura was HR Director for Intel’s Software and Services Group, as well as the IT organization. She specializes in strategic planning, organization design and development, workforce planning and leadership assessment, and is passionate about developing innovative, high-performance cultures. Prior to Intel, Laura worked at Nike, Mentor Graphics Corp., and as an independent consultant. Laura is also an accredited coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF).

James Turnbull | Technology Operations

A former IT executive in the banking industry and author of five technology books, James has been involved in IT Operations for nearly twenty years and is an advocate of open source technology. He joined Puppet Labs in March of 2010. James manages Professional Services, Education, Operations, Support and Community for Puppet Labs.

Teyo Tyree | Business Development / Founder

Formerly the Director of IT for 20/20 Research and a professional system administrator, over the past 12 years Teyo has been using and promoting the use of open source tools to enable scaling and efficiency in IT operations. Teyo joined Puppet Labs in July of 2008 and has been traveling the world providing Puppet Labs’ customers and partners with training, integration and consulting.