Ooyala, the online video publisher owned by Telstra, said it has hired Jonathan Huberman as CEO, effective April 18.
Former CEO Ramesh Srinivasan left Ooyala last November, with Issac Vaughn, Ooyala’s SVP, corporate development and general counsel, stepping in as acting CEO as the company conducted its search for a successor.
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Huberman also comes aboard a couple months after Ooyala reportedly laid off 14% of its total workforce tied to a restructuring that would eventually create new job openings focused on new product areas.
Prior to Ooyala, Huberman was the CEO of Syncplicity, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company for enterprise file collaboration that was acquired in February by Axway. Before that, he was CEO of Tiburon, a public safety software provider (acquired by TriTech in 2015), and was president of EMC’s Consumer and Small Business Division.
Though some of Huberman's recent exec slots have resulted in M&A activity, Ooyala talked up his track record in driving growth.
“Mr. Huberman has a standout record of delivering profound growth for cloud-based technologies in complex industries and is a well-suited leader for Ooyala,” Stephen Elop, said Ooyala’s chairman, said in a statement. His dedication to customer satisfaction and keen attention to matching the right solutions to the right challenges in the industry will help drive Ooyala’s next phase of growth.”
Ooyala is in a highly competitive market that is also becoming increasingly commoditized. Competitors include a mix of large media companies and startups such as Comcast Technology Solutions, Brightcove, IBM, NeuLion, BAMTech, Zype, and Kaltura, among others.
