Yvonne Wassenaar

Puppet named a new chief executive Tuesday, a surprising announcement the new boss said doesn't indicate a change in direction at one of Portland's most prominent technology companies.

"You're not going to see any wild or crazy turns to the left or the right in the next year," said CEO Yvonne Wassenaar. She's a veteran California tech executive who previously held senior roles at VMWare, one of Puppet's biggest investors, and New Relic, which has a large Portland outpost.

Puppet has stumbled occasionally, Wassenaar acknowledged, but she credited outgoing CEO Sanjay Mirchandani with setting the company on solid footing. She declined to say why he is leaving Puppet after a little more than two years running the company but indicated Mirchandani has another job lined up.

"The company has never been stronger, and there are other things that have factored into his decision," Wassenaar said.

Puppet emerged from the Great Recession as a leader in Portland tech, using automation to help administrators manage data centers and other large computing networks. The company has raised $128 million, including a $42 million round last summer.

Built on free, open source software, Puppet grew rapidly alongside the burgeoning cloud computing industry and now employs 500 worldwide. Nearly half of them work at its downtown Portland headquarters.

Puppet appeared to stumble in recent years, though, as a new technology called containers provided alternative tools for running software inside data centers. The company shelved plans for an initial public offering and then laid off a small number of workers last April.

"The company was a little slower than it should have been" to incorporate containers in its own products, Wassenaar said. And she said many companies struggle to sell products built on free software and to grow sales within large, corporate customers.

It's a story Portland tech knows well. Jive Software, once the city's best-known tech company, struggled to attract corporate clients and ultimately gave up - selling to a Texas company that dismantled the business and shut down the Portland office.

Very few tech companies grow straight upward, Wassenaar said, without any stumbles along the way. If they don't flame out, she said they emerge stronger.

"They're more resilient and frankly they're more humble and more willing to listen," Wassenaar said, and therefore more receptive to customers' needs.

Privately held Puppet doesn't disclose financial results but says bookings during its current quarter are up 40 percent from the same period a year ago.

"We've had a couple bumps and now we're on a great trajectory into the future," Wassenaar said.

Before joining Puppet, Wassenaar, 50, had been CEO of a 100-person drone company in San Francisco, Airware. She ran that business from June 2017 until last September. Before that she was chief information officer at online analytics company New Relic and an executive at tech giant VMWare.

While Puppet's headquarters remain in Portland, Wassenaar said she plans to continue living in San Francisco, where she has three young children. She said she will be in Portland frequently and will travel the world to meet with Puppet's employees and customers.

Puppet represents an opportunity to run a promising business whose culture aligns with her own values, Wassenaar said. She said the company operates transparently with employees, being forthright about opportunities and challenges.

And she said Puppet has been a leader in conversations around bringing social consciousness to the tech sector, working to diversify the industry and be responsive to social costs that come along with changes technology brings. Wassenaar said there work yet to be done but she likes the direction Puppet is heading.

"They have a stronger start," she said, "and a stronger foundation."

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699