10 Things You Didn’t Know About Kevin B. Thompson
Kevin B. Thompson is an American businessman who presently serves as the CEO of Solarwinds. He brings years of leadership experience to the position. His unique leading style has led the company forward to achieving great success. Mr. Thompson is a good role model for those who are pursuing their careers in business. His natural talent and wise choices in the field have helped him to earn a fortune. Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about Kevin B. Thompson that you may find inspirational and helpful in your own professional development.
1. Kevin has a solid educational background
According to his Linkedin page, Mr. Thompson enrolled in college courses to build a solid educational foundation in the field of Business. He studied in the Business Administration program from 1984 through 1988. He graduated with his undergraduate degree from the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma.
2. He spent a decade at his first job out of college
With his new degree in hand, Kevin secured a job the same year that he graduated in 1988. He went to work as a senior manager at the Arthur Andersen company. He stayed in this position for 10 years, leaving the company in 1998. This gave him extensive experience as a manager and it helped to lay the foundation for positions with better pay and more responsibility.
3. He made partner at PWC
PWC stands for PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited. It is a private English company that provides accounting services for its clients. Mr. Thompson was hired at the firm in January of 1998. He moved directly into the position from his previous post. He made partner at the firm, and stayed with PWC for 2 years and 10 months, leaving in October of 2000, to pursue yet another step up in his career in leadership.
4. Kevin left the partnership for an executive leadership post
Thompson left his partnership at PWC in October of 2000. He had the opportunity to become Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Red Hat company. This was a definite step up in his career. He remained in the job at Red Hat for 3 years and 11 months, leaving the company in August of 2004.
5. He has a broad range of leadership experience
Kevin Thompson has a diversified range of leadership experiences. He left his post at the Red Hat company to take a job with SAS, a business analytics software and services company. He was appointed as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the company. SAS is the largest independent business intelligence, vendor. This was a job that came with a great deal of responsibility. He stayed at SAS until December of 2005 when he left for yet another job in executive leadership. It was a good experience that helped him to understand how leadership requirements differ from one industry to another, as well as how individual companies come with their own set of issues and problems to solve.
6. Thompson has been at Solarwinds for 10 years
Mr. Thomson joined the team at Solarwinds in March of 2010, according to Bloomberg. He assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer, leading the company for more than a decade. He has had a successful career with Solarwinds up until a recent and unfortunate event that may lead to a lack of confidence in the products and services offered by the firm.
7. Thompson has had his share of ups and downs
Executive leadership comes with a heavy burden of responsibility. Some things sometimes happen that are unforeseen and detrimental. Such an event recently took place in December of 2020. News of a cyber attack by Russian hackers has just been reported. A company called FireEye was one of the victims of the attack and others were also victimized by the cybercriminals. The Texas-based company SolarWinds Corp. provided the software that was supposed to protect them from such assaults. A vulnerability in the software provided by SolarWinds was discovered by investigators trying to get to the bottom of the matter.
8. Kevin has just stepped down from SolarWinds
Although no official reason was given, it’s been reported by Exechange, that Kevin B. Thompson has stepped down from his position as CEO and president of the company. He is being succeeded by Sudhakar Ramakrishna who has given Thompson his thanks and praise for the nearly 11 years he has served the company. His last day will be December 31, 2020. It has been suggested that the board is looking for new ideas and initiatives within the leadership, also they did not common on the reason for his departure. The common belief, without evidence, is that he was forced out of the position.
9. The future is uncertain for his career
Due to the lack of comment on the reason for Thompson’s departure, it is uncertain why he is leaving, or what his plans are after SolarWinds. We can assume it’s not for personal reasons or retirement as this would have been openly shared with the press. It is likely related to the recent problems with system vulnerabilities in the software program. This has not been alluded to by the board. It’ doesn’t mean that the issue was any fault of Mr. Thompson, but when problems like this happen, someone has to take the blame.
10 Kevin B. Thompson is going to be just fine
Throughout his grand and illustrious career, Kevin B. Thompson has earned a fortune. According to Wallmine, his estimated net worth is at a minimum of $75.8 million. He owns thousands of shares of stock in the SolarWinds Corporation as well as holdings from other investments. He has planned his financials wisely and has made provisions for his future in advance. Although he wouldn’t need to work another day in his life, he will likely return to executive leadership because it’s a job that he knows and executes so well.
