Leadership team

Tom Krause brings more than 20 years of experience leading, building and positioning software and technology companies for value and long-term success. Mr. Krause previously served as an executive officer of Broadcom Inc., both as Chief Financial Officer and most recently responsible for forming and leading the Broadcom Software Group as President. 

Tom began his career in technology with Robertson Stephens and Technology Crossover Ventures followed by business and corporate development leadership roles in the semiconductor industry. Tom is a graduate of Princeton University where he majored in Economics.

Tom Berquist is the Chief Financial Officer at Cloud Software Group, responsible for worldwide financial operations and reporting, investor relations, and facilities.

Tom previously held CEO and CFO roles at software companies including TIBCO, Saba, Corel, and Actian. In addition, he has spent 10 years on Wall Street with Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Piper Jaffray, and six years at Deloitte. Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and an MBA in Management & Marketing from the University of St. Thomas.

Tony Gomes is the Chief Legal and Administrative Officer for Cloud Software Group, responsible for the Legal, HR, and Corporate Marketing functions.

Tony was previously EVP and Chief Legal Officer at Citrix, leading a global, multidisciplinary team of trusted advisors working in partnership with all segments of the business to advance the company’s objectives and manage risk.

Prior to joining Citrix, Tony was a partner in the corporate practice of Goodwin Procter LLP and an associate at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP in Boston. He received his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and his law degree from Boston University School of Law.

Andy Nallappan is the EVP of Operations and the Chief Information Security Officer of Cloud Software Group. He is responsible for tools, processes and security across all corporate functions and software assets for the company.

Previously, Andy served as the CIO, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Security Officer, and Head of Software Engineering and Operations for Broadcom. He has more than 30 years of experience in IT, software development, security and program management across the Fortune 500, public sectors and privately-owned companies.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras, and a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso.

Leanne Taylor is SVP of Commercial Strategy, responsible for strategic customer programs, strategic alignment for all cloud software group business units, sales compensation design, implementation and execution, as well as consolidated sales reporting and analytics activities.

Previously, she served as SVP of Global Customer Operations for Cloud Software Group and Global COO for the Customer Organization at Citrix. Prior to that, Leanne was VP for Industries and Strategic Customer Programs at SAP Australia and New Zealand. She has also served as head of Financial Services Industry, for SAP, UK and Ireland, and Head of License Right Management for SAP UK and Ireland.

She spent 12 years at Standard Bank, both in Johannesburg and London, in various senior leadership roles. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Commerce and Finance from The University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Sridhar Mullapudi is General Manager of the Citrix business unit in Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for the product management and development of Citrix VDI/DaaS, Cloud Platform, and analytics solutions. Previously, he served as Chief Product Officer at Citrix, where he oversaw the company’s $3.2 billion product portfolio. Over the course of his 22-year tenure at Citrix, he has sat in many leadership positions across product and engineering, including EVP of Product Management.

He holds an MBA from the University of Florida, a master’s degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s degree from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University.

Hector Lima is the head of the Citrix Go-to-Market sales organization for Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for managing the strategic customer and partner relationships across the organization’s full portfolio of technology solutions.

He was previously EVP and Chief Customer Officer at Citrix, where he grew his career for over 20 years across various roles in sales and customer experience, most recently leading the global sales, channel ecosystem, and customer experience organization in elevating the end-to-end journey for Citrix customers.

He is passionate about results and holds a BA in Economics from Brown University. 

Derek Baden is the head of the NetScaler eCommerce Business Unit at Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for the brand’s strategic growth and mission of helping our eCommerce clients enhance customer satisfaction and achieve sustainable revenue growth through implementing NetScaler’s innovative and secure technologies.

He has held various sales leadership positions throughout his 18-year tenure at Citrix, most recently serving as Worldwide Vice President of NetScaler Sales.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University.

Jacus de Beer is General Manager of the XenServer business unit at Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for the product management and development of the XenServer virtualisation platform. For the past 8 years at Citrix, he played a key leadership role in the continued delivery of innovation and improvements across a broad range of technologies and processes.

Prior to that, Jacus was a technical driver for several telecom start-ups and has led engineering teams across multiple continents to deliver real-time passenger information and automated fare collection systems across the UK.

He holds an MBA from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from The University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Ali Ahmed is General Manager of the TIBCO + Enterprise Applications BUs at Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for the TIBCO, ibi, Jaspersoft, Foresight and Data Synapse portfolio of products. Previously Ali was SVP of Engineering at TIBCO, where he led enterprise solutions engineering, products and technology.

Over his 21-year tenure at TIBCO, he has held a number of leadership roles across engineering, including Head of Global Engineering Services, and he brings deep expertise in delivering high quality products and managing large engineering teams worldwide. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering and an MBA from Osmania University.

Steven Schneider is General Manager, Analytics at Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for the Jaspersoft and Spotfire business units. Steven and his leadership are driving to effectively grow the businesses aligned to their customers’ unique needs while building operational independence.

Steven has been in the analytics industry for 12+ years, and most recently served as CEO at Capital Canary before it was acquired by Quorum Analytics. Prior to that he was CEO and Executive Chairman at Logi Analytics before it was acquired by InsightSoftware. At Logi Analytics he also held positions as COO, CPO, VP of Sales, and VP, Go-to-Market and as CTO.

He holds an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business and a Computer Science degree from Virginia Tech.

Kurt Heusner is General Manager of the ShareFile business unit at Cloud Software Group, where he is responsible for the business’s product portfolio that includes ShareFile, RightSignature and Podio. Previously, Kurt served as the Senior Vice President for the ShareFile Customer Organization where he was responsible for driving the worldwide Go-to-Market strategy including Marketing, Sales, Channel and Success.

Previously, during his 11 years at Citrix, he held various executive leadership positions from SVP, Americas Commercial business to Vice President, WW Professional Services. Kurt joined Citrix through acquisition as the Chief Customer Officer of AppDNA. Prior to that he held a variety of executive positions with early-stage companies, and he previously spent 13 years at Dell. Kurt did his undergraduate work at Furman University.

Ric Chi is the head of corporate strategy for Cloud Software Group, responsible for long-range strategic planning, corporate investments, capital markets and allocation, and mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.

Most recently, Ric was the Head of Corporate Development for Broadcom. In this role, Ric ran deal diligence and execution for key transformational acquisitions and divestitures, led long-range strategic planning, and advised the executive team and Board on capital allocation decisions.

Prior to Broadcom, Ric worked in the Investment Banking Group at Citibank and the Private Equity Investing Group at GI partners. Ric is a graduate of Cornell University, where he double majored in Economics and Information Science.