WP Engine Doubles Down on WordPress Technology Innovation Expanding Product & Technology Leadership Team with New CPO and CTO
Ezinne Udezue appointed as Chief Product Officer, SVP of Global Engineering Ramadass Prabhakar elevated to Chief Technology Officer, and Company Founder Jason Cohen to serve as Chief Innovation Officer
AUSTIN, Texas — August 18, 2022 — WP Engine, the world’s most trusted WordPress technology company, today announced exciting changes to its executive leadership team.
Proven product and innovation leader Ezinne Udezue has been appointed as Chief Product Officer, leading product strategy and management across the company’s WordPress technology brands and developer solutions. Ramadass Prabhakar, who has served as SVP of Global Engineering for the past two years, has been elevated to Chief Technology Officer, leading the company’s engineering and technology focus. Jason Cohen, WP Engine’s founder, has been appointed as the company’s first Chief Innovation Officer, focusing on the intersection of technology, innovation, and company strategy.
The expansion of executive leadership across WP Engine’s Product & Engineering teams will further fuel the company’s WordPress technology innovation. Following the recent acquisition of Delicious Brains plugins, WP Engine’s growing set of developer solutions, which also includes Local and Genesis, is fast becoming the essential toolkit for building sites with WordPress.
“As we continue to innovate and invest in delivering solutions that fuel digital acceleration for site builders globally, it’s crucial that we have visionary leadership in place with the experience and expertise needed to advance the success of our customers,” said WP Engine Chairwoman and CEO Heather Brunner.
Ezinne Udezue
Ezinne Udezue joins WP Engine with a rich and highly relevant background in executive product and technology leadership, overseeing innovation, growth, and platform teams at Procore, Bazaarvoice, Time Inc, Discovery, and T-Mobile USA/Deutsche Telekom. During her career, she has built B2B, B2C, and B2B2C solutions working with large-scale companies and advising start-ups as they scale up. Most recently, Ezinne served as VP of Product at Procore Technologies where she has also served as GM for the Owners Market Team, leading investments in scaling the company’s core software platform and ecosystem.
At WP Engine, Ezinne will lead the strategy and development of customer-inspired products, with a focus on making WP Engine the ultimate destination for WordPress site builders to accelerate and simplify the complete design-build-power-optimize lifecycle.
“Ezinne is passionate about customer-inspired products and will bring tremendous strategic gravitas to WP Engine,” said Heather Brunner. “With the addition of her role and expertise, we have made a strong investment in our product and innovation leadership and will work hard to strengthen our position as technology leaders and accelerate our future plans.”
“I am thrilled to lead such a talented team working in some of the most influential technology today,” said Ezinne Udezue. “Our masterful product development teams give marketers, developers, and builders the tools and environment to create with freedom and without limits.”
Ramadass Prabhakar is a technology leader who brings more than 20 years of experience at companies like Adobe, Magento, and Bazaarvoice leading multiple, cross-functional and geographically-dispersed teams.
Ramadass is a cultural beacon in WP Engine’s Engineering department, building diverse teams across Europe and North America. Today, Ramadass is taking on the role of Chief Technology Officer.
“Over the past two years, Ramadass’ engineering and business leadership have allowed us to accelerate our innovation to market, elevate our agile practices, and build a strong engineering culture,” said Heather Brunner. “His experience working with open source software and growing global technology teams will help us evolve our category-defining platform-as-a-service to the innovative global agencies and brands using WordPress.”
“Taking over the CTO reins from our founder Jason means big shoes for anyone to fill, but I’m thrilled at the prospect of driving WP Engine’s position as the technology leader in WordPress,” said Ramadass Prabhakar, Chief Technology Officer. “Our teams are powering the freedom to create and unlocking new innovations in WordPress, headless, and eCommerce. We are building the very foundations of the modern web to come and defining our digital future.”
Ramadass Prabhakar
Jason Cohen
With over 27 years of experience in business and software development, Jason Cohen is the founder of WP Engine where he has served in several roles including CEO, Head of Engineering, Head of Product, and most recently CTO. In his new role as Chief Innovation Officer, Jason will focus on the intersection of corporate and technology strategies as well as continue as the company’s executive sponsor for the headless platform, Atlas.
“Innovation and future planning are critical to WP Engine’s leadership in WordPress,” said Heather Brunner. “As our beloved Founder, Jason is in a unique position to help us continue to evolve and create impact for WP Engine. In his new role, his passion for growth and learning will help us stay hungry as an ambitious and innovative technology company.”
“The web is changing once again, and tech companies like ours need to be agile,” said Jason Cohen, Chief Innovation Officer. “A deeper focus on innovation is key to ensuring our teams, our partners and our customers stay competitive in this new world.”
About WP Engine
WP Engine, the WordPress technology company, provides the most relied upon and trusted brands and developer-centric WordPress products for companies and agencies of all sizes, including managed WordPress hosting, enterprise WordPress, headless WordPress, Flywheel, Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and Genesis. WP Engine’s tech innovation and award-winning WordPress experts help to power more than 185,000 customers across 150 countries.
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