We recently made a big change at Faithlife, and I wanted to share it with all of you. What follows is a version of the announcement I made to our team weeks ago:
I co-founded Faithlife more than 30 years ago, in May, 1991.
I was 19 years old when we started working on Logos Bible Software (inspired by a program I wrote when I was 15); this is truly my life’s work.
As Faithlife has grown and changed we have needed more process, structure, and operational predictability. I understand the importance of all of these, but they’ve never been my skill or my passion. (They may be my anti-passion.…)
My passion is for the products, the relationships (inside and outside), and our corporate culture. I am excited about the difference we make in the world, and the service we provide churches and everyone who studies the Bible.
January will mark 30 years from our formal incorporation and my official start date as CEO; I recently turned 50 years old.
This seemed like a good milestone at which to start a new phase of the journey.
So, on January 1st, I took my first-ever promotion, to Executive Chairman, and promoted our CFO, Vik Rajagopal, into the CEO role.
Faithlife is ready for a CEO with stronger management skills, more disciplined execution, and a passion for setting and achieving goals. In working closely alongside Vik for the past year I’ve been impressed with Vik’s strengths in all those areas, as well as his kindness, his leadership, and his ability to encourage and support our team.
Most importantly, Vik is someone who loves our mission, shares our values, and is excited to serve the Church and everyone who studies the Bible. (You can read more about Vik on his LinkedIn profile.)
I am ready to spend more time on our products, with customers, building relationships with partner organizations, thinking, writing, planning, mentoring, and coaching our team.
I am not leaving or retiring, and my ownership, board seat, and commitment are not changing.
I will still be working for Faithlife full-time.
The difference is that I won’t be leading weekly meetings, giving assignments, or having direct reports. I do plan to keep working on our products, but more as a vision-caster and brainstorming-collaborator than as an assigner of tasks.
It’s important to me that you know the change is thoughtful, intentional, and the best thing for Faithlife and for me. And most importantly, that you know I’m still 100% committed to Faithlife’s mission and our success -- and excited to be making changes which make that next level of success even more likely.
I am a founder and an entrepreneur who served as CEO for a long time, and now I’m ready to hand that title to someone else so I can operate from my strengths, and so our team can get the leadership and management that will help all of us achieve a new level of success and service to the Church together.
Thank you for joining me in supporting Vik in this new role.
-- Bob
