Alan Baratz
Placement Update: Promotion to CEO
Lonergan Partners is pleased to announce that Alan Baratz has been named Chief Executive Officer of D-Wave Systems. Alan was named chief product officer and head of research and development in 2017, after a global search led by Lonergan Partners. He takes over from retiring CEO Vern Brownell, who was also a Lonergan Partners placement, who began his tenure as CEO of D-Wave in 2009.
About Alan
Alan joined D-Wave in 2017 and prior to his promotion served as the chief product officer and executive vice president of research and development for D-Wave. He assumes his new role as CEO following the launch of Leap™, D-Wave’s quantum cloud service, in October 2018, and in advance of the mid-2020 launch of the company’s next-generation quantum system, Advantage™.
Alan has driven the development, delivery, and support of all of D-Wave’s products, technologies, and applications in recent years. He has over 25 years of experience in product development and bringing new products to market at leading technology companies and software startups. As the first president of JavaSoft at Sun Microsystems, Alan oversaw the growth and adoption of the Java platform from its infancy to a robust platform supporting mission-critical applications in nearly 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies. He has also held executive positions at Symphony, Avaya, Cisco, and IBM. He served as CEO and president of Versata, Zaplet, and NeoPath Networks, and as a managing director at Warburg Pincus LLC.
Alan holds a doctorate in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About D-Wave Systems
D-Wave is the leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services and is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing for the world. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Wave’s systems are being used by some of the world’s most advanced organizations, including Volkswagen, DENSO, Lockheed Martin, USRA, USC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, D-Wave’s US operations are based in Palo Alto, CA and Bellevue, WA. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, BDC Capital, DFJ, In-Q-Tel, BDC Capital, PenderFund Capital, 180 Degree Capital Corp., and Kensington Capital Partners Limited. For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com.
I joined D-Wave to bring quantum computing technology to the enterprise. Now more than ever, I am convinced that making practical quantum computing available to forward-thinking businesses and emerging quantum developers through the cloud is central to jumpstarting the broad development of in-production quantum applications. As I assume the CEO role, I’ll focus on expanding the early beachheads for quantum computing that exist in manufacturing, mobility, new materials creation, and financial services into real value for our customers. I am honored to take over the leadership of the company and work together with the D-Wave team as we begin to deliver real business results with our quantum computers.
Alan Baratz, CEO, D-Wave Systems
There are very few moments in your life when you have the opportunity to build an entirely new market. My 10 years at D-Wave have been rich with breakthroughs, like selling the first commercial quantum computer. I am humbled to have been a part of building the quantum ecosystem. Alan has shown tremendous leadership in our technology and product development efforts, and I am working with him to transition leadership of the entire business. This is an exciting time for quantum computing and an exciting time for D-Wave. I can’t imagine a better leader than Alan at the helm for the next phase of bringing practical quantum computing to enterprises around the world.
Vern Brownell, Retiring CEO, D-Wave Systems
With cloud access and the development of more than 200 early applications, quantum computing is experiencing explosive growth. We are excited to recognize Alan’s work in bringing Leap to market and building the next-generation Advantage system. And as D-Wave expands their Quantum-as-a-Service offerings, Alan’s expertise with growing developer communities and delivering SaaS solutions to enterprises will be critical for D-Wave’s success in the market. I want to thank Vern for his 10 years of contributions to D-Wave. He was central in our ability to be the first to commercialize quantum computers and has made important contributions not only to D-Wave, but also in building the quantum ecosystem.
Paul Lee, Board Chair, D-Wave Systems
Great professional services firms provide solutions that last. We are delighted that our work with D-Wave in the placement of Alan in 2017 has gone well – and that Alan has been promoted to replace the retiring Vern Brownell. Alan will have profound impact on the company in his elevated position, serving to introduce the world to the future in quantum computing.
Mark Lonergan, Founder and Managing Partner, Lonergan Partners