Vinny Smith CEO, Quest Software

Quest Software, Inc.‘s Board of Directors announced that Doug Garn is stepping down from his role as President and Chief Executive Officer and the Board has named Vinny Smith, previously Quest’s Executive Chairman, as the company’s new CEO.

 Smith was CEO from 1998 to 2008. Under his direction, Quest became a leading enterprise systems management company. When Smith joined Quest as an investor and director in 1995, the company had just 25 employees and $4 million in revenue; today, the company has more than 3,400 employees worldwide and $695 million in revenue.

Prior to joining Quest, Smith co-founded Patrol Software. He financed the company, ran North American operations, and directed worldwide sales and marketing. In 1994, BMC Software bought Patrol. After the acquisition, Smith remained at the company for a year to help BMC transition from a mainframe-oriented company to an open systems-solution provider.

Prior to his time at Patrol Software, Smith attained success in sales and marketing at Oracle, where he worked under Tom Siebel. During his five years with the company, he managed more than 60 sales representatives – as well as the technical and operational staff that supported his team.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a minor in economics from the University of Delaware

Garn has been appointed Vice Chairman of the Board and Smith will remain as Chairman, effective immediately.

"Doug has made a tremendous contribution to Quest during his three years as CEO, helping to strengthen our position as a leading enterprise systems company," said Paul Sallaberry, on behalf of Quest’s Board. "Doug has been discussing his need to step back from his role given pressing health issues, and we respect his decision. In his new role as Vice Chairman of the Board, Doug will continue to serve Quest with his knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for the company."

"The board has complete confidence that Vinny is the right person to be our next CEO," added Sallaberry. "Vinny’s service at Quest has been marked by outstanding performance and he has always demonstrated remarkable insight into the enterprise systems market."

During his tenure with Quest, Smith has played a critical leadership role in strategic decisions that have shaped the company’s success, including:

• Taking Toad from a simple freeware tool to the market leader in database development and optimization with over two million users worldwide today;
• Predicting the criticality of the Microsoft infrastructure and expanding Quest’s product portfolio beyond database and application management into the market-leading position in the Microsoft infrastructure management market; and
• Anticipating the challenges caused by virtualization and cloud computing, and assembling a portfolio of products to simplify management of those new platforms.

In resuming the role of CEO, Smith will continue to evolve Quest to a strategic IT management solutions vendor focused on Database Management, Windows Server Management, Performance Monitoring, Identity and Access Management, Data Protection and User Workspace Management.