President, CEO, and Cofounder
NI has announced its board of directors has elected Alex Davern to serve as chief executive officer (CEO) and president of National Instruments, effective Jan. 1, 2017.
Davern will succeed Dr. James Truchard, who has served as the CEO of NI since the company's founding in 1976.
Truchard will remain as chairman of the board. The board of directors plans to appoint Davern to the board by the end of January 2017. This transition is being undertaken as part of the board's succession planning process.
"It has always been my goal for NI to be a company built to last," said Truchard, CEO and co-founder. "Over the last decade, in the face of a weak industrial economy, I have focused my efforts on helping to ensure we were making the long-term strategic investments necessary to set NI up for future growth. I believe these major platform investments, in key areas like PXI modular instrumentation, RF measurements, CompactRIO, and our entire software platform, will continue providing NI with disruptive platform capabilities needed to expand our long-term market opportunity. Given our significant progress, much of which was showcased at NIWeek earlier this month, I believe NI is well-positioned for the coming decade."
Truchard continued: "It is the right time for me to retire as CEO. I have worked with Alex Davern for more than 20 years. He is an exceptional leader and business strategist, with a demonstrated track record of success. I have complete confidence in Alex and the rest of the senior leadership team at NI to continue delivering on our consistent track record of innovation, growth and profitability."
