I am delighted to announce that Chris White, my friend, partner, and our longtime CTO, is taking the role of President at Prefect.
Chris joined me on day one, more than seven years ago. As comfortable navigating ocean currents on his surfboard as he is the complexities of our codebase, he has been instrumental in shaping our technology and our engineering culture, and I am thrilled to see him bring that same leadership to the entire company.
Building a startup is an exercise in navigating uncertainty, and there is no greater asset than a partner you can trust and build with, especially through the most challenging moments. In seven years, Chris and I have never had an actual fight. This is not because we always agree; in fact, we disagree often. But our partnership is defined by the principle that every disagreement is an opportunity for at least one person to learn. We actively apply this in our work, and that commitment to collaborative problem-solving has become the engine of Prefect's shared success.
A few years ago, a new hire was surprised to discover just how deeply this principle runs. Chris and I had each separately recounted a major, early debate about a foundational product decision. As our new colleague pointed out with some amusement, each of us framed the story as an argument we had “lost.” The truth, of course, is that neither of us had. We had simply pushed and prodded the idea through constructive disagreement until a better one emerged.
Though we share a deep-seated optimism (as all founders must), it manifests in different ways. I spend my time exploring the "what if"—the strategic vision, the market's jet stream, and the bets that define our future. Chris excels at mastering the "how to"—translating vision into a concrete plan and ensuring our execution stays sharp enough to make it a reality. These complementary focuses make our partnership more resilient and our decisions better, and their contrast forms our engine of opportunity. Where we disagree, we have opportunities to create stronger, more well-vetted outcomes.
Nowhere is the power of this collaboration more evident than in the single achievement we are most proud of: building a profitable, high-growth software company. As exciting as it has been to see Prefect swept up in the booms (and busts) of the modern data stack and now the AI hype cycle, those are merely waypoints on the journey. The destination we have sweated for, and the one we will continue to build toward, is a sustainable business that endures by delivering incredible value to its customers.
As Prefect has grown, it has become constructive to formalize the leadership roles that have emerged organically. Making Chris our President recognizes the position he has long held and provides him the platform to expand its impact.
Chris wants to enable us to innovate by providing clarity that makes it possible to tie every action back to our strategic aspirations. He is focused on execution, applying the principles that have made our engineering culture so successful to the entire company and extending our blameless culture beyond just our technical work. This approach is rooted in the same principle of constructive disagreement that has always guided our partnership. As he puts it, when something goes wrong, we debug the system, not the person.
I am more confident than ever in our ability to build an enduring, innovative company. The partnership that has served us so well for the last seven years is now formally encoded into the leadership of our business.
Please join me in congratulating Chris on this well-deserved accomplishment!
