Clearlake Capital-Backed symplr Names Software Industry Veteran BJ Schaknowski As CEO

Rick Pleczko makes planned transition to Executive Chairman, continuing to work with the leadership team on corporate strategy

symplr, the leading global healthcare governance, risk management, and compliance software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform, backed by Clearlake Capital Group and SkyKnight Capital, announced BJ Schaknowski has joined symplr as CEO, effective immediately. Former CEO Rick Pleczko will remain active with the Company and assume the role of Executive Chairman.

“We are excited to welcome BJ to the symplr team and congratulate Rick on his transition to the Executive Chairman role,” said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Prashant Mehrotra, Partner, at Clearlake. “BJ is an experienced software industry leader who brings proven go-to-market and broader software leadership at scale to the Company, including most recently at a leading vertical software platform where he has been responsible for driving significant growth through go-to-market innovation and customer success while executing on a buy-and-build strategy. This unique and valuable perspective, combined with his deep operating experience at scale, aligns well to support symplr’s vision in delivering greater value as a comprehensive healthcare GRC software platform.”

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Mr. Schaknowski is a seasoned software industry executive with over 20 years of experience in leadership roles across a wide variety of operating functions. Before joining symplr, he served as the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Vertafore, the world’s leading provider of insurance technology. Prior to that, Mr. Schaknowski was the SVP Marketing, Sales & Services at LexisNexis Software Solutions and held numerous senior and global leadership roles earlier in his career at CA Technologies, Intuit, and Sage Software. He brings his dedication to creating balanced value and outcomes for employees, customers, and shareholders to the symplr community. He earned a BA in Communications from the State University of New York at Geneseo and his MBA at the University of Georgia – Terry College of Business.

“I am humbled and honored to succeed Rick as symplr’s next CEO. symplr is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of hospitals, health systems, and payers as the market leader for healthcare GRC software solutions,” said Mr. Schaknowski. “With a clear strategic direction and several recent acquisitions in place, symplr is at an exciting inflection point of scale and growth. My mission is clear: work closely with the symplr leadership team to further establish the company’s position as the industry’s leading healthcare GRC SaaS platform.”

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Mr. Pleczko will remain actively engaged with the company, focusing on corporate strategy as well as business and market development.

“BJ’s proven experience in building and executing enterprise-class go-to-market strategies is exactly what symplr needs for its next phase of growth,” said Mr. Pleczko. “Over the last six years we’ve delivered significant value to our customers through expanded scale, product innovation and an unrelenting focus on customer success, and I’m looking forward to helping symplr continue to execute on this strategy and make a greater positive impact on our clients.”

Mr. Eghbali and Mr. Mehrotra added, “On behalf of Clearlake, we thank Rick for his leadership and the trajectory of success at symplr he helped establish over the last six years. We are looking forward to his continued partnership with the management team and the Company.”

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