Lew Cirne is a Canadian-American

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

-based

technologist Technologist may refer to: * Applied Science Technologist, a Canadian professional title in engineering and applied science technology. * Architectural technologist, a specialist in the technology fields of building, design and construction. * C ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who promotes

software analytics Software analytics is the analytics specific to the domain of software systems taking into account source code, static and dynamic characteristics (e.g., software metrics) as well as related processes of their development and evolution. It aims at ...

technology. He was the founder and CEO of

Wily Technology CA Wily Technology, formerly Wily Technology, Inc., is a software company based in California. Founded in 1998, it was purchased by CA, Inc. in March 2006, and CA Wily Technology is now a division of CA's Service Assurance business unit. History ...

, which was acquired by

CA, Inc. CA Technologies, formerly known as CA, Inc. and Computer Associates International, Inc., is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. It is primarily known for its business-to-business (B2B) software with a product po ...

in March 2006. Cirne founded the company

New Relic New Relic is a San Francisco, California-based technology company which develops cloud-based software to help website and application owners track the performance of their services. History Foundation and early years Lew Cirne founded New Relic ...

in 2008. "New Relic" is an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

of Lew Cirne's name.

Career

Lew Cirne was raised in

Port Hope, Ontario Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County. ...

. His parents, Geoff and Jean Cirne, were immigrants to Canada from Manchester, England. Cirne attended

Trinity College School Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School ...

and in 1993 received an A.B. from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

with a major in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

. After college, Cirne held senior technical positions at

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

and Hummingbird Communications. In 1998, Cirne founded

. He was responsible for developing Wily Technology's vision of enterprise class application performance management and is credited with bringing it to the

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

platform. Cirne was one of the chief technologists and driving force in enterprise application performance and availability. He served as Wily Technology's president and chief executive officer until October 2001. In 2008, Cirne began focusing on

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

(SaaS) while an entrepreneur in residence for

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups. History The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 mill ...

and founded New Relic. New Relic is a provider of Web application performance management. New Relic's technology monitors Web and mobile applications in real-time that run in cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments. Cirne stepped down as CEO on July 1, 2021, becoming executive chairman of the company's board of directors. Former

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and

Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

vice president Bill Staples became CEO.

Contributions

Cirne has been described as a pioneer in the development of

application performance management In the fields of information technology and systems management, application performance management (APM) is the monitoring and management of the performance and availability of software applications. APM strives to detect and diagnose complex appli ...

(APM). He holds 19 patents in this area of expertise. Cirne has also made major contributions to several other software systems. In 2006, Cirne and Wily chairman David Strohm announced a $1 million gift to

. The gift supported the creation of an endowed scholarship called the Wily Scholars Fund, and to establish a fund for undergraduate internships in early-stage technology companies, called the Wily Initiative Fund. In 2016, Cirne funded two full scholarships, and the construction of the Cirne Learning Commons, at Trinity College School. Cirne is sometimes referred to as the "Coding CEO". He dedicates every Thursday and Friday to coding. Cirne has been known to take week-long coding retreats at his Lake Tahoe cabin, often inviting New Relic developers.

Accolades

Cirne was named as a finalist in the 2013

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California.

References

External links

Harvard Business Review, Crafting Founder-CEO Succession at Wily Technology, Wasserman and McCance, January 2005Interview with Lew Cirne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cirne, Lew 1970 births American technology chief executives Canadian chief executives Canadian computer scientists Canadian technology chief executives Dartmouth College alumni Living people