Puppet Labs, the leading provider of IT automation software, today announced two new additions to the company's executive team, coming on the heels of another year of stellar growth while nearing cash-flow profitability. Simon Hayes joins the company as senior vice president of business and corporate development to build upon Puppet Labs' dynamic partner ecosystem. Jamie Hull joins as vice president of product, and will drive further innovation in Puppet, the world's most widely used IT automation tool.

"I'm happy to announce two great additions to our executive team who will accelerate product innovation and drive further growth in our ecosystem during an important time of our growth," said Luke Kanies, founder and CEO of Puppet Labs. "Jamie and Simon will be fantastic assets to Puppet Labs. Their strong leadership skills will propel Puppet Labs forward as we bring automation and its benefits, from 15 percent penetration, to the entire market."

As the head of business and corporate development, Simon will drive Puppet Labs' partner strategy and execution. Simon joins Puppet Labs from Citrix where he was vice president of portfolio, strategy and alliances. In that role, Simon built the strategic alliances organization to create and manage partnerships with global technology companies like Cisco, Microsoft, SAP, IBM and Fujitsu, all of which were key to Citrix's success. During his time at Citrix, he was also responsible for the "Citrix Ready" ecosystem program and the company's open source development organization, and led the portfolio strategy team for Citrix's Enterprise Service Provider Business.

"Puppet Labs' leadership in IT automation has been enabled by the most robust partner ecosystem in the industry, and a strong commitment to collaboration and customer success," said Simon. "I look forward to helping Puppet build its next phase of growth through strategic partnerships and by building a world-class ecosystem."

Jamie Hull will lead the Puppet Labs product team. As the former vice president of mobile products at Evernote, Jamie will bring an empirical user-first perspective to how Puppet Labs builds, develops and ships software to its users. At Evernote, Jamie headed up the iOS and Android product teams and led development of the two core mobile platforms, from initial design through development and to deployment. Prior to joining Evernote, Jamie led product and development teams at a mix of consumer product and B2B service companies, including Comcast (Plaxo), UpMo, Blurb and AOL/Advertising.com. She began her career in web development, where she managed engineering, product development and user experience.

"Puppet Labs has a long history of building products that its users love, and that provide real results for businesses," said Jamie. "I'm excited to work with Luke and his team to build upon these successes and to shape the future of Puppet for the next decade."