News
The Gist
- Five9 sets its CEO transition date. Amit Mathradas takes over Feb. 2, 2026, with outgoing CEO Mike Burkland staying on the board to support the handoff.
- AI-and-automation leadership is the headline credential. Mathradas most recently led Nintex and previously scaled operations at Avalara, aligning with Five9’s AI-driven CX platform positioning.
- The next signal to watch is 2026 investor day. Five9 says it plans an investor day in 2026 to detail strategy and long-term financial outlook.
Five9 named Amit Mathradas its next chief executive officer Dec. 17, tapping a software operations veteran with a recent focus on AI-centric automation platforms to lead the contact center vendor’s next growth phase.
The Five9 board said Mathradas will become CEO and a director effective Feb. 2, 2026, succeeding Mike Burkland, who announced plans in July to retire from the CEO role. Burkland will remain on Five9’s board and work with Mathradas during the transition.
Table of Contents
- Why Did the Five9 Board Pick Mathradas?
- What Does Mathradas Say About the Five 9 Role?
- Burkland’s Legacy and the Transition Plan
- What It Means For CX And Contact Center Leaders
- Who Is the New Five9 CEO Amit Mathradas?
- Mike Burkland’s Long Arc at Five9
Why Did the Five9 Board Pick Mathradas?
Five9 framed Mathradas as a fit for the company’s “AI-driven CX strategy,” citing experience scaling operations and driving product innovation. Until recently, Mathradas served as CEO of Nintex, which Five9 described as an “AI-centric, agentic business orchestration platform” company serving more than 7,000 organizations across 90+ countries.
Before Nintex, Mathradas was president and chief operating officer at Avalara, where he helped grow the business by more than 250% over four years, Five9 said. Avalara was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2022 for $8.4 billion.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Amit as the next CEO of Five9,” Burkland said in the announcement. “His deep expertise in product innovation, AI, and operational excellence at scale makes him ideally suited to lead the Company into its next chapter.”
Related Article: Five9 Launches Genius AI Updates to Scale Customer Experience
What Does Mathradas Say About the Five 9 Role?
Mathradas positioned the move as a chance to build on Five9’s market position and execute on growth and profitability goals.
“I am excited to lead such a dynamic company that I have long admired as being at the cutting edge of the industry,” Mathradas said. “Five9 has tremendous opportunities ahead, and I look forward to working with the Board, the rest of the management team, and our employees to execute our strategy to drive growth, increase profitability, and deliver long-term shareholder value.”
Burkland’s Legacy and the Transition Plan
Five9’s lead independent director, Robert Zollars, credited Burkland with scaling the business through major milestones, including growing annual revenue from $10 million to more than $1 billion.
“The entire Board is grateful for Mike’s nearly 18 years of dedication to Five9,” Zollars said. “We look forward to a seamless transition as Amit works with Mike and the Board to take Five9 to even greater heights.”
What It Means For CX And Contact Center Leaders
For enterprise contact center and customer experience teams, CEO changes can signal where a vendor plans to place its biggest bets. Five9’s language around “natively embedded AI,” “unified CX platforms,” and an “expanding market” points to continued emphasis on AI-first feature development, platform consolidation and partner ecosystem leverage.
The most practical near-term question for Five9 customers is execution: how quickly new AI capabilities move from product vision to operational impact across routing, agent assistance, analytics and orchestration — without adding complexity or governance risk.
Leadership Transition Timeline
A quick view of the dates and roles Five9 highlighted in the announcement.
| Date | Milestone | What Five9 Said |
|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | Retirement decision announced | Mike Burkland’s decision to retire from the CEO role was announced in July. |
| Feb. 2, 2026 | CEO change becomes effective | Amit Mathradas becomes CEO and a director; Burkland remains board chairman and continues on the board. |
| 2026 (TBD) | Investor day planned | Five9 intends to hold an investor day in 2026 to provide additional strategy and long-term outlook details. |
Who Is the New Five9 CEO Amit Mathradas?
Five9 described Mathradas as a senior executive with more than two decades of experience leading growth and transformation at global commercial technology companies. Earlier in his career, he led and grew teams at PayPal, Web.com and Dell, according to the company.
Mathradas holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in management and economics from Wittenberg University.
Mike Burkland’s Long Arc at Five9
Burkland’s exit from the CEO role closes a leadership chapter that has shaped Five9 for nearly two decades. He first served as CEO from 2008 to 2017, overseeing Five9’s IPO in 2014 and helping scale the company into one of the fastest-growing public players in the cloud contact center market.
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In 2017, Burkland stepped down from the CEO role after being diagnosed with cancer, though he remained closely involved as chairman of the board. Five9 brought him back into the CEO seat several years later as the CCaaS market accelerated its long-term shift to cloud-based platforms, a transition Burkland publicly described as a defining opportunity for the company.
Beyond his executive resume, Burkland has been a visible and approachable figure inside Five9. The company has previously highlighted his hands-on leadership style, competitive sports background — including pitching against Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire during his college baseball career — and his reputation for engaging directly with employees, partners and customers.
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