Rackspace Appoints New CEO 

Rackspace has announced that its board of directors has named Taylor Rhodes to be the company's chief executive officer as well as a member of the board, effective immediately. Rhodes is a Rackspace veteran who has served in a variety of leadership positions within the company since 2007, including several roles directly responsible for delivering Rackspace's renowned Fanatical Support to customers globally. He retains his previous role as president and remains responsible for the company's operations worldwide. Rackspace co-founder, Graham Weston, who has served as CEO and chairman since February, now is non-executive chairman of the board.

"Our board conducted a thorough search of highly qualified internal and external candidates, and we are confident that Taylor is the right person to lead Rackspace through its next phase of growth," said Sam Gilliland, lead independent director of the Rackspace board. "Throughout his tenure, Taylor has proven himself to be an inspiring leader, a strategic thinker and a committed Racker. On behalf of the board, I look forward to working closely with Taylor as we embark on our next chapter together. I would also like to thank Graham for his leadership during this transition period. As always, he guided us with vision and passion."

Weston added, "With each new role and challenge that Taylor has taken on, he has demonstrated inspiring leadership, delivered results and displayed passion for Rackspace and our customers. Importantly, he has played a critical role in the development and execution of the company's strategy to renew its focus on managed cloud market leadership, actions which are driving the reacceleration of the company's results and underpinning our positive outlook."

"I would like to thank the board for its confidence in me, and Graham for providing the leadership that has helped Rackspace become the #1 managed cloud company," said Rhodes. "Graham has been a valued mentor to me, and I look forward to his continued guidance and advice. I am confident that we are in the early days of massive transformation of the IT industry and we are well-positioned to win market share and customers that value our expertise."

Rhodes joined Rackspace in 2007 to lead the business unit responsible for delivering Fanatical Support to more than 1,000 of the company's largest and most complex customers. Previously, Rhodes served as president since February. Prior to that, he was senior vice president and chief customer officer responsible for Rackspace's global sales and Fanatical Support organizations. He worked closely with the product and marketing teams to develop the company's differentiated managed services strategy, and was specifically responsible for leveraging the power of the hybrid cloud, open and standard technologies, and Fanatical Support to acquire new customers and grow relationships with existing customers.

Rhodes also served as senior vice president and managing director, international, where he was responsible for developing the company's strategic priorities and creating business growth across international markets in Europe, Asia and Australia. Before that, he helped launch Rackspace Enterprise Services, a business unit that accelerated the company's expansion of services to larger customers.

Before joining Rackspace, Rhodes worked at EDS in a series of progressively more challenging leadership roles, managing end-to-end relationships with large global customers. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry officer and holds an MBA degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.