Executive Management

Michael Howard, CEO of MariaDB plc, brings decades of leadership in the enterprise software, data management and big data industries. As CEO of MariaDB, he has raised over $150M in funding from global strategic investors, led the acquisition of Clustrix, CubeWerx and MammothDB, and orchestrated industry-leading innovation in the database, including a state-of-the-art database-as-a-service product. Previously, Michael was CEO at C9, which he transformed into one of the leading predictive analytics companies in the CRM space and led through its acquisition by InsideSales. Michael also served as CMO at Greenplum (now Pivotal), the big data division of EMC, as well as CEO at Ingrian Networks and OuterBay. He was also the VP of the internet division at Veritas and VP of data warehousing at Oracle, where he led the acquisitions of Thinking Machines, OneMeaning and Carleton Corporation. Michael has served on the boards of Acunu and FireEye, and keynoted at a variety of conferences, including EMC World, Oracle OpenWorld, Green Data Center Conference, Data Science Series, MariaDB OpenWorks and many others. Michael studied computer science and Slavic languages and literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Franz Aman is the CMO at MariaDB plc, and brings more than 25 years of experience in leadership and innovation across marketing, including global product marketing, product management, strategy, brand and communications. Franz holds a degree in geophysics from Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. He has held numerous executive positions within industry-leading technology companies, including Informatica, SAP, BusinessObjects, BEA Systems, SGI and Sun Microsystems.

Jon Bakke is CRO at MariaDB plc where he leads the field sales, inside sales, sales engineering, sales development, customer success, consulting, support and training teams globally. He has over 25 years of enterprise database experience, with an exceptional track record in innovation, customer service, solution development, delivery and global team leadership. Prior to MariaDB, Jon managed large, worldwide field organizations at Oracle and MarkLogic where his teams positioned and serviced critical business systems to a wide range of industries across the globe. Jon’s technical expertise transcends a wide range of IT specialties including ultra-scale database deployments, enterprise security and multi-model database technology. Jon earned a master’s degree at East Carolina University and currently resides in Arizona.

Roya Shakoori is the Company’s General Counsel with over 17 years of legal experience. Roya has significant law firm restructuring experience and experience in-house working with Silicon Valley start-up technology/sustainability companies. Prior to joining MariaDB, Roya was General Counsel for a sustainability-focused/electrification company helping it through a significant growth phase, organically and through multiple acquisitions. Prior to that, Roya led the in-house legal efforts for ChargePoint, Inc. transitioning it from a private company to a public company through deSPAC. Roya resides in beautiful Silicon Valley, California.

As Chief Accounting Officer, Will Sanchez is responsible for leading MariaDB’s global accounting function. Prior to joining MariaDB, Will completed an IPO with Applied Molecular Transport Inc. and participated in a reverse merger (SPAC) with Tobira Therapeutics, Inc. He has worked in both SaaS and biotechnology industries and has held senior positions at eGain Corporation, Electronic Arts Inc. and Johnson Controls, Inc. Will earned his B.S. Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and is a Certified Public Accountant.