Cloudflare Appoints Chirantan “CJ” Desai as President of Product & Engineering; Continues Strong Leadership Team Momentum in 2024

Industry veteran with track record of driving innovation at scale across multiple enterprise technology companies to accelerate next chapter of growth

Cloudflare Appoints Chirantan “CJ” Desai as President of Product & Engineering; Continues Strong Leadership Team Momentum in 2024

Cloudflare, Inc.
Daniella Vallurupalli
Vice President, Head of Global Communications
press@cloudflare.com

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, today announced the appointment of Chirantan "CJ" Desai as President of Product & Engineering to further accelerate the company's next phase of growth to $5 billion in annual recurring revenue and beyond. Desai's 25+ years of experience spans product innovation, go-to-market strategies, and operational efficiency—all key in building high-performing teams and driving sustained business growth at scale.

Desai most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer at ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), overseeing ServiceNow's products, platform, design, AI research, engineering, customer support, and cloud infrastructure operations as well as customer success. Joining ServiceNow in December 2016 as Chief Product Officer before being promoted to the role of Chief Operating Officer in January 2022, Desai helped scale the company from $1.5 billion to more than $10 billion in annualized revenue during his tenure.

"CJ's track record of driving innovation, operational excellence, and customer-centric growth speaks for itself and makes him an ideal fit for Cloudflare as we continue to scale our company and push the boundaries of what's possible," said Matthew Prince, co-founder & CEO at Cloudflare. "Just this year, we've brought on some of the best and brightest executives in the world. They could go just about anywhere, but they believe Cloudflare is the next iconic technology company. They're betting their careers on Cloudflare and joining us to further accelerate our growth. I look forward to working with CJ as we continue to scale our research and development organization for the next chapter of our business."

"I have always believed in the power of technology to make our work and personal lives better and safer. Cloudflare's vision for world-class innovation and its commitment to delivering exceptional value to customers align with my own passion for driving transformation and growth," said CJ Desai, President of Product & Engineering at Cloudflare. "I look forward to working together with the incredibly talented team at Cloudflare to advance our mission of helping to build a better Internet, all while delivering best-in-class solutions that drive meaningful business outcomes for our customers."

Cloudflare's Strong Leadership Team Momentum in 2024:

In a significant year for leadership appointments at Cloudflare, Desai comes to the company just months after other prominent world-class executives changed course in their careers to help accelerate the company's next chapter of growth at scale.

In February 2024, Cloudflare announced the appointment of Mark Anderson, as President of Revenue. Anderson most recently served as the CEO of Alteryx and brings 25+ years of experience building high performing teams and scaling revenue at multiple enterprise technology companies. He also served on Cloudflare's Board of Directors before joining the company. Prior to his role at Alteryx, Anderson was instrumental in scaling Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) from pre-IPO to more than $2.5 billion in annualized revenue and also oversaw all sales activities at F5 Networks, where he helped grow the company's annual revenue to more than $1 billion.

In March 2024, Cloudflare announced the appointment of its first-ever Chief Strategy Officer, Stephanie Cohen. With more than two decades of experience from Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS), Cohen was brought on to play an integral role increasing the breadth and depth of Cloudflare's presence in boardrooms and in the C-suite, supporting Cloudflare's growth to $5 billion in annual recurring revenue and beyond.

To learn more about why CJ joined Cloudflare, check out our latest blog post:

Blog: Why I Joined Cloudflare

About CJ Desai

CJ Desai is the president of product & engineering at Cloudflare. He has 25+ years of experience spanning product innovation, go-to-market strategies, and operational efficiency—all key in building high-performing teams and driving sustained business growth at scale. Most recently, CJ Desai served as president and COO at ServiceNow. Desai oversaw ServiceNow’s products, platform, design, engineering, customer support, and cloud infrastructure operations as well as Customer Success. Prior to joining ServiceNow, Desai was the president of the Emerging Technologies Division at EMC where he had a full P&L responsibility for emerging technology products with a focus on launching and growing new product lines. Desai ran various product lines for 9 years while at Symantec including Endpoint Security, Email & Web Security, Server Security, Mobile Security. Desai began his career with Oracle Corp and was a key member of the team that launched Oracle’s first cloud service.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare's connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.

Powered by one of the world's largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations—from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.

Learn more about Cloudflare's connectivity cloud at cloudflare.com/connectivity-cloud. Learn more about the latest Internet trends and insights at https://radar.cloudflare.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "explore," "plan," "anticipate," "could," "intend," "target," "project," "contemplate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare's expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Cloudflare’s products and technology, Cloudflare's technological development, future results of operations, financial condition, operations, growth, initiatives, strategies, and future market trends, Cloudflare's expectations about the addition of its President of Product & Engineering, President of Revenue, and Chief Strategy Officer to its leadership team, Cloudflare’s goal of achieving more than $5 billion in annualized revenue, and comments made by Cloudflare's CEO and its President of Product & Engineering. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on August 1, 2024, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in Cloudflare's forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on Cloudflare's forward-looking statements.

© 2024 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Cloudflare, Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.