Sunny Gupta

Sunny Gupta is Executive Chair at Smartsheet.  In the role he is charged with overseeing day-to-day operations of the company and collaborating with the Board and company leadership on strategy and execution.

He brings valuable experience to the position and was previously the co-founder and CEO of Apptio, an IBM Company. Under his leadership, Apptio evolved from a VC-funded start-up in 2007 to a public company on the NASDAQ to a private-equity held corporation under Vista Equity Partners, and now to a critical part of the IBM software portfolio. IBM’s $4.6 billion acquisition of Apptio in 2023 marked one of the largest software deals in IBM’s history.

Core to Gupta’s and Apptio’s success is his customer-first mindset and ability to deeply understand customer and market needs. Gupta pioneered a new software category: Technology Business Management, that allowed technology and finance leaders to manage and optimize technology spend and value across organizations of all sizes around the globe.

Until February 2024 Sunny ran the Apptio business within IBM and he continues to serve on the TBM Council (TBMC) board of directors, an independent non-profit body that manages the TBM taxonomy, standards, education, and community. TBMC has over 20,000 global members with most of the global 500 and their C-level executives a part of this technology community.

Prior to founding Apptio, Sunny was EVP of Products at Opsware until its acquisition by HP in 2007. He was also the co-founder and CEO of iConclude, which created the IT runbook automation market and was acquired by Opsware. He launched his first start-up, Vigor Technologies, in 1996, and led its acquisition by Rational Software. In addition to his start-up ventures, Sunny has held senior leadership roles in Product Marketing, Business Development, and Engineering at Mercury Interactive, Rational Software, and IBM.

Sunny currently advises multiple technology companies and fellow CEOs. He is Chairman Emeritus of Apptio and Strategic Advisor to IBM, serves on the board of directors for Gainsight (a Vista Private Equity company), is a strategic director for Madrona Ventures, and is a Strategic Advisory Board Member to the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Sunny earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina.