A seasoned entrepreneur and leader, Sunny Gupta is the co-founder and CEO of Apptio, an IBM Company. Under his leadership, Apptio has 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 for $1.96B in 2019, 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 (or TBM), that allowed technology and finance leaders to manage and optimize technology spend and value across organizations of all sizes around the globe. Today, he runs the Apptio business within IBM and serves 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 15,000 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. Among his many accolades, Sunny was selected as a “Top 40 CEO Under 40” and recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2012 for the Pacific Northwest. Sunny was named to the prestigious Puget Sound Business Journal Power 100 list in both 2020 and 2021.Sunny currently advises multiple technology companies and fellow CEOs. He serves on the board of directors for Gainsight and Securonix (both Vista Private Equity companies), 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 (Now Coastal Carolina University). An active alum and donor to the university, CCU recently named the Gupta College of Science in his honor.