AppFolio CEO Jason Randall leaves

  • After about five and a half years in the position
  • Praise and thanks for Randall
  • Shane Trigg taking over
  • Randall kept it short and said 50 words

(exechange) — Santa Barbara, California, March 2, 2023 — Jason Randall, chief executive of AppFolio, leaves his position. As announced by AppFolio Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Thursday, March 2, 2023, Jason Randall has left his post as chief executive officer at the provider of cloud business management solutions for the real estate industry, after about five and a half years in the role, effective March 1, 2023.

The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8.4 years. This is according to data collected by CEO-exit research firm exechange.

exechange tracks CEO departures at the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., examines the reasons CEOs leave and determines the Push‑out Score™, a measure of pressure on departing chief executives on a scale of 0 to 10.

Jason Randall’s duties as CEO will be taken over by William Shane Trigg, most recently President and General Manager, Real Estate at AppFolio Inc.

“Part of a multi-year succession plan”

Jason Randall’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. AppFolio stated: “Trigg’s ascension is part of a multi-year succession plan, during which time the Board had an opportunity to recognize Trigg’s contributions to the company, and Randall and Trigg worked together to organize for growth and ensure values were aligned.”

The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (26.2% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (17.1%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (9.5%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.8% of cases), personal reasons (3.4%) and conduct issues (2.1%). Rather rarely stated reasons are career change (2.1% of cases), health problems (1.5%), disagreement (1.2%), the desire for more time with family (0.9%) and death (0.9%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 29.3% of cases, no reason was given.

Precise information regarding Jason Randall’s future plans was not immediately available.

“Resign”

AppFolio said: “Jason Randall, who has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since 2017, will be a transition advisor to the company until March 31, 2023.”

AppFolio further said: “AppFolio, Inc. (the “Company”) announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Jason Randall, notified its Board of Directors (the “Board”) of his plans to resign from his positions as the Company’s President, Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board, effective as of March 1, 2023.”

Generally, resignations are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to resign. In fact, 77% of the time “resign” was used in CEO departure announcements over the past 12 months, the departing chief executives received Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5, indicating elevated pressure.

“Not the result of any disagreement”

AppFolio stated, regarding the change: “Mr. Randall’s departure is not the result of any disagreement with respect to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.”

Share price increase since March 2018

The announcement follows an increase in AppFolio Inc.’s share price of 225% since March 2018.

In the position of CEO since 2017

Jason Randall became CEO of the Company in 2017.

Jason Randall has served as AppFolio’s President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Company’s Board since 2017.

Randall has been a member of the AppFolio leadership team since 2009, serving in various executive-level product and strategy positions, including Senior Vice President of AppFolio Property Manager.

Randall has served in various leadership and product development capacities at other SaaS companies, including Citrix Online (merged with GoTo).

He received a B.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

50 words by Jason Randall

In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of AppFolio Inc., Jason Randall received praise and thanks.

In announcing the leadership change, Jason Randall kept it short and said 50 words.

“Especially rewarding”

Jason Randall stated: “I am very proud of our accomplishments during my almost 15 years at AppFolio. My proudest moments have been watching our team and company thrive and grow. The past three years working with Shane have been especially rewarding and I am extremely excited for him and the future at AppFolio.”

Over the past 12 months, 25% of all outgoing CEOs remained silent in the departure announcement, according to data compiled by exechange. Departing CEOs who did make a statement said an average of 110 words. The longest statement was 510 words. The shortest statement was 23 words. Leadership transitions in which departing CEOs provide conspicuously short, excessively long or no explanations for their move are statistically associated with elevated pressure and show an increased incidence of Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5.

37% of CEOs are forced out or fired

When CEO departures are announced, exechange determines the Push-out Score on a scale of 0 to 10 to assess how likely it is that the chief executive was pushed out or felt pressure to leave the position, with 0 being most likely a voluntary move and 10 being most likely a forced exit. Anything over a 5 indicates that there are valid reasons to believe an executive may have been pushed out.

Of the 328 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (March 2, 2022, to March 1, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 5.9, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When performance issues, time with family or other opportunities were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.

Around 37% of the CEO departure events from the past 12 months received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher.

In other words, in the past 12 months, one in three departing CEOs were forced out or fired.

Pressure in the information technology sector well above the critical threshold

Some industries are under generally higher pressure than others, and CEOs are feeling the strain. In the past 12 months, the communication, health care and consumer discretionary sectors showed the highest average Push-out Scores. By contrast, pressure on CEOs was lowest in the real estate, utilities and financials sectors, as measured by average Push-out Scores.

In the information technology sector, which includes AppFolio Inc., the average Push-out Score over the past 12 months was 6.1, which is well above the critical threshold of 5.

In the information technology sector, 19 exiting CEOs received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher over the past 12 months, indicating that they were most likely forced out or faced strong pressure to step down.

Push-out Score for Jason Randall’s move determined

The Push-out Score regarding Jason Randall’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.

exechange reached out to AppFolio and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 10.2023 ($).