UiPath Inc. today announced that it has appointed prominent enterprise technology executive Robert Enslin as co-chief executive officer.

The executive is joining the provider of robotic process automation software after a three-year stint as president of cloud sales at Google LLC’s cloud business, during which the business experienced rapid revenue growth. Enslin (pictured, right) is set to step into the co-CEO role on May 16 and will work alongside UiPath co-founder and CEO Daniel Dines (left).

The announcement of Enslin’s appointment as co-CEO comes a few weeks after UiPath’s most recent earnings report. The company posted a $63.1 million net loss on revenues of $289.7 million, up 39% from a year earlier, but its revenue guidance missed analyst expectations. UiPath’s share price plunged 19% in after-hours trading on the day of the earnings report.

“UiPath is trying to signal to Wall Street that it’s bringing in new co-management while keeping the innovation engine going,” said Dave Vellante, co-founder and chief analyst at Wikibon, SiliconANGLE Media’s research firm. “The stock has been absolutely hammered and this should help calm investors. If they perform like they should, they’ll do well. Otherwise someone might start licking their chops and try to pick up an undervalued asset.”

Publicly traded UiPath is a major provider of robotic process automation, or RPA, software. The company’s RPA platform can observe how workers perform a given task in a business application and create software bots capable of performing the task automatically. UiPath helps its enterprise customers reduce repetitive manual tasks for their employees and lower the risk of human error. 

Enslin tripled the Google Cloud sales organization during his tenure and helped drive significant revenue growth. Google parent Alphabet Inc. reported quarterly financial results on Tuesday, disclosing that its cloud business’ revenue jumped 44%, to $5.8 billion, during the first quarter.

Before his stint at Google, Enslin spent 27 years at enterprise software giant SAP SE, where he served in various leadership roles. Enslin’s most recent role at SAP was executive board member and president of the Cloud Business Group. As the head of the Cloud Business Group, Enslin led the development and delivery of SAP’s entire cloud solutions portfolio.

Enslin’s responsibilities included overseeing the company’s Qualtrics business. The business, which makes software that helps enterprises collect feedback from workers and customers, became part of SAP through a 2019 acquisition. Qualtrics experienced rapid growth while it was a SAP subsidiary and in January 2021 became a publicly traded company, raising $1.5 billion through its initial public offering.

“I’m bringing Rob on as my partner as we focus on growth at scale and building a company that reimagines how business is done,” stated Dines. “Rob brings the right balance of experience and skills to scale our operations, allowing me to focus on our company culture, vision, and product innovation, areas I am passionate about – and that bring considerable value to our employees and customers.”

Image: UiPath