Melissa Di Donato

Melissa Di Donato
Nationality	British
Education	MBA in International Business from American University: Kogod School of Business (1996) MBA in Russian Language and Literature from American University (1996) BA Double Major in Russian Language and Literature and Political Science from Manhattanville College (1994)
Occupation(s)	Business executive, software developer, author
Known for	CEO of Kyriba
Spouse	Darren Roos

Melissa Di Donato is an American-born businesswoman based in the United Kingdom and CEO of Kyriba.[1]

Career

Early in her career, Melissa Di Donato worked on enterprise resource planning system, SAP R3. She had various positions at IBM, Salesforce, Oracle and eventually became the chief revenue officer of SAP's cloud division.[2]

In mid-2019, Di Donato was appointed as the CEO of SUSE.[3] In May 2021, SUSE successfully listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.[4] Subsequently, however, the company's valuation dropped significantly.[5] On March 21, 2023, Di Donato decided to step down as CEO of SUSE[6] after she had bypassed the company's controls regarding a $1.4 million deal.[7]

On April 22, 2023 Di Donato was appointed as a non-executive board member to the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) within the UK government.[8]

In September 2023, Di Donato was appointed as CEO of Kyriba.[9]

Di Donato serves as a non-executive director at JPMorgan Chase, is a member of the Supervisory Board of Porsche, board member at Mews and holds advisory roles at Notion Capital.[10]

Philanthropy

Melissa Di Donato is the co-founder of Inner Wings, a foundation dedicated to empowering young girls. She is a trustee of Founders4Schools and the inaugural Technology Group chair of the 30% Club. She also served as a Stemettes Godmother and a mentor to young girls.

Di Donato has authored multiple children’s books.

References

1. "Leadership team - Kyriba". Kyriba. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
2. Chan, Rosalie. "The CEO of SUSE says the coronavirus crisis may benefit the open source company, especially now that its biggest rival has been 'taken out' by IBM". Business Insider.
3. "Former SAP COO, Melissa Di Donato, appointed CEO of SUSE". Information Age. 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
4. Busvine, Arno Schuetze, Douglas (May 19, 2021). "REFILE-UPDATE 1-Software company SUSE holds own in Frankfurt debut". Retrieved August 9, 2021 – via www.reuters.com.
5. "SUSE's ex-CEO ousted after greenlighting "risky deals"". December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
6. "SUSE S.A. appoints Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen as new CEO". March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023 – via www.suse.com.
7. "Exclusive: How SUSE deviated from its internal controls while warning about sales risk". November 30, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2024 – via www.reuters.com.
8. "The stars align for science and tech as non-execs are appointed to the DSIT Start-Up Board". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
9. "Kyriba Appoints Visionary Leader Melissa Di Donato as New Chair and CEO". Kyriba. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
10. "Team – Melissa Di Donato". Notion vc.

External links

• Notion Capital profile
• GOV.UK profile
• Kyriba profile