BairesDev has announced that Darren Shimkus is now its Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Co-Founder Nacho De Marco becomes Chairman of the Board, remaining an active strategic advisor while dedicating more time to new ventures adjacent to BairesDev. The leadership change comes from a position of strength, with BairesDev profitable every year since its founding 17 years ago.
Darren Shimkus appointed CEO of BairesDev.
Co-founder Nacho De Marco becomes Chairman, remaining strategic advisor.
BairesDev has been profitable every year since founding 17 years ago.
Shimkus previously co-founder of Modal (acquired by BairesDev) and President of Udemy for Business.
Company is bootstrapped with no outside capital.
Shimkus accelerated BairesDev's shift to AI-first services company.
Having joined the company as an advisor in December 2024 and transitioned to a full-time role in June 2025, Shimkus has demonstrated the leadership and innovation required to scale an organization in this emerging AI age, accelerating BairesDev's shift toward becoming the industry's leading AI-first services company. Before joining BairesDev, Shimkus spent his career building and scaling high-growth technology companies, most recently as co-founder of Modal, an AI upskilling platform BairesDev acquired in 2025, after which Shimkus also took on the role of President. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles including President of Udemy for Business, where he transformed the business from a consumer platform to an enterprise SaaS business that drove the company's IPO.
"We just had one of our best half-years in the company's history, and that's exactly why we're making this change now," said De Marco. "In my new role as Chairman, I will advise Darren on our biggest strategic questions and put my energy into finding BairesDev's next engines of growth. I've watched Darren rebuild how our commercial teams work together and roll out our first purpose-built AI offerings since the day he joined. I believe he'll run this company through the next phase better than I could, and that's not a hard thing to say. That's the entire point."
"Nacho built something rare: an incredibly successful company driven by the long-term thinking and customer obsession that only a bootstrapped company could deliver without compromise. My job now is to preserve that discipline while scaling BairesDev for what comes next," said Darren Shimkus, Chief Executive Officer of BairesDev.
About BairesDev
BairesDev provides nearshore software development services to some of the world's largest and most respected companies, like Google, Pinterest, Adobe, Rolls-Royce, Johnson & Johnson, and Salesforce. Backed by 4,000+ people across LATAM, BairesDev has delivered high-quality software in over 130 industries.
