KNIME has appointed Trevor Kaufman as its new CEO, with founder Michael Berthold stepping down from the role to transition the data analytics platform into its next phase of expansion in the SaaS and AI-driven data science market.
KNIME, a leading provider of open-source data analytics solutions, today announced a key leadership transition as founder and longtime CEO Michael Berthold steps down. Trevor Kaufman, a veteran executive known for scaling high-growth SaaS companies, has been named the new CEO to guide the organization through its next phase of expansion.
Berthold founded KNIME and led its development into a widely adopted platform that democratizes data science. Under his leadership, the company grew to serve hundreds of thousands of users worldwide, fostering a strong community, loyal customer base, and a people-first culture. “It’s been an incredible journey to lead KNIME from the idea of democratizing data science to a company with a product our customers love, hundreds of thousands of users, and a remarkable team,” said Michael Berthold, former CEO at KNIME. “We’ve built a company with a thriving community, amazing customers, and a market-leading product that keeps getting better. I believe Trevor is uniquely suited to keep scaling the business to even greater achievements.”
While relinquishing day-to-day operations, Berthold will continue as a shareholder and trusted advisor to support the smooth transition.
Kaufman brings extensive experience in growing SaaS organizations. Most recently, he served as CEO of Piano, a SaaS platform for site analytics and optimization, where he expanded the business from startup to a 570-person team operating in 14 countries, serving clients including The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Rabobank, and ANA. Prior to that, he was CEO of Possible Worldwide, a global digital agency network he built within WPP, following his founding and sale of digital agency Schematic.
“I'm thrilled to join KNIME at such an exciting inflection point,” said Trevor Kaufman, KNIME’s new CEO. “The foundation that Michael has built — the product, the momentum, the culture — is exceptional. My goal is to preserve and leverage that culture while helping the team scale to meet the growing opportunity in front of us.”
Berthold expressed confidence in the company's future trajectory. “I’m excited to see where KNIME goes from here. Over the past years we have completely revamped our software and built a strong basis for the future of data work in the era of agentic AI. The team, the product in this market have amazing potential. I’ll be cheering from the sidelines.”
This leadership change positions KNIME to capitalize on increasing demand for accessible, scalable data science and AI solutions across enterprises.
About KNIME
KNIME helps everybody make sense of data. Its free and open-source KNIME Analytics Platform enables anyone--whether they come from a business, technical or data background–to intuitively work with data, every day. Beginners can learn data science through its low-code, visual interface, while more seasoned data experts can also take advantage of advanced analytic techniques, integration with scripting languages, ML libraries, and other tools of choice. The intuitive, yet powerful software thus serves as a common ground for all skill levels and disciplines, empowering knowledge-sharing to drive innovation in the practical applications of data science.
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