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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchSmartsheet announced on August 5, 2025, that Mark Mader would retire as CEO and leave the company’s board at the end of September. Apptio co-founder Sunny Gupta was named executive chair and acting CEO while Smartsheet searched for a permanent successor.
Gupta did not become Smartsheet’s permanent CEO. On October 6, 2025, the company appointed Rajeev Singh as CEO, with Gupta continuing as executive chair.
What Smartsheet announced
Smartsheet said on August 5, 2025, that Mader would retire from both the CEO position and the board of directors at the end of September. The company described the move as a leadership transition as Smartsheet entered its next phase, not as an emergency dismissal.
Mader was expected to remain involved as an adviser and significant investor. That means “retiring” did not represent an immediate or complete break with Smartsheet.
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Gupta was appointed executive chair and acting CEO. Smartsheet’s board also began a comprehensive search for a permanent CEO. The original announcement therefore did not name Gupta as Mader’s long-term successor.
Read Smartsheet’s August 5 announcement.
Who is Mark Mader?
Mader led Smartsheet for nearly two decades. According to contemporaneous reporting, he became CEO in 2006, a year after Smartsheet launched. Under his leadership, the company grew from a startup into a large enterprise work-management software provider and went public in 2018.
By the time of his planned departure, contemporaneous reporting described Smartsheet as serving millions of users, generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue and employing more than 3,000 people worldwide. Those figures are time-specific and should not be treated as current operating metrics without updated company reporting.
Smartsheet’s own announcement described its platform as an AI-powered, enterprise-grade work-management product used by more than 85% of the Fortune 500. That is a company claim and may change as the customer base and measurement period change.
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Gupta co-founded Apptio in 2007 and served as its CEO through 2024, according to Smartsheet. Apptio developed software for managing technology spending and demonstrating the value of technology investments. IBM acquired Apptio in 2023; GeekWire reported the transaction was valued at $4.6 billion.
Gupta also held roles at Opsware, iConclude and Rational Software. His background in enterprise software, technology management and private-equity-backed businesses made him a plausible choice to guide Smartsheet during an interim period.
In announcing his appointment, Gupta highlighted accelerating AI investment, expanding Smartsheet’s global enterprise presence, improving operational excellence and continuing the company’s growth and innovation. These were stated priorities, not independently verified results from the transition.
Why the timing mattered
The leadership change came less than a year after Smartsheet was taken private by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners. The acquisition closed in January 2025 at an announced value of approximately $8.4 billion. Shareholders received $56.50 in cash per share under the transaction terms.
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After the transaction closed, Smartsheet shares stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the company was no longer publicly listed. For former shareholders, the deal meant a cash exit rather than continued ownership through a public stock.
The timing made Mader’s transition significant: Smartsheet was moving from a public-company environment into a new phase under private ownership. However, the available announcements do not establish that Blackstone or Vista required Mader’s retirement, nor do they show that the acquisition was caused by performance concerns or strategic disagreement.
See the announcement completing Smartsheet’s acquisition.
The leadership timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2006 | Mader became Smartsheet’s CEO, according to GeekWire’s account. |
| August 5, 2025 | Smartsheet announced Mader’s planned retirement and departure from the board. Gupta was named executive chair and acting CEO while the board searched for a permanent CEO. |
| End of September 2025 | Mader was scheduled to retire as CEO and leave the board. |
| October 6, 2025 | Smartsheet announced Rajeev Singh as CEO and a board member. Gupta remained executive chair. |
There is a chronology issue in the company’s public announcements. The October release says Gupta had served as acting CEO “since July,” while the August announcement said Mader would remain CEO until the end of September. Those statements are difficult to reconcile from the available materials, so the uncontested sequence is the safer description: Smartsheet announced the transition in August, identified Gupta as acting CEO, searched for a permanent leader and later appointed Singh.
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What happened to Sunny Gupta?
Gupta’s acting CEO role was temporary. Smartsheet announced on October 6, 2025, that Rajeev Singh had become CEO and joined the board. Gupta continued as executive chair rather than remaining the company’s chief executive.
This later appointment is important because an August 2025 headline saying Gupta would “take over” can otherwise leave the wrong impression. He took over interim executive responsibilities, but he was not ultimately selected as Smartsheet’s permanent CEO.
Read Smartsheet’s announcement naming Rajeev Singh CEO.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What customers and employees should—and should not—infer
The announcements identify a change in leadership and describe broad strategic priorities, especially AI investment, enterprise growth and operational execution. They do not announce changes to subscription prices, customer contracts, data handling, product access or customer-service policies.
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Likewise, the public materials do not establish layoffs, a product overhaul or a dispute between Mader and Smartsheet’s owners. A CEO succession can affect priorities over time, but the leadership announcements alone are not evidence that any particular customer-facing change occurred.
For enterprise customers, the practical questions remain separate from the succession itself: whether Smartsheet continues to meet security and integration requirements, how its roadmap fits existing workflows, and whether contract terms and service commitments remain acceptable. Those issues require current commercial and product information rather than assumptions based on the CEO change.
What the transition meant for investors
Smartsheet was no longer a publicly traded company after the January 2025 acquisition. Former public shareholders received cash consideration under the deal instead of continuing to hold Smartsheet shares on the NYSE.
Private ownership can give management and its owners more flexibility than quarterly public-market reporting, but the leadership announcements do not provide enough information to judge the acquisition’s return, future exit plans or investment performance. The same caution applies to any claim that Mader’s departure reflected a turnaround strategy: the available sources do not say that.
The bottom line on Smartsheet’s CEO change
Mader announced his retirement after nearly two decades leading Smartsheet, with his CEO and board departures planned for the end of September 2025. Gupta became executive chair and acting CEO during the search for a permanent leader, but he was not the final successor. Rajeev Singh became CEO on October 6, 2025, while Gupta remained executive chair.
The transition followed Smartsheet’s approximately $8.4 billion take-private acquisition by Blackstone and Vista. It marked a new leadership phase for a privately held enterprise-software company, but the public announcements do not prove that the ownership change caused Mader’s retirement or immediately changed Smartsheet’s products, pricing or customer contracts.
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