Financial controls and automation software leader BlackLine continues its investment in new executive talent with the hiring of Pete Hirsch as Chief technology officer (CTO).  Hirsch is a seasoned software engineer, architect and strategist with more than 30 years of experience scaling technology organizations for dynamic, fast-growing companies, as well as larger enterprises.

As CTO at BlackLine, Hirsch will be responsible for the technology direction of BlackLine’s flagship cloud platform as the company seeks to capitalize on the growing worldwide demand for solutions that drive greater efficiency, financial governance and risk management across the spectrum of financial operations.  He also will spearhead the company’s internal technology roadmap, overseeing Technical Operations, Engineering, IT and Governance, reporting to CEO Therese Tucker.

“Pete has a broad range of skills, including leading IT and tech ops in addition to engineering, at companies of various sizes where he has been instrumental in providing the technology vision, strategy and leadership to help the organizations scale from concept through acquisitions and beyond,” Tucker said.

Prior to that he spent several years as senior vice president and chief architect at Ariba and then as senior vice president, Ariba Cloud Engineering & Technology at SAP, following the enterprise application software leader’s acquisition of Ariba.  Previously, he led a SaaS business unit at IBM over the course of more than 10 years as the global information technology giant acquired several smaller companies.