Continuing to Climb: Jim Morrisroe is 15Five’s New CEO

I’m filled with gratitude and optimism as we make a leadership change at 15Five. After co-founding this company nearly 14 years ago, I’ve decided now is the time to transition into the Executive Chairman role. Jim Morrisroe, our Chief Operating Officer, will take the reins as CEO. 

As I’ve reflected on our progress at 15Five and our mission to help HR leaders drive results through human-centered leadership and management, I’ve decided I can deliver the biggest impact in the Executive Chairman role. Having worked alongside Jim for nearly three years, I can confidently say that our strategic direction is the clearest and most exciting it’s ever been. And that, by and large, is a result of Jim’s leadership.

I’m grateful to our leadership team at 15Five, and especially Jim, for his eagerness to take on this new role. His passion for spreading human-centered leadership in the workplace is unmatched. Combined with his track record of successful leadership at iconic software brands like VMware and Slack, there is no one else more capable of leading 15Five from here. 

When we started 15Five, we set out to deliver a product that could help companies and their people thrive. Today, I can say with great pride that we are delivering on that ambition. 15Five is trusted by HR leaders to connect their work to business impact at over 3,500 companies around the world. More than 400,000 employees and managers rely on 15Five to grow and thrive at work. I don’t take that lightly.

Even after such remarkable progress, we continue to gain momentum. In just the last year, we’ve redefined how HR leaders demonstrate their impact to the c-suite. Then we pushed the performance management category even further by introducing the HR Outcomes Flywheel, giving HR leaders an AI-powered system of action to continuously improve employee engagement, performance and retention. This week, we’re introducing AI-Assisted Reviews, making performance reviews easier, faster, and more fair to everyone. And yet there’s still so much more to look forward to.

So what does this transition mean?

For our customers, little will change. They’ll continue to get the high touch customer service, unparalleled product excellence and personalized partnership they’ve come to know and expect from 15Five. 

Building a successful, mission-driven company like 15Five is a bit like setting out to climb a new mountain summit. Once the path toward the summit begins to form, more and more brave souls with big aspirations are inspired to follow suit. 

At 15Five, I aimed to create a culture where we encouraged employees to climb and grow in their own way – to set aspirational goals for themselves and for the business, to continuously revisit and raise the bar, to innovate and expand our idea of what’s possible individually and together, and to never stop believing that those goals were within reach. 

Thank you to our devoted employees, customers and investors for the honor of letting me guide our climb these past 14 years.

Onward and upward. 

David