Mark J. Barrenechea

Mark J. Barrenechea joined OpenText as President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2012, and also serves as a member of the Board of Directors. In January 2016, Mark took on the role of Chief Technology Officer and was appointed Vice Chair in September 2017.

As CEO of Canada’s largest software company, Mark oversees the strategic and operational direction of the organization and upholds the company’s position at the forefront of the industry. Under his direction, OpenText has grown through innovation and strategic acquisitions into a multi-billion-dollar Cloud and AI company.

Mark’s unwavering commitment to innovation and results, combined with a dedication to customers’ needs, led him to successfully realign the company’s products, transforming OpenText into an information management leader and modern AI company.

A prominent thought leader, Mark’s extensive experience in information technology and business affords him unique insights into today’s world of rapid disruption and evolving technological change. His new book, Versant, Decoding the OpenVerse™, is about who OpenText is, the company’s course into the cloud, vision for the future and view on talent, which is at the heart of everything.

Mark’s inspiring leadership extends into social responsibility and corporate citizenship. He has championed OpenText’s Zero-In Initiative, the company’s guiding framework for Environmental, Social, and Governance efforts that focuses on Zero Footprint, Zero Barriers, and Zero Compromise.

Before joining OpenText, Mark was President and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Graphics International Corporation (SGI), where he also served as a member of the Board. A pioneer of Technical Computing, Mark defined and distinguished the new market from Business Computing and established SGI as one of its leaders. During his time at SGI, he led the company’s strategy and execution. His role included transformative acquisition of assets as well as penetrating diverse new markets and geographic regions.

Prior to SGI, Mark served as Executive Vice President and CTO for CA, Inc. (CA), (formerly Computer Associates International, Inc.) and as a member of the executive management team. Mark also served on the executive management team at Oracle Corporation as Senior Vice President of Applications Development, responsible for managing a multi-thousand-member global team.

Mark has also served in a number of other positions, including Vice President of Development at Scopus, a software applications company, and Vice President of Development at Tesseract, where he was responsible for reshaping the company’s line of CRM and human capital management software.

Mark has received many accolades over the years. In 2015, he was named the Results-Oriented CEO of the Year by the CEO World Awards, a prestigious award recognizing Mark’s leadership and innovation in attaining results for the company and its customers. Most recently, he was named one of the Top 25 IT Innovators of 2022 by CRN Magazine. Under Mark’s leadership, OpenText has also received numerous awards, including Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures 2021-2023, Forbes’ list of World’s Best Employers 2021-2023, TIME Magazine’s World’s Best Companies 2023, and Canada’s Top 100 Employers 2023-2024.

Mark has authored a number of other books and position papers, including The Quarantine Chronicles, The Intelligent and Connected Enterprise, Be a Climate Innovator, and The Information Advantage. His two most recent books are Versant, Decoding the OpenVerse™ and The Anticipant Organization.

See all of Mark’s thought leadership here.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Saint Michael’s College. He serves as a member of the Board and Audit Committee of Dick’s Sporting Goods and is also on the Board of Directors of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

For more industry thoughts from Mark, you can subscribe to his blog, follow him on X (formerly Twitter) or connect on LinkedIn.