Lew Cirne is a Canadian-American

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

–based technologist and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

who promotes software analytics technology. He was the founder and CEO of Wily Technology, which was acquired by CA, Inc. in March 2006. Cirne founded the company

New Relic New Relic, Inc. is an American web tracking and analytics company based in San Francisco. The company's cloud-based software allows websites and mobile apps to track user interactions and service operators' software and hardware performance. In ...

in 2008. "New Relic" is an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

of Lew Cirne's name.

Career

Lew Cirne was raised in

Port Hope, Ontario Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and west of Kingston, Ontario, Kingston. It is at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County, Onta ...

. His parents, Geoff and Jean Cirne, were immigrants to Canada from Manchester, England. Cirne attended

Trinity College School Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School for ...

and in 1993 received an A.B. from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

with a major in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

. After college, Cirne held senior technical positions at

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

and Hummingbird Communications. In 1998, Cirne founded Wily Technology. He was responsible for developing Wily Technology's vision of enterprise class application performance management and is credited with bringing it to the

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

platform. Cirne was one of the chief technologists and driving force in enterprise application performance and availability. He served as Wily Technology's president and chief executive officer until October 2001. In 2008, Cirne began focusing on

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...

(SaaS) while an entrepreneur in residence for

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

and founded New Relic. New Relic is a provider of Web application performance management. New Relic's technology monitors Web and mobile applications in real-time that run in cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments. Cirne stepped down as CEO on July 1, 2021, becoming executive chairman of the company's board of directors. Former

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

vice president Bill Staples became CEO.

Contributions

Cirne has been described as a pioneer in the development of

application performance management In the fields of information technology and systems management, application performance management (APM) is the monitoring and management of the performance and availability of software applications. APM strives to detect and diagnose complex appli ...

(APM). He holds 19 patents in this area of expertise. Cirne has also made major contributions to several other software systems. In 2006, Cirne and Wily chairman David Strohm announced a $1 million gift to

. The gift supported the creation of an endowed scholarship called the Wily Scholars Fund, and to establish a fund for undergraduate internships in early-stage technology companies, called the Wily Initiative Fund. In 2016, Cirne funded two full scholarships, and the construction of the Cirne Learning Commons, at Trinity College School. Cirne is sometimes referred to as the "Coding CEO". He dedicates every Thursday and Friday to coding. Cirne has been known to take week-long coding retreats at his Lake Tahoe cabin, often inviting New Relic developers.

Accolades

Cirne was named as a finalist in the 2013

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California.

References

External links

Harvard Business Review, Crafting Founder-CEO Succession at Wily Technology, Wasserman and McCance, January 2005Interview with Lew Cirne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cirne, Lew 1970 births American technology chief executives Canadian chief executives Canadian computer scientists Canadian technology chief executives Dartmouth College alumni Living people People from Port Hope, Ontario