Liongard Hires Logically’s Michelle Accardi As New CEO

‘Being able to be a part of the next acceleration of that growth is really attractive to me,’ Michelle Accardi tells CRN. ‘You know how much I enjoy helping partners, having been on both sides of the partner relationship as a large-scale MSP and as a vendor servicing through MSPs. I think it gives me a unique perspective around how our solution can really help and drive value.’

New Liongard CEO Michelle Accardi

Liongard has named Michelle Accardi as its newest CEO, a move that has current chief executive and co-founder Joe Alapat transitioning to chief technology officer at the IT automation company.

Accardi most recently served as CEO of Portland, Maine-based MSP and MSSP Logically, a job she left in January. She was also the president and chief revenue officer of cloud communications firm Star2Star, a Sangoma Company.

“Being able to be a part of the next acceleration of that growth is really attractive to me,” Accardi told CRN. “You know how much I enjoy helping partners, having been on both sides of the partner relationship as a large-scale MSP and as a vendor servicing through MSPs. I think it gives me a unique perspective around how our solution can really help and drive value.”

Liongard, based in Houston, was co-founded by Vincent Tran and Alapat, who has been CEO since 2015.

He said Accardi coming on board happened naturally, and he’s excited that Liongard is now a woman-run company as it shows the company’s “openness” to do business.

[Related: Liongard CEO Joe Alapat: New Endpoint Visibility Platform Brings ‘New Level’ Of Trust]

He was hoping to find somebody that’s high energy, had multiple perspectives on its ecosystem and had experience at a later stage, and Accardi fit the mold.

“If I’m thinking about people that are in the community, Michelle has made such a huge, strong impression in terms of seeing it from both sides,” he told CRN. “That’s so unique to operate a large-scale MSP, Logically, and then also, prior to that, sell to them from a vendor perspective. I think it creates a level of empathy. And in terms of understanding both sides of the equation, and I think what really gets me excited, is her experience at these later stages but also her perspective around what we’re doing.”

He added that bringing in Accardi’s “fresh thought process” will be integral to the offerings that the company has already built.

What really stuck with Accardi was the culture and strong foundation Alapat has cemented into the company.

Accardi, who assumes her role on April 17, loves solving the challenges that MSPs have.

“It’s one of the things that I missed, frankly,” she said. “So being able to do that with a solution that I believe in and that has so much potential for different areas to provide value to those MSPs, it’s what I want to be a part of.”

She’s most excited about taking the product to the next level, which is where Alapat will be putting his expertise.

Alapat is comfortable stepping aside into the chief technology officer role where he is most passionate and believes he will have the most impact.

“We’re at a stage where there’s a time and a place. I always knew it, that there would be some point at which I wanted to pass the baton,” he said. “The timing is right and it feels right based on the scale and size.”

Accardi called Alapat is an incredible innovator who is going to be paramount to the next iteration of innovation for Liongard.

“What he has built foundationally with the team is incredible,” she said. “So being able to have his full focus on that is going to help us just grow exponentially.”

To hit the ground running, Accardi wants to go back to MSPs and see what they need to drive profitability.

“This isn’t about Liongard building a roadmap for Liongard’s sake,” she said. “The two things that I’ve realized, having been at a large-scale MSP, is that profitability and risk management are probably the two biggest, highest priorities that companies have.

“I certainly see the solutions that we’re going to be rallying around are going to be around those areas, improving that profitability and enabling risk mitigation,” she added.