Ryan Smith

BIO

Ryan Smith is co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics, the world’s leading experience management company. As CEO, Ryan oversees the entire Qualtrics executive team with a specific focus on the go-to-market operations of Qualtrics, including global sales, marketing, and partnerships. Ryan co-founded Qualtrics in 2002 with his father and brother. As CEO, he has grown the company from a basement startup to one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world, with more than 11,000 customers, including over 75 percent of the Fortune 100, and 99 of the top 100 business schools. In the private market, Qualtrics raised $400M in funding from Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Insight Venture Partners. Three days before the company was scheduled to go public, Qualtrics was acquired by SAP in January 2019 for $8B in the largest private enterprise software acquisition of all time. In 2016, Ryan co-founded 5 For The Fight, the campaign to eradicate cancer by supporting groundbreaking cancer research. 5 For The Fight is crowdfunding for cancer research, inviting everyone to give $5 for the fight against cancer. Ryan was named to Fortune’s 2016 40 Under 40, a list of the most powerful, influential, and successful young people in business. He was listed as one of Forbes’ “America’s Most Promising CEOs Under 35” in 2013. He has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Inc., The New York Times, TechCrunch and USA Today, and has frequently appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and FOX Business. Ryan is a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, and Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business.