Percona has always been more than just a company—it’s a mission-driven community built on a strong foundation of innovation, resilience, and open source excellence. For nearly two decades, Percona has been a trusted partner to organizations around the world, remaining steadfast in our mission while continuing to grow, improve, and evolve.
Today, we mark the beginning of a new chapter in that journey. After 12 incredible years at Percona—the last two of which were spent serving as its CEO—Ann Schlemmer has made the decision to step down from her role and take a break from her career to focus on her personal life.
While this hasn’t been an easy decision for Ann personally, it’s one that’s been made with complete confidence that Percona is in good hands and will continue to grow and thrive in the months and years ahead. Ann will be moving into an advisory role for a few weeks. Here she will remain through the end of July to ensure a smooth transition for our customers, members, and team.
At the same time, Bennie Grant—Percona’s Chief Operating Officer—will be stepping in as interim CEO while the board seeks out a permanent replacement for the position. Bennie has been a proud Perconian for nearly 8 years and is an integral part of our leadership team. With deep expertise in operations and a steadfast commitment to our mission, Bennie is uniquely positioned to guide Percona during this time of transition. We have every confidence that Percona is in excellent hands with him at the helm.
To be clear, this change is rooted solely in Ann’s personal desire to take a step back and redirect her energies for the time being. It does not reflect any broader shifts at Percona, nor as it pertains to our personnel or our mission. Our work, goals, and guiding principles remain unchanged—as does our commitment to providing our customers with industry-leading open source software and support.
Ensuring continued success for Percona and our customers
Percona is an extraordinary place, and it is thanks to the hundreds of Perconians around the world who keep our company moving, innovating, and evolving. Together, we’ve built something truly special here. And while the face of leadership may change, our focus remains the same—serving our customers, partners and community, supporting our people, and innovating for the future.
Thank you for being part of the journey
This is an exciting time not just for Percona, but for the entire open source and data infrastructure space. As emerging technologies continue to drive increased demand for reliable, scalable, and open database solutions, we believe Percona is well-positioned for profound success in both the near and long term. The months and years ahead promise growth, momentum, and meaningful change—and we’re ready for it.
To all our customers, partners, and community members, thank you. We deeply appreciate your trust, your collaboration, and your commitment. Leading Percona has been one of the greatest joys of Ann’s career, and she looks forward to continuing to support the company as an advisor in the weeks ahead. Bennie is both honored and excited for this opportunity to continue leading Percona in new and meaningful ways.
Percona’s future is brighter than ever—and we can’t wait for what comes next.
About the Author
Ann SchlemmerAnn is the President for Percona. She has held various leadership positions since she joined Percona in 2013. Prior to Percona, Ann was part of the MySQL Professional Services team at Sun Microsystems and later Oracle. Before entering the world of Open Source Databases, Ann had a career banking which included foreign currency trading.
