Backblaze Names Jason Wakeam Chief Revenue Officer

Sales leader joins executive team to further drive innovation and growth


SAN MATEO, Calif., July 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Backblaze, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLZE), the cloud storage innovator providing a modern alternative to traditional cloud providers, today announced the appointment of Jason Wakeam as the company’s first Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).

An industry veteran with nearly three decades of global leadership experience, Wakeam brings a proven track record of driving growth and innovation at technology companies. Wakeam previously served as a vice president of global sales at SnapLogic. He has also held leadership roles in a range of public and private companies including Cloudera, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard. In his new role, Wakeam will spearhead the company’s overall sales strategy, with a focus on expanding market share and driving new revenue opportunities.

Wakeam succeeds Nilay Patel, who previously served as vice president of sales, and has now transitioned to oversee the company’s recently established New Markets team with a special focus on AI.

“I am pleased to welcome Jason as our chief revenue officer,” said Gleb Budman, Backblaze CEO and Chairperson of the Board. “He has an impressive track record that showcases his ability to drive businesses to the next level. His expertise will be crucial as we help more, larger customers break free from traditional cloud walled gardens, move to an open cloud ecosystem, and empower them to do more with their data.”

“Backblaze’s mission deeply resonates with me and I am excited to help accelerate growth for our company,” said Wakeam. "I'm looking forward to working with this amazing team as we continue to scale with our customers and further innovation.”

The addition of Wakeam to the company’s leadership further demonstrates the commitment to attracting, retaining, and growing with larger mid-market customers.

About Backblaze

Backblaze is the cloud storage innovator providing a modern alternative to traditional cloud providers. We deliver high-performance, secure cloud object storage that customers use to develop applications, manage media, secure backups, build AI workflows, protect from ransomware, and more. Backblaze helps businesses break free from the walled gardens that traditional providers lock customers into, enabling them to use their data in open cloud workflows with the providers they prefer at a fraction of the cost. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) was founded in 2007 and serves over 500,000 customers in 175 countries around the world. For more information, please go to www.backblaze.com.

Press Contact:
Jeanette Foster
Communications Manager, Backblaze
jfoster@backblaze.com