One of Houston's fastest-growing private companies has hired a new CEO with experience in growth and exits in technology.
Onit Inc. named Michael Farlekas to the chief executive post, replacing co-founder Eric Elfman, effective March 1. Elfman will become vice chairman of the company’s board of directors, Onit said Jan. 16.
The software company provides workflow solutions for legal, compliance, sales, information technology, human resources and finance departments.
“[Since our founding], we have become a recognized market leader, serving over 3,000 customers globally, providing hundreds of workflow automation applications and end-to-end solutions for enterprise legal management and contract lifecycle management,” Elfman said in the Jan. 16 announcement. “I'm excited to welcome an individual with Michael's deep experience in scaling growth businesses to lead this next chapter of Onit's journey and look forward to supporting him and the team as a member of our board."
Before joining Onit, Farlekas was most recently CEO at Austin-based supply chain software developer E2open Parent Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ETWO). During his time as CEO, E2open went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a blank-check company, in February 2021.
The Austin Business Journal previously reported that Farlekas and E2open decided on a SPAC deal when the market was hot during the early years of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to an E2open press release, Farlekas departed in October 2023 and was succeeded by Andrew Appel as interim CEO.
For fiscal years 2022 and 2023, Farlekas earned an annual base salary of $500,000, according to the proxy statement E2open filed in May for FY 2023, which ended Feb. 28, 2023. His total compensation was more than $9.36 million in FY 2022 and nearly $7.59 million in FY 2023. His 2022 compensation ranked him No. 8 on the ABJ's most recent Austin-Area Public Co. CEO Compensation List.
Meanwhile, Onit has made several of the Houston Business Journal's Lists of fast-growing companies in recent years. Based on its 116.3% revenue increase from 2020 to 2022, Onit ranked No. 30 on the HBJ's 2023 Fast 50 List, which recognizes the Houston area’s fastest-growing private companies, and No. 24 on the HBJ's 2023 Fastest-Growing Houston-Area Middle Market Companies List, which also includes publicly traded companies.
The company’s growth has also garnered national attention. Last year, Onit was one of more than 90 Houston-area companies named to Inc. 5000’s 2023 list. The company was also the only Houston-area business named to Deloitte’s Fast 500 list in 2022.
Onit made its most recent acquisition in January 2022, snapping up Santa Barbara, California-based SecureDocs for an undisclosed amount. The company’s first acquisition was Mountain View, California-based SimpleLegal in 2019.
Elfman is a serial Houston entrepreneur. Before starting Onit in 2010, Elfman founded enterprise legal management software provider DataCert Inc. in 1998. He left DataCert in 2008, and the company was later acquired by global information services firm Wolters Kluwer NV in 2014. Elfman was previously an entrepreneur in residence for the Houston Technology Center accelerator.
