The top executive of insurance industry software firm Zywave has departed the company, and the Wauwatosa-based company hasn't yet identified a successor.
Jason Liu, who became Zywave's CEO in 2018, recently left Zywave and is now the CEO at Wood Mackenzie, a London-based data and analytics firm in the energy and sustainability industry. He announced his new role on LinkedIn earlier this month.
Liu will continue serving as an adviser to Zywave and remains an investor in the company, Zywave marketing and communications manager April Larsen said in an email.
Veteran tech executive Mark Ties will "assist in the CEO succession and management of the business" while Zywave's board searches for a permanent successor, Larsen said. Ties recently retired as the CEO of Minneapolis-based Perforce Software and is the executive chair of its board, according to the company's website.
Members of Zywave's senior leadership team, including chief revenue officer Scott Rudy and chief product officer Eric Rentsch, will also help fill in gaps at Zywave, working "more closely than ever" with customers and industry partners, Larsen said.
After a few years of fast growth driven by multiple acquisitions within a short timeframe, Zywave has faced recent headwinds. In late 2022, it laid off employees as its growth began to slow and last year it announced it was moving 100 U.S. jobs to the Philippines as part of a plan for "smarter spending."
In November of 2023, Zywave had nearly 1,000 global employees, Larsen previously told the Milwaukee Business Journal. With nearly 300 local staff including 50 software engineers, it's among the largest Milwaukee-area software companies, according to Business Journal research.
Zywave has its headquarters in the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa. The company since 2020 has been owned by Clearlake Capital Group in California, a private investment firm whose portfolio also includes Perforce Software.
