Artificial intelligence data company Appen Ltd., which has its U.S. headquarters in Kirkland, has named Helen Johnson as its new chief financial officer.
Johnson took over the role on Monday and replaced Kevin Levine, who will stay with Appen in an advisory role until the start of September. So far this year, Appen has named a new CEO and chief technology officer, in addition to Johnson's appointment.
"I am honored to join (CEO Armughan Ahmad) and the team to realize on the strategic opportunity ahead for Appen,” Johnson said in a news release.
Johnson spent more than 13 years at the Chandler, Arizona-based technology consulting firm Insight before joining Appen. Her most recent role was CFO of North America. According to her LinkedIn page, Johnson was the interim CFO of a privately held technology company for about a year in between Insight and Appen.
Levine had worked at Appen for seven years. The company didn't immediately respond to a question about why Levine is leaving the company, but Richard Freudenstein, Appen's chair, in the release thanked Levine "for his extensive contributions to Appen."
Appen was founded in 1996. The Australian company, which is based near Sydney, helps clients collect and annotate data to improve artificial intelligence. Appen also evaluates artificial intelligence and machine learning models. Its clients include Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Appen generated $388.5 million in revenue last year, a 13% year-over-year decline.
Ahmad was named CEO of Appen in January. He previously worked as president and managing partner of digital at the accounting firm KPMG. In March, Appen named Saty Bahadur as its CTO, replacing Wilson Pang, who had held the role for over four years. Bahadur was previously the CTO at the freelancer marketplace Upwork.
"I am excited for Helen to join the Appen executive leadership team as our new CFO. With a background in IT software, hardware and services industry, Helen will be instrumental," Ahmad said in the release.
