Arkestro Momentum Drives Leadership Growth and Appoints Industry Powerhouse Veterans
Rhea-AI Summary
Arkestro (IPO) announced significant leadership additions, appointing Tom Aitchison as President and Chief Operating Officer and Ron Rasmussen as Chief Technology Officer, while former CTO Ben Leiken transitions to the company’s first Chief Product Officer role.
According to Arkestro, Aitchison brings decades of experience scaling enterprise software firms including Coupa, Swrve and Introhive, while Rasmussen has over 25 years in enterprise SaaS leadership, including more than a decade as CTO of Xactly. Arkestro reported that year-to-date total customer spend through its predictive procurement platform has more than tripled versus the same period last year, and said the expanded leadership team will focus on scaling operations, product, and engineering to meet rising global demand for AI-powered procurement.
Positive
- Customer spend >3x YoY year-to-date through Arkestro’s platform
- New President/COO and CTO with ~50 years combined enterprise SaaS experience
Negative
- None.
News Explained
The leadership change gives product and engineering separate full-time executive focus: Ben Leiken becomes Chief Product Officer while Ron Rasmussen serves as Chief Technology Officer, with Arkestro saying both functions have grown to require dedicated leadership.
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Two enterprise SaaS operators bring 50 years of combined experience to Arkestro's leadership team as Ben Leiken transitions from CTO to become the company's first Chief Product Officer
"Arkestro is entering an exciting new chapter of growth, and building the right leadership team is essential to achieving our vision for predictive procurement," said Rob DeSantis, CEO and Co-Founder of Arkestro. "Tom's operational leadership and Ron's technology expertise will help us scale every part of the business, from operations and customer success to product innovation and engineering, and continue defining the future of predictive procurement."
Aitchison, who previously served as one of Arkestro's strategic advisors, has worked alongside the company's leadership on go-to-market strategy, messaging and the operational systems needed to support its current phase of growth. Across decades of experience scaling enterprise software companies, he has held executive positions at Coupa, Swrve, and Introhive, and helped lead multiple successful acquisitions along with Coupa's NASDAQ IPO.
"Supply networks keep getting more complex, yet executives want their procurement teams to move faster, uncover more savings, and increase visibility into every buying decision. The pressure isn't easing, and traditional software can't keep up," said Aitchison. "Arkestro is one of the few platforms already built for the reality of the next five years, as procurement becomes the deciding function in how enterprises compete on cost and supply chain resilience. I'm looking forward to helping Arkestro continue scaling, so the teams using this platform become the ones setting the standard the rest of the market has to catch up to."
Rasmussen joins Arkestro after serving as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Latitude 39, an incentive compensation management platform for small and midsize businesses. His career spans more than 25 years of enterprise SaaS technology leadership, with over a decade as CTO of Xactly, a Vista Equity portfolio company, and senior positions at Quova and KnowNow.
Rasmussen will work closely with Ben Leiken, who is stepping into the role of Chief Product Officer. As product and engineering at Arkestro have each grown to require full-time executive focus, the addition of a CPO gives product vision its own dedicated leadership alongside Rasmussen's engineering execution.
"I've spent 25 years building enterprise systems, and this is the first time I've seen procurement technology that genuinely changes how a category manager makes buying decisions. Ben and the team have built something truly rare, a predictive intelligence solution that's actually doing work inside of the platform, not just decorating a dashboard. There's a lot more we can build on top of that, and it's why I joined," said Rasmussen.
This expansion of Arkestro's leadership comes during a period of significant business momentum for the company. Year to date, total customer spend through Arkestro's platform has more than tripled compared with the same period last year. As global demand for AI-powered procurement continues rising, Aitchison and Rasmussen will help Arkestro to parallel its growth, scaling business operations and core platform capabilities.
To hear directly from Arkestro's full leadership team and customers on the future of predictive procurement at scale, register for Optimal '26, Arkestro's flagship customer event, taking place October 13–15, 2026 in
About Arkestro
Arkestro is the leading predictive procurement platform, accelerating enterprise spend transformation and supply chain agility. By combining AI and game theory with Arkestro's patented three science technologies—Negotiation Science, Supplier Science, and Process Science—Arkestro shifts traditional procurement to become a proactive, results-driven function. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies across industries, Arkestro unlocks trapped savings, optimizes negotiations, and enhances supplier collaboration. Learn more about Arkestro at www.arkestro.com and register for Optimal '26 Houston, the premier AI event for procurement professionals, taking place October 13–15, 2026.
Media Contact
Cailey Henderson
LaunchSquad
Arkestro@launchsquad.com
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SOURCE Arkestro