BlackLine Hires Chief Technology Officer

Peter Hirsch has joined BlackLine Inc. as chief technology officer. Hirsch will oversee technical operations, engineering, information technology and governance aspects of the Woodland Hills developer of accounting software. Also, he will be responsible for the technology direction of the company’s flagship software platform. Chief Executive Therese Tucker said the company’s technology needs have grown along with its global customer base. She wanted to find someone with a mix of management skills and technical expertise. “Pete is that person,” Tucker said in a statement. “He has a broad range of skills, including leading IT and tech ops in addition to engineering, at companies of various sizes where he has been instrumental in providing the technology vision, strategy and leadership to help the organizations scale from concept through acquisitions and beyond.” Prior to joining BlackLine, Hirsch was executive vice president of Technology & Operations at Ellie Mae, a software company for the mortgage industry in Pleasanton. He has also served as senior vice president and chief architect at Ariba, prior to that company’s acquisition by SAP SE, the German software developer. He served as senior vice president for Ariba Cloud Engineering & Technology after the purchase. “BlackLine has done an amazing job defining the future of accounting and pioneering continuous accounting, which is fundamentally transforming processes and unlocking efficiencies through automation and data intelligence,” said Hirsch in a statement. “The opportunity to build on this foundation and help the company scale to drive this industry transformation is huge.”