Progress, a company that provides AI-powered digital experience and infrastructure software, has elevated Ed Keisling to the position of chief AI officer (CAIO), a newly-created role.
Keisling’s association with Progress began in 2017, as director of business and agile operations. For a year and a half he managed the US-based Engineering of the OpenEdge product comprising approximately 60 engineers. He also trained hundreds of team members worldwide on Agile best practices and the SAFe framework. In 2019, he was elevated to senior director, software engineering. The next promotion came in 2020, which made him vice president, product development. Less than three years later, he was elevated yet again to the role of SVP, engineering.
This newly-created role will see Ed Keisling leading the AI strategy for Progress and further transforming the Company’s product portfolio to support customers in their AI journeys. He will report directly to Yogesh Gupta, CEO, Progress.
Calling Keisling “a transformational technology leader with over three decades of experience” Gupta acknowledges Keisling’s contributions. As per Gupta, Keisling “has been instrumental in advancing our AI vision and innovation efforts. His ability to bridge engineering execution with strategic business goals has been evident throughout his career. Ed is shaping our AI-first approach as we align our product offerings to the rapidly evolving needs of our customers.”
Before joining Progress, Ed Keisling worked with athenahealth, as executive director, product engineering operations for a short while. From 2012 to 2015 he was with Vecna Technologies. The first almost four years of his tenure there were spent playing vice president, technical services. The last year of his tenure there saw him essaying the role of vice president, engineering, based out of Cambridge, Masschusetts.
Keisling began his professional journey with Pegasystems, where he spent almost three years as senior software services consultant, from 1994 to 1997.
He was then promoted to the role of software implementation manager, principal software engineer, in July of 1997.The next promotion made him engineering services manager, in 1998. Seven and a half years into this role he was elevated to the position of director-deployment engineering.
Keisling’s longest stint was with Pegasystems, where he spent over 17 years, where he was lead architect for software engineering teams located in Cambridge, MA and Hyderabad, India.
About the new role at Progress, Keisling says, “Our customers rely on Progress to power and solve mission-critical parts of their business, and AI is redefining how these solutions evolve.”
Given the “recent advancements in AI, the pace of innovation is accelerating, removing traditional barriers to adoption.” Keisling is “excited to further develop and lead this charge ensuring our customers have the tools, processes and expertise to fully leverage AI’s transformative potential and drive even further value with our products.”
Keisling is a mentor and presenter who helps with engineering development programmes including the UNH Pathways Programme and the MIT Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Programme (UPOP).