Freshworks appoints Ryan Manning to lead product strategy and technology
Freshworks appoints Ryan Manning as its new Chief Product and Technology Officer, effective August 10, with Manning reporting directly to CEO Dennis Woodside. He succeeds Srini Raghavan, who is leaving the company to pursue an entrepreneurial venture.
The appointment brings Freshworks' product and technology strategy under one executive as the company continues to expand its presence among mid-market and agile enterprises. Murali Swaminathan will continue as Chief Technology Officer and report to Manning.
The leadership change comes at a time when AI is changing how quickly businesses can adopt new capabilities in service software. By bringing product and engineering closer together, Freshworks is looking to reduce friction between strategy, development, and execution.
Product Strategy and Technology Move Under One Leader
As Chief Product and Technology Officer, Manning will oversee product strategy and technology direction across Freshworks' AI, IT, and customer experience products. His responsibilities will include the global product roadmap and the engineering organisation supporting the company's platform.
The move creates a single leadership structure covering both product and technology. For Freshworks, this could help connect customer needs more directly with product development while keeping engineering and roadmap decisions aligned.
Manning's appointment also comes with experience across startups and large software companies. He previously helped build and scale ServiceNow around the period of its IPO and co-founded FreeAgent CRM, now Servis.ai. Most recently, he led the product team at BMC Helix as Chief Product Officer, where he worked to bring product and technology closer together and focused the business on ServiceOps and agentic AI.
Executive Appointment Reflects Freshworks' AI Focus
The executive appointment places AI at the centre of Freshworks' product and technology direction. Manning will oversee the company's AI, IT, and customer experience products as the business responds to changing expectations around service software.
Manning said AI is changing what businesses should expect from service software and pointed to Freshworks' position at the intersection of capability and rapid impact. His background in service management products could be relevant as Freshworks continues to develop its platform around AI-led capabilities.
Read More:
Kyndryl and Pidilite push IT modernization forward with Google Cloud
Databricks appoints Corrie Briscoe to drive APJ partnerships
2 Min read