Former Disney exec becomes New Relic’s chief data officer

15 Jul 2021

Anita Lynch. Image: Craig Sjodin/ABC

As well as her work at Disney, Anita Lynch also led enterprise teams for major tech brands such as Apple, Yahoo and Amazon.

New Relic has announced a number of executive promotions, including former Disney executive, Anita Lynch.

Lynch will be the cloud-based company’s new chief data officer, having previously worked as vice-president of data governance for media and entertainment distribution and Disney streaming at The Walt Disney Company.

New Relic CEO Bill Staples said Lynch will bring “exceptional experience” in terms of extracting more business value from data.

As well as her work at Disney, Lynch has also led enterprise teams for major tech brands such as Apple, Yahoo and Amazon.

She was also a management consultant at Bain & Company until 2011 after completing her master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 2008.

Lynch said the strategic use of data is “mission critical” for businesses, especially with the accelerated rate of digital transformation.

“Data is at the heart of everything New Relic does, and the company is leading the charge in making data-driven observability table stakes for gaining true visibility into your entire IT infrastructure,” she said.

“With our philosophical alignment around data combined with the massive opportunity to help New Relic’s impressive Fortune 500 customer base create more perfect software, I am honoured to join the team.”

As well as Lynch’s new role, New Relic has also made several other internal promotions to C-suite level.

Kristy Friedrichs, who served as New Relic’s chief people officer for the past four years, has been promoted to the role of chief operating officer.

She will oversee corporate operations, business systems and applications, data analytics and engineering, sales strategy and operations and product operations at the company.

“I have learned first-hand how the people function is fundamental to operations,” said Friedrichs.

“Having spent the past four years partnering with executives from across the company, understanding their priorities and how they work together, I have a deep understanding of the business and how it operates, as well as the people and culture that make it up.”

Meanwhile, Manav Khurana has been promoted to chief growth officer and Tracy Williams to chief people officer in addition to her current role as chief diversity officer.

Jenny Darmody is the editor of Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com