Today we have some very exciting news: Craig Carpenter has joined X1 as our new CEO. Craig is a seasoned and experienced executive in the eDiscovery and information governance arena, holding several senior executive positions throughout his impressive career, including CEO, EVP of Sales, CMO, COO, and General Counsel. Craig was an early executive team member of one of the pioneers of eDiscovery software, Recommind, and a key part of that story from startup to creation of an industry-leading brand. 
Most recently Craig was CEO of Fronteo, which he joined after running sales at Kroll Ontrack. He now brings his proven, customer-centric approach to X1. What I especially like about Craig is his track record as a thought leader and innovator in the legal technology arena. Here is what another thought leader, UK lawyer and renowned eDiscovery expert Chris Dale said last year on his blog, The eDisclosure Project, about Craig:
“Craig Carpenter was personally responsible for much of Recommind’s success in promoting its expertise at predictive coding. This was a tough sell in those days when it was new, and Craig Carpenter tackled the promotional task with vigour. He was also the first person I heard (at a conference in Hong Kong) predict that analytics had a big future role to play in information governance, something which reached fruition when, a long time later, OpenText added Recommind to its stable with precisely that intention in mind.”
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, Craig will be weighing in on very soon with a blog post of his own on why he came to X1, which will include further insight into what Chris Dale says above, so stay tuned. Craig is a central part of X1’s recent growth and expansion. Our X1 eDiscovery and information governance platform has caught fire, fueled in part by our game-changing alliance with Relativity announced earlier this summer. And LegalTech News weighed in today about Craig, noting that “there are few people more equipped to predict the future of e-discovery.” In his interview with Legaltech News, Carpenter said X1’s position aligns well of with his vision of the e-discovery marketplace, where the goal is to “move the strategy formation phase up to the beginning, as opposed to later in the process.”
Besides being a well-known thought leader in eDiscovery, Craig also has forensic technology experience as he served as Chief Marketing Officer and COO of AccessData. Craig began his career as a practicing attorney. He earned both his Juris Doctor and MBA from Santa Clara University (my law school alma mater) and completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA, where he played quarterback on the Bruins’ Pac-10 championship football team. A team, which I might add, could really use his help this season, but I digress.
And speaking of interesting blog posts, look for even more quality content on this site as Craig will be a featured co-blogger going forward. For now, I am very excited to welcome Craig onboard to take the X1 helm!