CDK Global appoints Sudhakar Ramakrishna as President and CEO
Automotive retail software provider CDK Global has appointed technology veteran Sudhakar Ramakrishna as its president and CEO and a member of its board of directors, effective October 5, 2026.
Ramakrishna succeeds Brian MacDonald, who will retire from the company and serve as a senior strategic advisor to Brookfield and CDK. He will support the company through the planned leadership transition.
Ramakrishna brings several decades of experience in enterprise technology, with expertise spanning cloud, mobility, networking, security and collaboration markets. Before joining CDK, he served as president and CEO of SolarWinds, an infrastructure management software provider. He has also led Pulse Secure and held senior leadership positions at Citrix, Polycom, Motorola, 3Com and U.S. Robotics.
“We are grateful to Brian for his leadership and the lasting impact he has had on CDK. He returned to the company at an important moment and led a multi-year transformation that strengthened CDK’s strategy, product roadmap and financial foundation,” said Doug Bayerd, managing partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group and director of CDK’s board of directors.
“Sudhakar is the right leader to build on that foundation. His experience leading technology organizations, scaling innovation and commercializing customer-centric products makes him well suited to advance CDK’s momentum and help its customers succeed in a changing automotive landscape,” Bayerd added.
CDK said it has invested more than $500 million over several years to transform its platform from a system of record into a system focused on intelligence and customer engagement.
The company said its automotive-specific data, including 257 million unique customer IDs representing most US consumers and vehicles on its platform, provides a foundation for developing AI, analytics and customer insights. CDK aims to integrate these capabilities into existing dealership workflows.
“CDK has the people, scale, expertise and product depth to help customers get more from the solutions they rely on to operate their businesses,” Ramakrishna said.
“Our opportunity is to deliver more customer value and success through innovation, disciplined execution and reliable delivery. I look forward to spending time with our customers, learning from our teams and partners, and carrying forward our commitment to earning the industry’s trust every day,” he added.
CDK Global provides cloud-based software to automotive dealerships and original equipment manufacturers. Its SaaS platform supports dealership functions including vehicle sales, financing, insurance, repair and maintenance.
