Despite Growth, Misys Has a New CEO

"My promotion to executive chair and pulling Nadeem into the CEO role, and some additions we're going to make in the coming months, allows us to invest in the future without losing the continuity and the talent that helped get us to this point," Bolin says. "I'm still on the board. I'm still involved with the strategy and client relationships I've built over the last year. It's really the best of both worlds."

Bolin joined in June of 2012 when his previous firm, Turaz, merged with Misys. Both companies are owned by private equity group Vista Equity Partners. Syed hopped over at that time from SumTotal, another Vista company. Two weeks after the merger, the leadership crafted a strategic direction that Bolin has followed since and Syed plans to continue.

"Bret's an incredible leader," says Syed. "What he's been able to do over the last year in bringing two organizations together and engendering a tremendous amount of passion for unified values that we have as a company, and creating a single-minded focus on execution, has just been unbelievable. I intend to carry that forward."

To replace Syed as COO, Misys hired Amanda Mesler, who served as CEO of global business consulting at Logica through last December.

Bolin says he will also be assisting Vista with other opportunities.