PTC Inc.
Leadership History
4 leaders · 1986 to present
Neil Barua is the CEO of PTC, in the role since 2024. The first chief executive was Steven C. Walske, from 1986.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neil Barua | President and CEO | 2024 | Present | 2 |
| James E. Heppelmann | President and CEO | 2010 | 2024 | 14 |
| Dick Harrison | President and CEO | 2000 | 2024 | 24 |
| Steven C. Walske | President and CEO | 1986 | 2024 | 38 |
PTC is one of the main independent vendors of engineering software for physical products. Engineers use Creo or Onshape to model parts and assemblies, Windchill or Arena to control the product record, Codebeamer to manage requirements and embedded software, and ServiceMax to run field service. Headquartered in Boston's Seaport district, PTC says it has more than 7,000 employees and over 30,000 customers. It is led by President and CEO Neil Barua, with Jen DiRico as CFO. The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. PTC was founded in 1985 in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts by mathematician Samuel Geisberg, revolutionizing computer-aided design with the industry’s first parametric modeling software before evolving into a leader in SaaS product lifecycle management.
President and CEO
2024 – Present
2 years (current)
Barua joined PTC through the $1.46B ServiceMax acquisition in January 2023, where he had been CEO, and became PTC's CEO in February 2024. Under him PTC reported FY2025 revenue of $2.739B and net income of $734M, then sold Kepware and ThingWorx to TPG in March 2026 to concentrate on the Intelligent Product Lifecycle across CAD, PLM, ALM and SLM. He has also emphasized AI built on customers' product data.
President and CEO
2010 – 2024
14 years
Heppelmann served as PTC's CEO for 13 years and spent 26 years total at the company, transforming it from a stagnant CAD vendor into a diversified industrial software platform. He co-founded Windchill Technology in 1997, joined PTC through the Computervision acquisition, and rose through the software division to become CEO in October 2010. His defining decisions included the $112 million ThingWorx acquisition in 2013 that launched PTC into IoT, the $65 million Vuforia acquisition in 2015 that added AR, the $1 billion Rockwell Automation strategic partnership in 2018, the $470 million Onshape acquisition in 2019 that secured cloud-native CAD, and the $1.46 billion ServiceMax acquisition in 2023. Heppelmann also led the subscription transition in 2013-2019 that converted PTC from a perpetual license model to a 92.8% recurring revenue business. Under his leadership, revenue grew from $1.0 billion in 2010 to $2.3 billion in FY2024, and the stock price appreciated significantly. He remained Chairman of the Board after stepping down as CEO in February 2024.
President and CEO
2000 – 2024
24 years
Harrison became CEO in April 2000 during the most severe crisis in PTC's history, when revenue had declined 14% and the stock had fallen from $25.46 to $8.25. He stabilized the company by restructuring into three business units, discontinuing the failed Netmarkets initiative, and refocusing on core CAD and PLM products. Harrison's defining decision was to persevere with the Pro/ENGINEER product line through the Wildfire release in 2002, which added web-based services and began to address technology obsolescence concerns. He also managed the integration of acquired assets including Computervision and Arbortext. Under Harrison, revenue stabilized in the $800-900 million range, and the company laid the groundwork for Heppelmann's later platform expansion. Harrison stepped down in 2010 after a decade of stabilization.
President and CEO
1986 – 2024
38 years
Walske was hired as PTC's president and CEO in December 1986, bringing management discipline and financial rigor that founder Samuel Geisberg, as a mathematician, lacked. Walske held a MBA from Harvard Business School and had been CFO of Computer Corporation of America. He led PTC through its IPO in December 1989, international expansion across Europe and Asia, and revenue growth from $11 million in 1989 to over $900 million by 2000. His defining decision was to develop Pro/ENGINEER simultaneously on multiple UNIX workstation platforms Sun, DEC, Apollo, SGI, and NEC rather than porting from a primary platform, which differentiated PTC from competitors and accelerated market penetration. Walske was replaced by Dick Harrison in April 2000 during the dot-com crisis but remained chairman until June 2000.
These officers report to the chief executive and are not part of the CEO timeline above.
PTC must keep ARR growing while customers modernize gradually and protect mission-critical engineering systems. Competition from Siemens, Dassault Systemes, Autodesk, and cloud-native challengers remains intense, and large manufacturing customers can move slowly because migrations are complex. The FY2026 divestiture also creates comparison noise. Investors need to separate underlying ARR, retention, cash flow, and portfolio focus from one-time gains, divestiture costs, and revenue changes caused by businesses that are no longer part of PTC.
Key CEOs in PTC's history include founder Samuel P. Geisberg (1985 to 1994), Steven Walske (1994 to 2000), C. Richard Harrison (2000 to 2010), James E. Heppelmann (2010 to 2024), and current CEO Neil Barua (2024, present).
Over 13 years as CEO, Jim Heppelmann transformed PTC from a traditional on-premise CAD/PLM vendor into a modern Digital Thread and SaaS leader. He drove the business model transition to subscriptions, orchestrated the $1B Rockwell Automation alliance, relocated HQ to Boston's Seaport, and acquired Onshape, Arena, Codebeamer, and ServiceMax.
Neil Barua became CEO of PTC in February 2024. A veteran enterprise software executive with a background in finance and private equity, Barua previously served as CEO of ServiceMax and CEO of IPC Systems, bringing deep expertise in SaaS scaling, customer success, and operational execution.
Serving as CEO from 1994 to 2000 (and previously as early business leader alongside founder Samuel Geisberg), Steven Walske built one of the most well-known, aggressive, and disciplined enterprise sales organizations in software history, propelling Pro/ENGINEER to global CAD market leadership.
Dick Harrison led PTC from 2000 to 2010, stabilizing the business after the dot-com crash, shifting strategic focus toward enterprise Product Lifecycle Management (Windchill), and laying the groundwork for the modern Digital Thread.
The succession was a smooth, multi-year planned transition announced in 2023. Following PTC's acquisition of ServiceMax, Neil Barua joined PTC's executive leadership team and Board of Directors, working closely with Heppelmann before formally assuming the CEO role in February 2024.
Neil Barua is focused on accelerating ARR growth, deepening cross-selling across the CAD-PLM-ALM-SLM portfolio, scaling cloud SaaS deployments via PTC Atlas, expanding generative AI copilots, and driving sustained free cash flow expansion.
PTC's executive culture is centered on customer impact, technological innovation, operational excellence, diversity, and delivering measurable digital transformation outcomes for industrial manufacturers.
Neil Barua is the Chief Executive Officer of PTC, having assumed the role in February 2024 following a planned executive succession transition.
Neil Barua was previously the CEO of ServiceMax (which PTC acquired for $1.46 billion in 2023) and previously served as CEO of IPC Systems, bringing deep expertise in enterprise cloud software and operational execution.
Jim Heppelmann served as CEO from 2010 to 2024, steering PTC through a complete SaaS business model transition, orchestrating landmark acquisitions of ThingWorx, Vuforia, Onshape, Arena, and ServiceMax, and multiplying PTC’s market capitalization.
C. Richard Harrison was CEO from 2000 to 2010, guiding PTC through the dot-com aftermath, successfully pivoting the company from pure CAD into the enterprise Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market with Windchill.
Dr. Samuel Geisberg was the founding visionary and early CEO of Parametric Technology Corporation from 1985 until 1994, inventing parametric solid modeling and turning PTC into one of the fastest-growing software IPOs of the 1980s.
Under Jim Heppelmann in 2019, PTC moved from suburban Needham to a state-of-the-art building in Boston’s Seaport Innovation District to attract premier software engineering talent and showcase a world-class customer Corporate Experience Center.
Barua focuses on operational efficiency, accelerating cash flow conversion, driving cross-sell adoption of ServiceMax SLM and Codebeamer across Windchill accounts, and maintaining disciplined ARR growth.
PTC balances rigorous mathematical engineering precision with agile SaaS execution, encouraging transparent customer metrics, continuous technological reinvention, and employee inclusion.
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