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How DocuSign’s Keith Krach Joined the Billionaires’ Club


Success HEATHER BALDWIN


It’s the American dream personified. And, if you ask Keith Krach, it’s far from dead. At age 12, Krach began working summers in his dad’s machine shop. He never looked back.


Those who didn’t know him previously may have seen Krach pop into the spotlight in January 2017, when Krach announced he had found his successor as CEO. Krach had announced in October 2015 that he would begin the search for DocuSign’s next CEO and focus on his chairman role as soon as the company could find a replacement. Under his stewardship, Krach led DocuSign through 60x growth by building the DocuSign Global Trust Network, which now includes more than 300,000 companies and strategic partnerships with many of the world’s most powerful technology companies. By the time he handed off the company to succes- sor Dan Springer, more than 200 million people across 188 countries had used the company’s Digital Transac- tion Management platform, and it was adding another 300,000 new unique users every day – the company’s fastest ever viral growth of new users joining per day. These kinds of numbers are pure Krach, who has a long history of remarkable technology leadership. One might call it a “pattern of success” – or, perhaps, just pattern recognition. Krach has the ability to see op- portunity, translate that opportunity into new market categories, and then inspire customers, developers, partners, employees, and investors to join in. Here’s a short list of some of those accomplishments:


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• At age 26 he was the youngest-ever vice president at General Motors, where he was recognized as one of the early pioneers in the robotics industry.


• He was part of the founding team of Rasna Corp., where he helped lead it to number three on the Inc. 100 list of Fastest-Growing Companies before help- ing drive its sale to Parametric Technologies for $500 million.


• He then co-founded Ariba, a company that created the B2B e-commerce category.


• As CEO, Krach took Ariba public, achieving a market capitalization of $34 billion in four years.


• In 2000, Ernst & Young named Krach its National Entrepreneur of the Year – the same year in which he was honored with the Technology Pioneer Award at the World Economic Forum.


• Following Ariba, Krach became the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Purdue University and Chairman of Angie’s List.


• Krach then joined DocuSign in 2009 as Chairman of the Board and soon after became the CEO.


GROWING UP


Like many business superstars, Krach had humble beginnings that shaped his values and his genuine, people-oriented personality. He grew up in Rocky River, OH, a small Midwestern town. Along with his two sisters and a mother who taught school, there was Keith and his father who owned a machine shop that


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