Jeff Tarr vs Carl Eschenbach

Jeff Tarr

CEO of Skillsoft

BIO: Jeff Tarr is Chief Executive Officer of Skillsoft and brings a successful track record of building tech-enabled services companies into trusted industry leaders. Over the last two decades, he has transformed three publicly traded, tech-enabled information companies into industry leaders. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer and a director of DigitalGlobe, the world leader in satellite imagery and geospatial intelligence, from 2011 until the sale of the company to MDA (now Maxar Technologies) in 2017. Prior to DigitalGlobe, Jeff was President and Chief Operating Officer of IHS (now IHS Markit) and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the publicly traded business information company, Hoover’s, Inc. (now a division of D&B). He began his career with Bain & Company. Jeff currently serves on the boards of EchoStar and DSST Public Schools, one of the leading open enrollment school systems in the United States. He is also a member of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Advisory Council and was previously Chairman of the school’s Management Board. Jeff served on the board of The Corporate Executive Board Company (CEB) until the sale of the company to Gartner in 2017. He also served as co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Council on the Future of Space Technologies and co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of New Champions in Dalian China. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Jeff holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Carl Eschenbach

CEO of Workday

BIO: Carl Eschenbach is CEO at Workday, and has been a member of the company’s board of directors since 2018. Carl joined Workday in December of 2022, serving as Co-CEO alongside Co-Founder Aneel Bhusri before becoming sole CEO in February of 2024. Carl has more than 35 years of experience leading and scaling successful technology companies. Prior to Workday, Carl was a general partner for more than six years at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Previously, Carl spent 14 years at VMware, Inc. in various roles including president, chief operating officer, acting chief financial officer, and executive vice president of worldwide field operations. Prior to joining VMware in 2002, Carl held various sales management positions with Inktomi, 3Com Corporation, Lucent Technologies, Inc., and EMC.