MariaDB plc announced Paul O'Brien has been appointed as the company's new CEO, effective May 26, 2023. Michael Howard, the company's current CEO, will remain on the board of directors to provide strategic planning and oversight. O'Brien has served as SVP, sales and field operations of the company since March 2023.

Prior to joining MariaDB, he served as VP, Operations at NetApp Inc., a storage and data management company and VP, Business Intelligence and Operations at Symantec Corporation, a security company. Prior to that, O'Brien held various management positions at EMC Corporation, a storage and data management company, and HP Inc. (then Hewlett-Packard Company), a technology company, and also served as a partner at Prism Venture Partners, a venture firm. In all these roles, O'Brien was responsible for successfully guiding companies in their evolution from on-prem deployments and perpetual license software to subscription and cloud-based models.