Couchbase appoints BJ Schaknowski as CEO, Amir Jafari as CFO

Published 29/09/2025, 17:06
Couchbase appoints BJ Schaknowski as CEO, Amir Jafari as CFO

SAN JOSE - Couchbase, Inc. (NASDAQ:BASE), a developer data platform for critical applications, announced Monday the appointment of BJ Schaknowski as Chief Executive Officer and Amir Jafari as Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. The company’s stock, currently trading at $16.75, has shown strong momentum with a 17.19% gain year-to-date, according to InvestingPro data.

Schaknowski succeeds Matt Cain, who is stepping down as Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer. The new CEO brings over 20 years of software industry leadership experience, most recently serving as Chief Executive Officer at symplr where he reportedly tripled the company’s size during his tenure. The leadership transition comes as Couchbase maintains a "GREAT" Financial Health Score of 3.28 on InvestingPro, indicating strong operational fundamentals.

Prior to symplr, Schaknowski held the position of Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Vertafore and served in various senior leadership roles at LexisNexis Software Solutions, CA Technologies, Intuit, and Sage Software. He also served in the United States Marine Corps.

Jafari joins Couchbase from Blend Labs, where he served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Finance & Operations. His previous experience includes CFO roles at multiple companies and leadership positions in finance and product at ServiceNow.

"It’s an honor to join Couchbase at such a transformative moment in its journey," said Schaknowski in the company’s press release statement.

Sumit Pande, Senior Managing Director at Haveli Investments, expressed gratitude to outgoing CEO Matt Cain for his leadership and stated the firm is "committed to continued investment in the product and technology."

Couchbase offers a developer data platform that unites transactional, analytical, mobile, and AI workloads into a managed solution for building and scaling applications. With a market capitalization of $14.3 million, the company continues to expand its presence in the competitive database solutions market. For detailed analysis and additional insights, investors can access comprehensive research reports available on InvestingPro, covering over 1,400 US stocks including Couchbase.

In other recent news, Couchbase, Inc. shareholders have approved the company’s acquisition by Haveli Investments in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.5 billion. Under the terms of this deal, Couchbase shareholders will receive $24.50 per share, and upon completion, the company will become privately held, ceasing its trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The acquisition news has led to analyst actions, with Guggenheim downgrading Couchbase from Buy to Neutral, citing the pending acquisition and the company’s recent quarterly results, which exceeded consensus expectations. Similarly, Oppenheimer has downgraded Couchbase from Outperform to Perform, noting the limited upside potential due to the acquisition terms. These downgrades reflect the analysts’ perspectives on the stock’s future performance amid the acquisition developments.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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