BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN), a global leader in asset optimization software, has appointed David Leitham as Senior Vice President and General Manager to lead the company’s pharmaceutical industry growth strategy.

Leitham has 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is responsible for expanding AspenTech’s footprint in the pharmaceuticals market, shaping the product and solution strategy and leading go-to-market efforts. He has demonstrated a track record of success integrating and transforming software businesses and products and growing them at double digits, while leading a software portfolio that drove over one billion dollars in connected sales. He brings significant expertise to AspenTech in mergers and acquisitions integration having worked on multiple integration efforts to transform businesses into high performing operations.

Leitham joins AspenTech from Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he was Vice President and General Manager responsible for a team that consistently delivered double-digit growth in software revenue. He also held roles at GlaxoSmithKline, where he served as Vice President, Information Engineering, Technology and Architecture; The Network Connection, where he served as Vice President, Software Engineering and Vice President, Application Development; and FAAC Incorporated, where he held several engineering positions.

“We believe that the pharmaceutical industry can continue to benefit from AspenTech’s current solution portfolio as it increases focus on operational excellence and accelerates its digitalization journey in manufacturing and across the enterprise. We see a significant opportunity to contribute to compliance with the regulatory requirements pharmaceutical companies must meet and to the value creation opportunities available through their ongoing digitalization efforts. Bringing David on board is an important step in helping them achieve these important objectives,” said Antonio Pietri, President and Chief Executive Officer of AspenTech.

“AspenTech has an unrivaled reputation in the process manufacturing industries,” said Leitham. “That reputation has been earned through a relentless focus on meeting the needs of its customers, which I have long shared, and I am looking forward to enhancing that approach, along with our technology and expertise, to the pharmaceutical industry.”

About Aspen Technology

Aspen Technology (AspenTech) is a global leader in asset optimization software. Its solutions address complex, industrial environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation and maintenance lifecycle. AspenTech uniquely combines decades of process modelling expertise with artificial intelligence. Its purpose-built software platform automates knowledge work and builds sustainable competitive advantage by delivering high returns over the entire asset lifecycle. As a result, companies in capital-intensive industries can maximize uptime and push the limits of performance, running their assets safer, greener, longer and faster. Visit AspenTech.com to find out more.