Workday announced a significant leadership change on Monday. Chief executive Carl Eschenbach has stepped down and left the company’s board, effective immediately. Co-founder and former CEO Aneel Bhusri will return to lead the company as CEO.
Carl Eschenbach originally joined Workday in December 2022 as co-CEO alongside Aneel Bhusri. He had been serving as the sole CEO since February 2024. Bhusri, who has led Workday since 2009 in various CEO capacities, most recently held the role of executive chairman.
The company confirmed that Bhusri’s return to the CEO position is permanent and not an interim arrangement during a search for a successor. Workday framed this leadership shift as aligning with its strategic focus on artificial intelligence for its next phase of growth.
In a statement, Aneel Bhusri emphasized the importance of this transition. He stated that the company is entering one of the most pivotal moments in its history, noting that AI represents a larger transformation than software-as-a-service and will define the next generation of industry leaders. Bhusri expressed his energy for returning as CEO and working alongside company presidents Gerrit Kazmaier and Rob Enslin.
This leadership change follows a period of restructuring at Workday. Last February, the company reduced its workforce by 8.5 percent, which amounted to approximately 1,750 employees. At that time, then-CEO Eschenbach explained the layoffs by stating the company required a new approach to labor in the age of AI.