Cloudflare poached former Splunk chief revenue officer (CRO) Christian Smith to drive its “next phase of growth.”

Smith joins the content delivery giant as president of revenue, replacing the retiring Mark Anderson. Smith will lead Cloudflare’s worldwide go-to-market organization, including global sales and revenue operations.

The exec spent just shy of a decade at the Cisco-owned brand, staring out as VP of sales efforts across the Americas before stepping up as CRO in June 2020. Smith left in 2025 to take on a smattering of board-level and advisory roles at Feedzai, Atlassian, and Axonius.

“[Smith] has consistently proven he can lead global go-to-market organizations through periods of rapid expansion with discipline, operational rigor, and a steadfast focus on customers,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince noted in a statement. “He shares our belief in Cloudflare's mission and in the size of the opportunity in front of us. We are excited to have him on board for this next chapter.”

Cloudflare’s revenue leadership change comes as the company is looking to expand. It’s trying to extend its reach into Europe, while also expanding AI bot defenses, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) efforts, and a private domain name service (DNS) to guard sites from exposure through the public internet.

The vendor is also looking at capitalizing on demand for AI inference, with it listed as a strategic edge partner by Gartner alongside more centralized cloud providers.

“I have long admired Cloudflare’s mission, relentless pace of innovation, and the extraordinary product engine Matthew [Prince], Michelle [Zatlyn], and the team have built,” Smith noted as part of the appointment. “The market opportunity for Cloudflare is massive. Joining at such a pivotal moment in the company’s trajectory is an incredible opportunity, and I look forward to working with our global teams and customers to accelerate this momentum as we continue helping to build a better internet.”

The departing Anderson joined Cloudflare in 2019 as a board member, before taking on the revenue role in 2024. The former Alteryx CEO will remain at Cloudflare in an advisory capacity through the end of December.

“I want to thank Mark for his leadership and for the incredible impact he has had on our team and our customers. We are grateful that he will remain as an advisor to help ensure a smooth transition as we take on this next phase of growth,” Prince added.