CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM) today announced that the Akamai Board of Directors has elected company Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Tom Leighton to become CEO of Akamai effective January 1, 2013. He will succeed Paul Sagan who announced earlier this year that he intended to step down as chief executive by the end of 2013. Dr. Leighton and Mr. Sagan will remain Akamai directors, and Mr. Sagan will become a senior advisor to the company, working with Dr. Leighton on business strategy and to ensure a smooth management transition.

The company also announced today that it will host an investor summit at the Boston Marriott Cambridge on Monday, March 11, 2013, for Akamai management to present key company priorities, product roadmaps and insights into major IT trends related to security, cloud computing, mobile, video, and big data.

Since co-founding Akamai in 1998, Dr. Leighton has been responsible for Akamai's technology vision and has been one of the principal architects of the company's strategic direction while serving as Chief Scientist, as a member of Akamai's senior executive team, and on the Board of Directors. Dr. Leighton is a renowned Internet technologist and has been a key driver of Akamai's transformation from Internet startup to leading cloud infrastructure services platform. He has played a major role in charting the course for many of Akamai's key product innovations, strategic accomplishments, and technological breakthroughs, from site and application acceleration to Web security and cloud infrastructure services.

Akamai Technologies Inc.