[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Akamai Technologies has appointed co-Founder and chief scientist, Dr. Tom Leighton as CEO of Akamai.  He will succeed Paul Sagan, who 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.

Since co-founding Akamai in 1998, Dr. Leighton 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 company’s board.

Prior to founding Akamai, Dr. Leighton was a Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT and a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Dr. Leighton holds numerous patents involving content delivery, Internet protocols, network algorithms, distributed computing, cryptography, and digital rights management. From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Leighton served on the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), during which time he chaired the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. Dr. Leighton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.

The company announced in April that it was starting an independent director-led search to name a new CEO to succeed Mr. Sagan, who has served as CEO since 2005.