Bernadette Nixon

Chief Executive Officer NetBrain Technologies

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Bernadette Nixon has been Chief Executive Officer and a director of NetBrain Technologies since January 2026. NetBrain is based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and sells network automation software that it describes as “Agentic NetOps”: AI agents that diagnose and fix enterprise network problems. She took over when Blackstone closed a majority investment in the company and founder Lingping Gao, CEO for more than 20 years, became Chair. This is her third CEO job at a software company. She previously ran Algolia, the AI search and discovery platform, and before that Alfresco, the open source content services company. Earlier she held revenue and general management roles at SDL, OpenText, Metastorm and CA Technologies.

Career Highlights

• Appointed Chief Executive Officer and a board member of NetBrain in January 2026, when Blackstone completed its majority investment.
• Chief Executive Officer of Algolia from May 2020, succeeding co-founder Nicolas Dessaigne. She signed Algolia’s August 2021 SEC Form D as President and Chief Executive Officer.
• Chief Executive Officer of Alfresco, where Algolia said she reworked go-to-market strategy and launched new products.
• President, and before that Chief Revenue Officer, of SDL plc, the global software and professional services company.
• General Manager and Senior Vice President of the BPM business unit and corporate sales at OpenText, and Executive Vice President of Sales for the Americas at Metastorm.
• Earlier roles included Deputy CIO at the United Nations in Geneva, and positions at CA Technologies, InterQuad and NCR.

Professional Journey

Algolia’s appointment release lists roles at NCR, InterQuad and CA Technologies and a spell as Deputy CIO at the United Nations in Geneva; it does not date them. Her senior roles were on the software vendor side. At Metastorm, a business process management vendor, she was Executive Vice President of Sales for the Americas. At OpenText she was General Manager and Senior Vice President of the BPM business unit and of corporate sales.

At SDL plc, the global software and professional services company, she was first Chief Revenue Officer, building out the sales team, and then President. She next became CEO of Alfresco, the open source content services company, where Algolia later credited her with redefining its go-to-market strategy, launching new products and building the team to scale growth.

In May 2020 Algolia named her CEO. Co-founder Nicolas Dessaigne moved to the board after raising the company’s Series C. Algolia, headquartered in San Francisco, said at the time that more than 9,000 companies in 120 countries used its search platform. She was still President and CEO in August 2021, when she signed the company’s Form D filing with the SEC. NetBrain’s biography says she drove global expansion, major funding and strategic acquisitions at Algolia.

NetBrain appointed her CEO in January 2026, when Blackstone closed the majority investment it had announced the previous July. Lingping Gao, who founded NetBrain and ran it for more than two decades, became Chair. NetBrain says its customers include about a third of the Fortune 500. Besides its Massachusetts headquarters it lists offices in Munich, Toronto, Hyderabad and Beijing.

Education

No education record was found in any first-party or primary source reviewed.