LUXEMBOURG (dpa-AFX) - Software provider Suse is surprisingly getting a new group CEO in Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen. The current CEO Melissa Di Donato has decided to step down from the post, the SDax company announced on Tuesday. Van Leeuwen is scheduled to start on May 1. In the meantime, Chief Financial Officer Andy Myers is to lead the group, he said.

As for the reason for Di Donato's departure, Suse said only that the manager would start a new chapter in her career. Under her leadership, the company went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2021. But the success story failed to materialize: The share has lost almost 38 percent in value since one year alone.

According to the company, the new Suse CEO van Leeuwen looks back on many years of experience in the software industry. Since his start at open source software provider Red Hat in 2004, he has held several positions./ngu/jha/