BairesDev Names Darren Shimkus CEO, Co-Founder Nacho De Marco Becomes Chairman
The move follows one of the strongest half-years in company history, with BairesDev scaling its AI-driven commercial
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BairesDev®, one of the largest bootstrapped technology companies in the world, announced today that Darren Shimkus is now its Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Co-Founder Nacho De Marco becomes Chairman of the Board, remaining an active strategic advisor to Shimkus while dedicating more time to new ventures adjacent to BairesDev.
The leadership change comes from a position of strength: BairesDev, built 17 years ago without outside capital, has been profitable every year since. Having joined the company as an advisor in December 2024 and transitioned to a full-time role in June 2025, Shimkus has demonstrated the leadership and innovation required to scale an organization in this emerging AI age, accelerating BairesDev’s shift toward becoming the industry´s leading AI-first services company. De Marco and the board identified him as the right leader to take that transformation into its next stage.
“We just had one of our best half-years in the company’s history, and that’s exactly why we’re making this change now,” said De Marco. “In my new role as Chairman, I will advise Darren on our biggest strategic questions and put my energy into finding BairesDev’s next engines of growth. I’ve watched Darren rebuild how our commercial teams work together and roll out our first purpose-built AI offerings since the day he joined. I believe he’ll run this company through the next phase better than I could, and that’s not a hard thing to say. That’s the entire point.”
“Nacho built something rare: an incredibly successful company driven by the long-term thinking and customer obsession that only a bootstrapped company could deliver without compromise. My job now is to preserve that discipline while scaling BairesDev for what comes next. We’ve been getting this company fluent in AI; how we sell it, how we build with it, and how our clients actually capture value from it. That work will likely never be finished,” said Darren Shimkus, Chief Executive Officer of BairesDev.
“Seventy percent of AI’s value comes from the application of technology to a business process you really understand, not from the technology itself,” Shimkus said. “That’s the opportunity most companies are missing, and it’s where I want to focus BairesDev: accelerating how we close that gap for our clients. That’s my priority from day one.”
Before joining BairesDev, Shimkus spent his career building and scaling high-growth technology companies, most recently as co-founder of Modal, an AI upskilling platform BairesDev acquired in 2025, after which Shimkus also took on the role of President. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at high-growth Silicon Valley companies including the role of President of Udemy for Business, where he transformed the business from a consumer platform to an enterprise SaaS business that drove the company’s IPO.
BairesDev remains privately held by its founding shareholders, with no changes to the company’s ownership structure as part of the leadership transition.
About BairesDev
BairesDev provides nearshore software development services to some of the world’s largest and most respected companies, like Google, Pinterest, Adobe, Rolls-Royce, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce. Backed by 4,000+ people across LATAM, BairesDev has delivered high-quality software in over 130 industries.
Join BairesDev’s team by applying to https://jobs.bairesdev.com/. Or recommend a candidate in the Talent Referral Program https://applicants.bairesdev.com/external-referral
Media Contact: press@bairesdev.com
