Shaw joins GitKraken as the company builds momentum for the next challenge in AI-powered development: helping developers direct multiple agents and helping engineering leaders understand the value AI is delivering
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — GitKraken today announced that Jim Shaw will become Chief Executive Officer. Shaw succeeds Matt Johnston, who has led the company for the past five years through dramatic growth and scale.
Shaw joins GitKraken as the software industry moves into the next phase of AI adoption. Developers are no longer experimenting with a single AI assistant or copilot. Their work now spans across many agents, models and repositories, often in parallel. The challenge has shifted from generating code faster to managing all of that work without losing context, quality or control.
GitKraken has spent the past year expanding from the Git GUI company millions of developers know into the Code Flow company, focused on the work that happens between an idea and production.
That strategy has taken shape in the past six months in the form of two new products. GitKraken Insights is the AI-first software engineering intelligence platform built for engineering leaders to prove and improve the value AI is delivering to their teams and their business. Kepler, GitKraken’s agentic development environment, gives developers one visual workspace to run and monitor multiple coding agents in parallel across repositories, regardless of which agent or model they choose.
These solutions reflect a simple belief: developers should be free to use the AI tools that work best for them, while organizations should be able to see clearly whether those tools are making software delivery better.
That point of view is also what makes Shaw a natural fit for GitKraken.
Shaw spent 15 years at Acquia in roles spanning international expansion, customers, product and technology, ultimately leading its product and technology organization. Earlier in his career, he worked on a Lean manufacturing transformation at Rover Group, later owned by BMW, where he saw product flow and quality problems play out on the production lines building Range Rover and Mini. He has carried that systems view from physical products into software.
“AI has already changed how software gets written. The question now is what we do with all that new capacity,” said Shaw. “Developers need the freedom to choose which agents and models that work best for them without creating more complexity around the work. Engineering leaders need to know whether their AI investments are actually improving what gets delivered. GitKraken is in a unique position to solve both sides of that problem.”
Shaw has written about the risk of mistaking more code for more value. His view is that engineering organizations need to look beyond output and understand what AI is doing to quality, reliability, predictability and the value ultimately delivered to customers.
That thinking closely matches the direction GitKraken has already taken.
“Jim understands where software development is going because he has spent his career thinking about systems, products and how work moves through them,” said Fred Sturgis, Managing Director of Resurgens. “GitKraken has built an extraordinary relationship with developers with nearly 10 millions monthly active users. Jim is the right leader to build on that foundation as developers take on a new role directing multiple agents, in addition to writing code themselves.”
GitKraken has now served more than 50 million developers across its portfolio of tools. As those tools evolve, one thing will not: GitKraken’s commitment to the people who build software.
About GitKraken
GitKraken is the Code Flow company. As AI transforms how software is created, GitKraken helps developers, teams, and organizations manage the flow of work between ideas and production. Trusted by millions of developers worldwide, GitKraken builds tools that improve coordination between developers, AI agents, repositories, and delivery systems—helping organizations turn software velocity into meaningful outcomes.
Contact:
Kate Adams
***@gitkraken.com
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SOURCE GitKraken