APIContext appoints Lelah Manz as Chair to lead global growth
APIContext has appointed Lelah Manz as Chair of its Board of Directors to support the company's growth and strategy.
Manz comes to APIContext following her previous tenure as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data and Shared Services at Akamai Technologies. During her time at Akamai, she led a global team responsible for delivering data, artificial intelligence, and shared platform capabilities. She was involved in the company's development from a USD $250 million content delivery network provider to a USD $4 billion global platform incorporating security, compute, and data services.
Her appointment as Board Chair coincides with the ongoing collaboration between APIContext and Akamai, highlighted by the recent launch of a managed API performance service built on APIContext's platform. This new service is designed to bring together proactive testing, expert analysis, and custom optimisation, supporting the reliability and compliance of APIs amid the complexity of digital environments.
Industry collaboration
The partnership between the two companies reflects wider trends in the API sector, where rapid expansion of digital services has reinforced the importance of resilient and high-performing API infrastructure. In a statement regarding the collaboration, Patrick Sullivan, Chief Technology Officer of Security Strategy at Akamai, commented:
"APIs are now the heartbeat of businesses. Keeping them fast, resilient, and standards-aligned is a competitive advantage."
This alignment places APIContext at the centre of contemporary debates surrounding API reliability and business continuity, issues that have become increasingly pertinent as machine-driven traffic dominates digital services.
Leadership transition
APIContext's leadership team views Manz's appointment as a significant step for the direction of the company. Mayur Upadhyaya, Chief Executive Officer of APIContext, stated:
"Lelah joining as Chair is a pivotal step as we scale APIContext from a product into a category-defining platform. Her leadership at Akamai shaped how the internet is delivered. Now she'll help us shape how it's verified. Machine-driven traffic already dominates digital services, and the world needs a new signal layer. Together, we're building it."
Upadhyaya's comments outline the strategic priorities for APIContext as the company seeks to further its platform's reach and influence within the API monitoring and resilience sector.
Manz brings extensive experience in business-to-business technology ecosystems and global go-to-market strategies to her new role. Her background includes work with product and engineering divisions as well as sales organisations, which APIContext leadership views as assets for strengthening strategic relationships and sustaining growth.
Manz's vision
Reflecting on her appointment, Manz said:
"I'm thrilled to join APIContext at such a pivotal time. APIContext's technology plays a critical role in enabling reliability, visibility, and performance at scale. I've seen firsthand the need for better application resilience, and I'm excited to join a team with such a compelling product, vision, and track record of execution."
Manz's remarks point to the increasing industry demand for enhanced application resilience, especially as digital transactions and connected services expand across sectors.
APIContext intends for Manz's guidance to further its ability to scale from a product-centric organisation to what it describes as a "category-defining platform." The company's engagement in managed API resilience services, especially in partnership with firms like Akamai, forms part of its approach to address the evolving needs of digital business infrastructure.
