San Antonio—Taylor Rhodes, the former Rackspace CEO who resigned at the beginning of this month, is taking the helm of a Chicago-based company, SMS Assist, which has software that aims to help large business chains manage maintenance and property management services for their buildings.
Rhodes had served as the CEO of San Antonio-based Rackspace since 2014, and announced on May 3 that he was leaving the company. He has been replaced by Rackspace President Jeff Cotten on an interim basis while the company looks for a permanent CEO.
Rackspace, an early player in data center services, has been trying to survive the changing tides in cloud computing in recent years, trying to sell its “Fanatical Support” and other tools to customers of larger companies in the industry, such as Amazon and Microsoft. Formerly a public company, Rackspace sold to private equity last year for $4.3 billion.
SMS Assist was founded in 1999 as a floor care company, and developed its first technology for helping businesses manage their facilities in 2005, after Mike Rothman took over as CEO, according to the company. Rhodes is now replacing Rothman, who is staying with the company as chairman of its board. SMS announced in June 2016 that it had raised $150 million from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, giving the company a $1 billion valuation, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
