Appointment reinforces Sphera’s accelerated investment in AI, innovation and a robust multi-year product roadmap
CHICAGO, IL – February 12, 2026 – Sphera today announced the appointment of Chris Gutheil as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) as the company accelerates investment in product innovation and AI to support a robust, multi-year product roadmap.
Gutheil will play a central role in scaling AI-driven innovation across Sphera’s portfolio, strengthening the global engineering organization, and ensuring the delivery of reliable, scalable solutions that help customers strengthen enterprise resilience and unlock new sources of operational value. His leadership will help advance the evolution of the recently announced Sphera AI — designed to transform actionable and verifiable data into predictive insights that help companies manage risk, ensure compliance, and drive operational excellence from the C-suite to the factory floor.
Gutheil joined Sphera effective February 9, 2026, leading the company’s global Technology organization from its Chicago office. He will serve on the Executive Leadership Team and report directly to Paul Marushka, CEO and president of Sphera.
With more than two decades of experience building and modernizing enterprise software platforms, Gutheil brings a proven track record of embedding AI into products and development practices, driving large-scale platform transformations, and scaling global engineering teams. He most recently served as Chief Engineering Officer at QAD, an enterprise resource planning and supply chain software company, and previously held senior engineering leadership roles at Accruent, a workplace and asset management software provider.
“Technology—and especially AI—is reshaping how companies operate, manage risk and respond to increasing regulatory and stakeholder expectations,” said Paul Marushka, CEO and president of Sphera. “Chris is a proven technology leader who knows how to turn deep data and complex platforms into scalable, high-impact products. His experience and vision will be critical as we accelerate innovation and deliver the next generation of solutions — including the continued advancement of Sphera AI — for our customers.”
At Sphera, Gutheil will lead the company’s technology strategy and accelerate AI-driven innovation across its expanding product portfolio, with a focus on reducing customer time-to-value, increasing development velocity, and enabling safer, more sustainable decision-making at scale.
“Sphera helps companies address some of the most important challenges they face today—operating safely, responsibly, and sustainably,” said Chris Gutheil, Chief Technology Officer of Sphera. “I’m excited to leverage Sphera’s wealth of data, product technology, innovation, and the powerful capabilities launched through Sphera AI to help customers reduce environmental impact, improve worker safety, and make better, data-driven decisions. This is a powerful opportunity to transform how companies operate efficiently and safely.”
Gutheil’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for Sphera, as the company accelerates its AI roadmap and product expansion, reinforcing its position at the intersection of technology, regulation, risk management and operational excellence.
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About Sphera
Sphera is the leading provider of operational risk management and integrated sustainability software, data and consulting services focusing on Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S), Process Safety, Product Stewardship and Supply Chain Risk Management solutions. For more than 30 years, we have served 8,500 customers and over one million users in 100 countries to help companies keep their people safe, their products sustainable and their operations productive. Learn more about Sphera at https://sphera.com/. Follow Sphera on LinkedIn.
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