Leads360 co-founder and CEO Jeff Solomon announced to me this weekend and will be sending out a supporting press release today that he will be moving out of his role as CEO Leads360 and into the new role of Senior Vice President of Product and Marketing.

The new person moving into the CEO role at Leads360 will be Dan Morefield, formally of Experian Consumer Direct.

“In the years I have known and worked with Dan Morefield, he has consistently shown the leadership and management capabilities that will make him a success at Leads360,” said Ed Ojdana, Leads360 board member and former CEO of Experian Interactive. “We feel extremely fortunate to have someone of Dan’s stature leading the management team of the company.”

I also had the chance to ask a Jeff a few questions about the change:

This is obviously a tough decision, personally and professionally to make, what was the driving factor behind this decision?

I’m an entrepreneur at heart and I’ve always been driven by a passion to learn new things. As CEO of Leads360 for the past four years I’ve had an opportunity to learn quite a bit. I’ve seen our company blossom over that time and it has been exciting. However, as we’ve grown, my role has had to change. I am rarely able to focus on many of the activities that I’m most passionate about including product development and marketing. I want to focus more energy on revenue generating activities and product innovation. This is where I can have the greatest impact right now.

Additionally we have experienced the challenges over the past year that growing companies often do. We have had to embrace change at every level of the organization and I felt that the company could greatly benefit from someone with more experience than me at the helm.

Ultimately I started this business because I knew I could develop software that would be valuable to my clients and I could make money doing it. The decisions I’ve made along the way have been consistent with that vision. As SVP of Product and Marketing and with Dan Morefield as President and CEO, I know I can do both of those things even better.

I think making a move like this shows a level of leadership that is often not seen in other company founders. Will that leadership change in your new role?

I appreciate that. My style of leadership has always been to try and bring out the best in the people around me. Sometimes in an effort to do this leaders become more of a blockade than a conduit. I think this is common with entrepreneurs who can do a little bit of everything. I’ve certainly been known to get my hands into few peoples pots around here and I’ve had to learn to get out of the way. I think this is a good example of my leadership style. When I see an opportunity to me or people around me to grow, I’m not going to stand in the way. That being said, I’m not going anywhere. I will continue to play a key role in this organization and in our future. Leadership will continue to big part of that.

What is at the top of your agenda in your new role?

At the top of my agenda is driving revenue. I’m going to do that from the sales and marketing side as well as the product side. You can count on seeing me on many more sales calls and we’ve got a number of product initiatives that are really going to impact our space. I’ve been building and selling software for more than 10 years now. I know how to make products that people want and I know that’s what makes money in this business.

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