Seattle Tech Pioneer Samir Bodas, Co-Founder of Icertis, Dies at 61 After Cancer Battle

The Seattle tech community is mourning the loss of Samir Bodas, the visionary co-founder and former CEO of Icertis, who passed away at age 61 following a courageous battle with cancer. Bodas, who stepped down from his role as CEO in August 2024 to focus on his health, leaves behind a legacy that transformed how enterprises manage contracts and built one of the Pacific Northwest’s most valuable software companies.

A Legacy Built on Values, Not Spotlight

Bodas’ passing has prompted an outpouring of tributes from colleagues, investors, and industry leaders who remember him not just for his business acumen but for his unwavering commitment to team over individual recognition. In 2021, when Icertis was named among the finalists for GeekWire’s CEO of the Year award, Bodas declined the individual honor, asking to withdraw from consideration. “It’s a great honor and we appreciate the support,” his marketing chief explained at the time, “but we would like to stick to our policy of team vs individual awards.”

That decision, friends and colleagues say, was quintessentially Samir—building a multibillion-dollar company while consistently deflecting personal praise to his team.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who counted Bodas as both a business colleague and close friend for over three decades, remembered him as “a leader who was level-headed, took risks, and had an entrepreneurial spirit that we all admired. And as a friend, he was joyous, welcoming, and had a zest for life that radiated to those around him. I genuinely loved every moment I spent with him.”

From Microsoft to Startup Pioneer

Bodas and Nadella’s friendship began in 1992 when both joined Microsoft, living in the same apartment building near the Redmond campus. While Nadella would go on to lead Microsoft as CEO in 2014, Bodas spent seven years at the company in sales and marketing roles before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey.

His path to Seattle was rooted in academic excellence and ambition. Born in Pune, India, Bodas came to the United States in 1982 to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a degree in computer science. His first job was as programmer No. 42 at National Instruments in Austin, an experience he later described as the moment “the startup bug bit me.”

After earning his MBA from Wharton in 1992, Bodas joined Microsoft and later ran two IT services companies—Disha Technology and Aztecsoft—through rapid growth and successful exits. In 2009, he met Monish Darda, a former BladeLogic executive, and together they founded Icertis at the dawn of cloud computing.

Building Icertis: The Contract Management Revolution

Icertis, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, built software that helps large enterprises manage the complex web of contracts governing their relationships with suppliers, customers, and partners. But Bodas saw contracts not as static legal documents but as strategic assets—sources of insight that could help companies save money, move faster, and manage risk.

Under his leadership, Icertis became the first company in the contract lifecycle management category to reach a $1 billion valuation in 2019. The privately held company has raised more than $500 million, with more than a third of the Fortune 100 as customers. At one point in 2021, Icertis was reportedly valued as high as $5 billion.

Anand Subbaraman, who succeeded Bodas as Icertis CEO last year, called him “a pioneer in every sense of the word” in the company’s announcement of his passing. “His belief in Icertis—its mission, its people, and its potential—was unwavering,” Subbaraman said, adding that the company “will continue forward guided by the principles he instilled.”

Culture as Competitive Advantage

Bodas wasn’t always a culture evangelist. He was candid about his evolution, admitting that when he came out of business school, he thought culture was “all BS.” “I thought it was all about making money, and as long as you put enough money in people’s pockets, they will take the pain. That’s absolutely wrong,” he said at a TiE Seattle event in 2019.

At Icertis, he and Darda developed a framework they called FORTE—Fairness, Openness, Respect, Teamwork, and Execution. The company’s internal “Culture at Icertis” book states that the co-founders wanted to build a company “based on values and one where they could laugh more than any place they had worked before.”

Kellan Carter, who led Ignition Partners’ investment in Icertis in 2016, saw those values in action early. He and Ignition co-founder John Connors traveled to India in 2017 for the company’s annual town hall, where Bodas introduced Connors as a new board member. “After introducing John, he asked the entire company—but do you know the number one reason why we chose to work with Ignition and John?” Carter recalled. “And the entire company shouted ‘FORTE.'”

It was a powerful example of what happens when a company is aligned to core principles. “Samir led with these values every single day,” Carter said.

Seth Nesbitt, who served as Icertis chief marketing officer and is now chief revenue officer at Zuper, emphasized that Bodas meant it. “Lots of CEOs focus on excellence and execution—Samir certainly did—but he also thought laughter and joy at work was essential,” Nesbitt said.

When the pandemic hit, they introduced the “Four Rings of Responsibility”—a prioritization framework that put self-care first, then family, then community, and finally business. Bodas compared it to the airplane safety instruction to put on your own oxygen mask first.

“When the going got tough—which it always does in a startup—Samir would double down on the team and culture,” Nesbitt said. “The Four Rings of Responsibility, which came out of the fog of early COVID, are a great example of that.”

The framework resonated beyond Icertis. GeekWire co-founder John Cook, who hosted a virtual panel during the pandemic featuring Bodas alongside business leaders Rich Barton and Elena Donio, has frequently cited the Four Rings as a philosophy that helped him navigate that period.

Giving Back to the Community

Bodas’ commitment to the Pacific Northwest extended beyond his business ventures. When he and fellow Microsoft alumni, including Nadella and S. “Soma” Somasegar of Madrona Venture Group, had a chance to bring Major League Cricket to Seattle, Bodas jumped in with enthusiasm. “He was very vocal about this being one of the ways he wanted to give back to the Pacific Northwest community,” Somasegar said.

Somasegar, who was an angel investor in Icertis, had a front-row seat to Bodas’ leadership style. “I had a front row seat to Samir and how he built and scaled Icertis to what it is today,” he said. “Throughout the years, he would always say, ‘This is the thing that matters the most in my professional life and I want to be doing this forever.’ Till the end, he lived that.”

A Lasting Impact

Darda, the co-founder and CTO who launched the company with Bodas in 2009, said his longtime business partner had a rare ability to inspire. “He challenged all of us to think bigger, act with integrity, and to create a consequential and enduring company,” Darda said. “The company we are today is a testament to his vision.”

In his email to GeekWire, Nadella said he takes comfort in knowing Bodas’ impact will continue. “He had a tremendous impact on so many people over the years,” the Microsoft CEO wrote, “and while we mourn this loss, I am comforted by how his legacy will live on through his family and loved ones and through the company he built in Icertis.”

Bodas is survived by his family, who have asked for privacy during this difficult time. The Seattle tech community has lost not just a successful entrepreneur but a leader who proved that building a great company and building a great culture aren’t mutually exclusive—they’re essential to each other.

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