Reggie Aggarwal

The Cvent business idea first came to light after Reggie spent years painstakingly planning hundreds of events for the Indian CEO Network of which he was president. He found early success as a pioneer in the event technology space but had to lay off nearly 80% of his employees during the dot-com burst in the early 2000s. During this time, approaching bankruptcy and facing the possibility of failure, Reggie and the core executive team focused on the two things that mattered most for a successful business: its employees and customers.

Driven by the desire to transform the meetings and events industry, Cvent has grown to 4,800+ employees and 22,000 customers worldwide. In 2013, Cvent's IPO (NYSE: CVT) boasted a market capitalization of more than $1 billion. In 2016, Cvent was taken private by Vista Equity Partners for $1.65 billion, providing a 70% premium for Cvent stockholders. In December 2021, Cvent returned to the public markets on the Nasdaq. In March 2023, Cvent entered into an agreement with Blackstone to be acquired for $4.6B. The transaction closed in June 2023, making Cvent a private company under Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity firms.

Cvent is now a leading meetings, events, and hospitality management technology provider, with the solutions organizations need to automate and simplify the entire event planning process and maximize the impact of their in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. Cvent’s platform powers millions of virtual, in-person, and hybrid events for thousands of organizations, including 50% of the Fortune 500. The Cvent Hospitality Cloud partners with hotels and venues to help them drive group and corporate travel business.  

Early on, Reggie was named a rising star by Forbes Magazine. Since then, he has been named the #1 Business Software CEO by The SaaS Report in their 2019 Top 50 CEO list, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs. He was also named the most admired CEO by the Washington Business Journal, was inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame in 2022, the Business Travel Hall of Fame in 2019, was awarded the 2024 Entrepreneurial Sales Leadership Award by the Institute for Excellence in Sales and has consistently been recognized as one of the 25 most influential people in the meetings and events industry.

He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week, and has been interviewed on CNN, the BBC and several other popular news shows for his insight and expertise on the meetings industry.

Reggie graduated with a BS degree from the University of Virginia, a Juris Doctorate from Washington and Lee University Law School, and an LLM (post-law degree) from Georgetown University Law School. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from Southeastern University for his contribution to the community.