SugarCRM Boosts Executive Firepower with Three New Appointments
Chief Customer Officer, New CFO and EVP of Worldwide Sales Provide Extra Muscle to Support Accelerating Growth
CUPERTINO, Calif. – March 25, 2015 – SugarCRM Inc., the company that enables businesses to create extraordinary customer relationships with the most innovative, flexible and affordable CRM solution in the market, today announced the appointment of three new executives. Remy Malan was appointed SugarCRM’s first Chief Customer Officer (CCO); Steve Valenzuela is the company’s new Chief Financial Officer; and Fred Gewant has accepted the role as executive vice president, worldwide sales. With their combined experience augmenting SugarCRM’s already strong leadership, the company is well-positioned for accelerating growth.
Indicative of a growing focus on the importance of the customer, 22 percent of Fortune 100 companies have appointed a Chief Customer Officer to their executive teams. As experts in customer relationship management, it’s only natural for SugarCRM to have a senior executive solely dedicated to ensuring customer satisfaction and success.
As Chief Customer Officer, Malan will manage SugarCRM’s customer success and professional services organizations, and will be responsible for ensuring that SugarCRM’s customers CRM initiatives are successful. Previously, Malan led SugarCRM’s professional services organization, deploying enterprise-scale projects for the company’s largest customers. Under his leadership, his team was responsible for the successful deployment of the largest global CRM deployment in the world. Prior roles include senior vice president of sales and marketing at Teleplace and vice president of the semiconductor business at Devicescape.
SugarCRM’s new CFO, Steve Valenzuela, brings more than 30 years of finance experience leading public and private companies, including many recognized SaaS market leaders. Most recently, Valenzuela was CFO of Apigee, where he raised $60 million in a late-stage financing round and led efforts to prepare for a potential initial public offering. Prior to Apigee, Valenzuela was the vice president of finance and operations for the mobile platforms group at Citrix. He came to Citrix from Zenprise, a SaaS mobile device management company that achieved over 100% growth in annual sales over his tenure. Valenzuela was CFO at Zenprise and led the acquisition and integration of Zenprise into Citrix. Valenzuela has also led an IPO for PlanetRx, and led the sale of LinkExchange to Microsoft.
Fred Gewant, executive vice president, worldwide sales at SugarCRM, has more than two decades of experience leading high-growth enterprise software organizations. Prior to joining SugarCRM, Gewant served as vice president of IBM’s Western region. There, he led more than 600 sales professionals and was responsible for driving $1.3 billion in annual revenue. Gewant came to IBM through its acquisition of ILOG, where he was vice president of Americas field operations and was responsible for increasing revenue from $74M to $245M in four years. Prior to ILOG, Gewant spent eleven years at ERP/Supply Chain leader JD Edwards, where he held several executive leadership roles including Vice President and General Manager of JD Edwards Latin America, and Vice President of Pacific Operations, where he led key business growth in Japan and Asia.
“There’s growing frustration with high-priced CRM solutions that don’t do enough to enable front-line staff to do their jobs,“ said Larry Augustin, SugarCRM CEO. “This sentiment is becoming a major growth driver for us as enterprises discover what Sugar can do to help individuals build great customer relationships. As the market swings our way, it’s vital for us to have seasoned executives in place who can manage the growth. I’m very proud of our team, and I know they’re more than up to the challenge.”
The additions to SugarCRM’s executive team come amid rapid domestic and international growth, spurred by new strategic partnerships and steady progress in key verticals. SugarCRM recently announced its acquisition of Stitch, the leading developer of personal assistant technologies that enhance productivity for mobile users. Future releases of Sugar will include Stitch technology to extend Sugar’s mobile leadership. SugarCRM also recently celebrated the opening of its Latin America headquarters in Mexico, a key growth market for the company as it expands its international footprint.
ABOUT SUGARCRM
SugarCRM enables businesses to create extraordinary customer relationships with the most innovative and affordable customer relationship management (CRM) solution on the market. By placing the individual at the center of its solution, SugarCRM is putting the “i” in CRM and empowering people at all levels of an organization to better understand and engage with customers. Based in Silicon Valley, SugarCRM is backed by Goldman Sachs, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, NEA and Walden International. More than 1.5M individuals in over 120 countries rely on SugarCRM. To learn more visit SugarCRM or follow@SugarCRM.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding expectations regarding market opportunities, size and growth, and general business outlook. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the level of demand for SugarCRM’s products, Sugar’s ability to move up market and execute on its enterprise strategy, SugarCRM’s ability to develop, deliver and support its products, Sugar’s ability to successfully expand its international operations, SugarCRM’s ability to develop and maintain successful strategic relationships and SugarCRM’s ability to attract, motivate and retain key employees. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date thereof, and SugarCRM disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
NOTE: SugarCRM and the SugarCRM logo are service marks of SugarCRM Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jay Fiore
SugarCRM
+1 (408) 913-2245
jfiore@sugarcrm.com
Becky Quinlan
BOCA Communications
+1 (916) 508-8050