After raising a $35 million Series C round in September, Highspot is adding a prominent new leader to its team: Former Adobe and Microsoft executive Jon Perera, who will serve as the company’s chief marketing officer.
Perera joins Highspot — the maker of AI-fueled sales software — from Adobe, where he spent more than six years on the company’s executive team. He was most recently the VP of product management. Before Adobe, Perera spent nine years at Microsoft, including five years as a general manager of product marketing for a variety of its enterprise products.
“Ultimately, Highspot is building a product that, as a marketer, I’ve personally always wanted to have,” Perera told GeekWire in an email. Highspot’s AI-fueled sales insight platform is used by customers including Amazon, Twitter and Dropbox.
“Sales enablement technology is now regarded as a competitive necessity and is expected to see high growth,” Perea said. “As the industry’s innovation leader, Highspot is in a distinct position to help companies empower their sales and marketing teams to be their very best—something I’ve devoted time and energy to for nearly three decades.”
— Digital marketing analytics company conDati tapped SAP Concur executive Linh Ho, a co-founder and longtime advisor of conDati, to serve as its chief marketing officer.
She joins the company from SAP Concur, where she spent six years, most recently as the company’s chief of staff. SAP bought Concur, a Seattle-area expense management company, for $8.3 billion in 2014.
Ho was previously the VP of marketing at New York-based enterprise company OpTier. Although conDati is based in the Bay Area, Ho will be based out of the company’s Seattle office, making her the fourth conDati employee in the city. In a statement, conDati said it is looking to expand its presence in the area.
“The role of marketers has evolved; while we are on the hook to drive growth and prove efficiency, we also need to understand at our fingertips the digital touch points with our customers and how they impact our pipeline and revenue. Without it, you’re running your business in the dark,” Linh said in a statement. “I am so proud to join a diverse and growing team at conDati, and a seasoned team that has a proven track record of applying data science and intelligence to business applications.”
— Azuqua, maker of the SaaS integration platform, tapped Noah Kusz to serve as the company’s chief revenue officer. Kusz joins the company from enterprise IoT maker Bsquare, where he was the worldwide vice president of IoT sales. He previously worked at IBM.
“As more and more leading SaaS companies turn to Azuqua to deliver connected experiences for their customers, the need to grow our enterprise sales team is critical to meet the demand,” Azuqua CEO Todd Owens said in a statement. Last year, the company launched a SaaS partners program that includes companies like Adobe and Zendesk.
“Noah has proven experience building and scaling high performance sales teams at both start-ups and the largest of enterprises — I couldn’t be more excited to have him join the team at Azuqua.”
— Hiya has a new chief technology officer: Longtime tech executive Marcelo Calbucci, who joined the company as its vice president of product in May.
Calbucci is based in London, although he plans to move back to Seattle, where Hiya is headquartered. He currently splits his time evenly between the two cities. The company said it is aiming to scale its offices in London, Seattle, and Budapest, Hungary, in the near future.
— Marketing analytics company Versium tapped Dillana Lim to serve as its new chief operating officer. Lim was most recently the chief product officer of Sterling Talent Solutions and held previous roles at TalentWise, where she was the VP of product and engineering, and Infospace, since acquired by Blucora.
“Versium is clearly a company on the move and its highly efficient AI and data-driven solutions are poised to significantly enhance the way brands and agencies market and make meaningful connections. I am excited to join the team,” Lim said in a statement.
— Mari Horita, the longtime president and CEO of philanthropic organization ArtsFund, is stepping down from that role to lead community engagement and philanthropy for the newly-formed NHL Seattle. The group is advocating for and organizing the city’s bid for a National Hockey League team.
