Senior Vice President Archives

Singapore – Total experience (TX) automation platform yellow.ai has appointed former Google Cloud’s Surbhi Agarwal as its senior vice president of global marketing, where she will be managing all of the marketing initiatives for Yellow.ai across geographies to grow business in the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions.

Based out of the San Francisco bay area, she will be actively expanding the company’s global footprint by building a highly impactful go-to-market team that would strengthen yellow.ai’s position in the market.

During her stint at Google Cloud, she led product and solution marketing for data analytics and cloud AI portfolio, including ‘Contact Center AI’. She comes with over two decades of leadership across product life cycle management, sales enablement, product marketing and product led growth in early-stage start-ups and large enterprises.

Agarwal has also run product management and corporate strategy at Intel Corporation and McAfee.

Speaking on her appointment, Surbhi said, “Yellow.ai is at a pivotal point of entering new geographies with its proven product capabilities, making this a very exciting time to join the executive team. With yellow.ai’s driven culture, differentiated offerings, leadership and market potential, I believe the company is strongly positioned to define and lead the Conversational AI space. I look forward to building the best-in-class marketing organization at yellow.ai to increase our market share and achieve new heights.”

Meanwhile, Raghu Ravinutala, CEO and co-founder, Yellow.ai, said, “We are thrilled to bring Surbhi onboard at Yellow.ai as part of our executive team. This is a crucial appointment for us, at a time when we are sharpening our global strategy as a total experience (TX) solutions provider.”

He added, “As we scale our operations and expand our capabilities, Surbhi’s leadership will augment our efforts towards defining our brand and driving revenue. We look forward to her leadership and believe her experiences with global industry leaders will be invaluable as we grow across markets.”

California, USA – Global user retention platform CleverTap has appointed Honey Bajaj as its newest senior vice president and global chief of consumer experience. Through her new roles, Bajaj will pioneer CleverTap’s extensive program to help companies reimagine customer experience.

Prior to joining CleverTap, Bajaj has built an innovation pipeline for several Fortune 500 companies, including Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures, Disney, Microsoft Research, MIT Media Lab and Tata Group. She has also have extensive experience as an innovation leader and a social entrepreneur in India and the United States.

Speaking about her appointment, Bajaj said, “I have always focused on designing for impact and inventing for scale by contextualising tech for the consumers. The truth is, no matter what we think we’re doing, we are all in the customer-experience business. Before you can accomplish it, you need to envision it. The digital behaviour and expectations of customers is evolving faster than most industries are able to deliver. I am looking forward to my journey with CleverTap to embed human-centred principles and design thinking into a series of initiatives and programs.”

She added, “These efforts will allow digital-first companies to co-create and simulate digital journeys that will fuel growth through superior customer experience and will enable CleverTap’s customers to realise their consumer journeys in a more seamless and contextual manner as the lines of the digital and omnichannel world are no longer separated.”

Meanwhile, Vikrant Chowdhary, chief growth officer at CleverTap, commented, “As we scale CleverTap into a global category creator for ‘Retention Cloud’, we realise that our customers are eager to co-create experiences that will fuel growth and the future of their own digital businesses. For this reason, we are expanding our leadership team with a new appointment that benefits the most important stakeholder: our customers’ customers.”

He added, “From fintech to ecommerce, and from on-demand super apps to media and streaming services, companies need the inspiration and tangible examples of the ‘Art of Possible’ to unleash human-centred design thinking, unlock new perspectives and drive powerful momentum and positive results for all stakeholders.”

Most recently, CleverTap has welcomed Anand Venkatraman as its newest chief operating officer.

Singapore — GWI, an audience insights company, announced the appointment of Aditi Kohli as senior vice president for APAC as it plans to further its growth in the region. The company is set to jumpstart its ambitious growth plans after it successfully secured US$180m in Series B funding in February 2022.

Kohli will be based in Singapore and she is tasked to drive the company’s growth, working with enterprise partners to help them gain a deeper understanding of local consumers. The investments are being utilised to further advance GWI’s software-as-a-service platform, as well as hire new talent to support global expansion.

Prior to joining GWI, Kohli was managing director of Foursquare for Asia. Her other ventures include roles in Near, The Walt Disney Company, and MTV Asia.

Speaking about her appointment, Kohli said, “I am honoured to join GWI as we continue to revolutionise insights on digital consumers worldwide through technology. We’re seeking to bolster the APAC team, and looking to hire talented professionals (commercial sales and customer success) with a passion for market intelligence and innovation who can support the rapid expansion of our business.”

Tom Smith, CEO and founder of GWI, said, “We are deeply committed to Asia-Pacific. The size and breadth of the region mean it can be hard for companies to navigate and be able to make proper data-driven decisions. GWI is able to provide them with deep insights and allow them to create the right strategy. When we launched our new office in Singapore we knew that we would need to find the right person to lead this exciting growth opportunity and Aditi is the perfect person for this. Her breadth of experience will be instrumental in growing our presence, talent and customer base. We’re very excited for the future of GWI in APAC.”

Singapore – Global cross-border payments platform Thunes has announced the appointment of new senior vice presidents in the Asia-Pacific, namely Biren Zandani, SVP for Asia Pacific and Daphne Huang, SVP for Greater China.

Zandani, who is based in Singapore, is a recognized payments expert with over 20 years of experience in financial services, particularly B2B, B2P, and P2P payments. Prior to joining Thunes, he was the head of APAC at Transfast, a Mastercard company, where he was in charge of generating revenue and establishing robust network partnerships. He was also the head of business development and network management for SEA and ANZ at Earthport, now Visa Direct.

Meanwhile, Huang, based in Beijing, brings in over two decades of sales, business development, banking, and fintech experience. She was previously the head of China for SWIFT, where she spearheaded its strategic and business development initiatives.

In addition to the two new appointments, Thunes has also appointed other SVPs in other regions, namely Jenna Wyer, SVP for the Americas and Simon Nelson, SVP for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Speaking about the new senior hires, Aik Boon Tan, chief commercial officer at Thunes, said, “We have been ramping up our efforts to piece together a best-in-class team and solidify our leadership globally. The company is now in a position to take on new challenges with an expanded leadership team.”

He added, “We have added four highly talented regional senior vice presidents (SVPs) to complement the strong leadership we already have in Africa and Europe, who together will accelerate our growth of Thunes across the different regions where we operate. And I’m glad to highlight that half of our global SVPs now are women, as diversity in the workplace can only strengthen us as a company.”

Manila, Philippines – Live-streaming platform kumu in the Philippines has appointed Anand Roy, former regional director of music and live entertainment for SEA at Disney, as its new senior vice president for strategy and international.

Roy brings with him more than 17 years of experience from Disney and has mainly worked with international markets.

Roy shared that he first heard about the platform from Open Space Ventures, one of the company’s investors, and at that time, was feeling quite unhappy with the state of social media generally, but with Kumu, he viewed the business as brimming with positivity, optimism, and community.

Roy believes in the field of entertainment and technology,and that there has never been a better time to be in the international marketplace than today.

“In many ways, this should have been what social media is about—bringing out the best of humanity, and not what we are seeing right now. Social media should not be dividing and polarising society. The basic, most vital ingredients are already in place here at kumu,” said Roy.

He added, “What I’m hoping to add to the team is that pursuit of excellence, and an ambition to be the best in the world in what we’re doing. That’s the recipe for global success.”

Rexy Dorado, kumu’s president and co-founder, commented, “We’ve always looked up to Disney as a reference for their work in media, entertainment, and the business of inspiring love and imagination. We’re excited for Anand to tap into his experience leading Disney’s music and content efforts in the region in pursuit of our growing ambitions.”

Singapore – The global customer experience orchestration company, Genesys, has just announced two new senior appointments, to reaffirm the importance of APAC as a growth market for the company.

The key senior hires are Assaf Tarnopolsky, the new senior vice president and general manager for APAC, and Stephen Hamill, the new vice president for ASEAN and South Asia.

Tarnopolsky will be driving cloud business momentum in APAC, which experienced strong growth in the fiscal year 2021. He brings with him more than 25 years of leadership experience to the role, including most recently as director of marketing solutions for SEA, North Asia, and Japan at LinkedIn, where he drove significant growth for the platform’s advertising business in Asia. Tarnopolsky’s past media and technology career highlights also include serving as the CEO of tech-news start-up Tecca.com, the vice president at Sony Pictures, and director of international business development at mobile-media pioneer MobiTV.

Meanwhile, Hamill will be responsible for business strategy and sales with a focus on accelerating the growth of Genesys in ASEAN and South Asia. He possesses more than two decades of expertise, having held senior leadership roles in APAC with technology firms such as Oracle and Adobe.

Commenting on his appointment, Tarnopolsky said that he looks forwards to being a part of Genesys at a pivotal point in its journey to assist businesses in their digital transformation journey.

Meanwhile, Hamill commented, “I am thrilled to be driving the next chapter of growth for Genesys and look forward to deepening our presence across the region.”

ML Maco, Genesys’ executive vice president for global sales and field operations, shared that customer experience has become a strategic differentiator as companies adopt cloud and digital technologies to meet customers’ evolving expectations, especially post-pandemic.

“I am confident with Genesys, they have the platform to transform customer interaction into an empathetic customer experience. The leadership of Assaf and Stephen will help APAC businesses realize the value of the vision we call ‘Experience as a Service’,” said Maco.

The appointments come after Gwilym Funnell’s elevation from Genesys’ head of Asia Pacific to global head of strategic growth, which is a newly created global role responsible for identifying new opportunities for the company to expand across new market segments and establish strategic partnerships.

New York, USA – To lead and accelerate the company’s growth in the Asia Pacific region, global conversational AI company LivePerson has recently appointed former Adobe executive Ian Kinsella as the company’s senior vice president for APAC.

Through his newly-found role, Kinsella will oversee LivePerson’s sales and customer success organization in APAC, expanding the company’s go-to-market strategy in the region as well as its team of sales and customer success experts. LivePerson partners with many of the region’s top brands-including mobile operators, insurers, banking and financial services institutions, retailers, and more-to provide AI-powered marketing, sales, and care experiences to their customers.

Prior to joining LivePerson, he led Adobe’s Digital Experience business across APAC, with responsibility for commerce and customer journey management solutions. Kinsella came to Adobe through its acquisition of the e-commerce platform Magento, where he led the APAC business. Previously, he served as vice president at SAP, leading the customer experience & commerce business in APAC and managing a portfolio of sales, service, marketing, and e-commerce solutions.

Kinsella also spent more than a decade as an entrepreneur, bootstrapping start-ups in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. He has lived in the region for over 20 years and currently resides in Sydney, Australia.

“I’m thrilled to join LivePerson at this critical moment. Now that APAC consumers use mobile devices as their primary tool to connect with brands, we see a massive opportunity to help more of the region’s top brands offer and scale AI-powered conversations on their preferred channels, from WeChat to LINE, WhatsApp, and in-app messaging,” said Kinsella, regarding his appointment.

Meanwhile, Rob LoCascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson, commented, “With billions of mobile users, the Asia-Pacific region offers incredible opportunities for LivePerson. Bringing Ian on board catalyzes our APAC operation to partner with even more of the region’s signature brands to deliver our global vision for conversational AI’s transformation of commerce and care. I’m excited to welcome him to our executive team.”

Singapore – DoubleVerify (DV), the global software platform for digital media measurement, data, and analytics, has announced the appointment of James Cashmore as its new senior vice president of global client and agency partnerships.

Cashmore brings with him 25 years of experience in the digital industry. He previously worked as the global client partner director for Google APAC in Tokyo, where he led a team that worked with some of the largest technology and automotive global brands. Prior to Google, Cashmore also held positions at technology content publishing companies VNU and Ziff Davis.

In his new role, Cashmore will be leading a newly-formed team called ‘Global Client and Agency Partnerships’ (GCAP), which focuses on addressing the holistic needs of top global brands, agencies, and consultancies. He will be based in London and will report directly to Julie Eddleman, the EVP and chief commercial officer of DoubleVerify.

The GCAP team will be responsible for cultivating relationships with DV’s largest global customers, offering end-to-end leadership and coordination with local markets, and ensuring seamless delivery of DV’s comprehensive solutions. The team will also be structured and empowered to offer vertical expertise, best practices, and industry thought leadership, as well as to negotiate new and existing global deals on behalf of DV. Furthermore, the team will be leveraging close customer feedback loops to serve as the upstream input for the product roadmap and resource allocation guidance.

Commenting on his appointment, Cashmore said, “I’m thrilled to join DV at such a pivotal point in its growth journey. I look forward to applying my extensive industry experience to help strengthen our leadership position globally, as the company expands its commercial footprint and continues to deliver best-in-class solutions across the digital ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, CEO of DoubleVerify, Mark Zagorski shared that Cashmore is the ideal choice to spearhead the new Global Client and Agency Partnerships team, under the leadership of Eddleman.

“As Julie continues to take steps to evolve our commercial structure and strategy, James’ previous industry and leadership experience make him a well-suited addition. He is tasked with developing the infrastructure and processes essential for this team’s success, as we deliver a seamless experience throughout the customer lifecycle,” said Zagorski.

Singapore – Marketing cloud company InMobi has announced the appointment of Krista Thomas as senior vice president and global head of marketing for its InMobi Marketing Cloud Division.

She brings in 20 years in the media and marketing industries to dramatically expand InMobi Marketing Cloud’s global awareness and influence, optimize customer acquisition, and launch innovative new solutions that leverage InMobi’s end-to-end advertising solutions to activate audiences, drive meaningful connections, and ignite growth.

Thomas is previously the SVP for marketing of advertising platform Amobee where she helped define the company’s TV-first strategy, help build a world-class marketing discipline, and relaunch the brand’s positioning and messaging in support of its CTV Allocator solution.

She also served as SVP for marketing of software company VideoAmp and asn VP for product marketing of Rubicon Project (now Magnite) which she helped go public in 2014 and where she collaborated closely with InMobi to launch and drive the adoption of programmatic mobile and video advertising around the world.

Speaking about her appointment, Krista said, “InMobi Marketing Cloud has delivered steady growth around the world, extending its lead as a top three mobile advertising provider and the only one fully committed to transparency and an open media ecosystem.”

She added, “As vaccines continue to roll-out and doors reopen, businesses everywhere are seeking partners that can help them re-engage and reignite their audiences to take or defend market share. InMobi is that partner, and now is the time.”

Meanwhile, Abhay Singhal, co-founder of InMobi Group and CEO at InMobi Marketing Cloud commented, “As InMobi builds toward its next phase of growth, we are thrilled to welcome Krista to the executive team as InMobi Marketing Cloud’s first Global Head of Marketing. She will play an instrumental role in advancing our mission to drive real connections between brands and consumers through intelligent, mobile-first experiences.”