Former Salesforce Executive Brings SaaS Expertise, Proven Management
of Growth to Leadership Team
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today announced the appointment of Elena
Gomez, former senior vice president of finance and strategy at
Salesforce, as its new chief financial officer. She replaces Alan Black,
who served as Zendesk’s CFO since 2011 and earlier announced his plans
to leave the company once his replacement was found.
“Elena represents a rare breed of finance leader who combines
unparalleled knowledge of the SaaS business model with a proven ability
to build teams and partner with business leaders,” said Mikkel Svane,
Zendesk chairman, CEO and founder. “Her experience in managing growth
across enterprise sales and multiple products will serve us well as we
seek to become a $1 billion revenue company in 2020.”
During her five years at Salesforce, Gomez helped build a world-class
finance operation. She most recently managed the finance and strategy
organization supporting the company’s largest revenue-generating teams.
Gomez brings proven experience in managing global growth and scaling
finance operations for a multibillion dollar company to Zendesk as it
broadens its enterprise reach and expands its product portfolio.
“Zendesk is an exceptional company that is transforming how companies
build better customer relationships,” Gomez said. “I’ve admired the
company from a distance and now am excited to join Mikkel and the
leadership team in building its next phase of growth.”
Throughout her two-decade career in finance at Fortune 500 companies
including Visa and Charles Schwab, Gomez has built a track record of
strategic financial leadership and accomplishment.
Reporting to Svane, Gomez will lead Zendesk’s global finance and
accounting team. Gomez’s appointment as Chief Financial Officer will be
effective immediately following the filing of the company’s Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, which is
expected to be on or before May 6, 2016.
About Zendesk
Zendesk provides a customer service platform designed to bring
organizations and their customers closer together. With more than 69,000
paid customer accounts, Zendesk’s products are used by organizations in
150 countries and territories to provide support in more than 40
languages. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, Zendesk
has operations in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and South
America. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.
Source: Zendesk, Inc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, among
other things, statements regarding Zendesk’s future financial
performance, its continued investment to grow its business, and progress
towards its long-term financial objectives. The words such as “may,”
“should,” “will,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “target,”
“project,” and similar phrases that denote future expectation or intent
regarding Zendesk’s financial results, operations and other matters are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. You should not rely
upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.
The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements
is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors
that may cause Zendesk’s actual results, performance, or achievements to
differ materially, including (i) adverse changes in general economic or
market conditions; (ii) Zendesk’s ability to adapt its customer service
platform to changing market dynamics and customer preferences or achieve
increased market acceptance of its platform; (iii) Zendesk’s expectation
that the future growth rate of its revenues will decline, and that as
its costs increase, Zendesk may not be able to generate sufficient
revenues to achieve or sustain profitability; (iv) Zendesk’s limited
operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate its prospects
and future operating results; (v) Zendesk’s ability to effectively
manage its growth and organizational change; (vi) the market in which
Zendesk operates is intensely competitive, and Zendesk may not compete
effectively; (vii) the development of the market for software as a
service business software applications; (viii) Zendesk’s ability to sell
its live chat software as a standalone service and more fully integrate
its live chat software with its customer service platform; (ix)
Zendesk’s ability to sell its analytics software as a standalone service
and to integrate its analytics software with its customer service
platform; (x) breaches in Zendesk’s security measures or unauthorized
access to its customers’ data; (xi) service interruptions or performance
problems associated with Zendesk’s technology and infrastructure; (xii)
real or perceived errors, failures, or bugs in its products; (xiii)
Zendesk’s substantial reliance on its customers renewing their
subscriptions and purchasing additional subscriptions; and (xiv)
Zendesk’s ability to effectively expand its sales capabilities.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also
subject to additional risks, uncertainties, and factors, including those
more fully described in Zendesk’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2015.
Forward-looking statements represent Zendesk’s management’s beliefs and
assumptions only as of the date such statements are made. Zendesk
undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made
in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date
of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of
unanticipated events, except as required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160502005282/en/
Source: Zendesk, Inc.