Freshworks Expands Leadership Team with Strategic Hires Focused on Customer Experience and Go to Market Growth

Rhea-AI Summary

Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) has announced the appointment of three new senior vice presidents to enhance its go-to-market leadership team. The new executives include Shafiq Amarsi, SVP of GTM Strategy and Operations, Murali Krishnan, SVP of Customer Experience, and Doug Farber, SVP of Global Channels and Alliances. Each brings extensive experience from leading technology companies, aimed at leveraging market opportunities in SaaS solutions for customer support, IT, and sales teams. Freshworks aims to deliver impactful, cost-effective software solutions that drive customer satisfaction and retention, as stated by President Dennis Woodside.

Positive

• Addition of three experienced SVPs enhances leadership team.
• Executives have proven track records in customer growth and success.
• Focus on maximizing demand for multi-product SaaS solutions.
• Strategic leadership expected to improve customer engagement and retention.

Negative

• None.

SAN MATEO, Calif., March 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) today announced the addition of three new senior vice presidents to the go-to-market leadership team to capture demand for its multi-product SaaS solutions serving customer support, IT, marketing and sales teams. As companies seek greater value for their IT spend, Freshworks provides enterprise software for customer and employee facing teams that provide rapid impact and lasting value at a reasonable price.

The new set of go-to-market leaders were hired to seize this opportunity and include SVP of GTM Strategy and Operations Shafiq Amarsi, SVP of Customer Experience Murali Krishnan, and SVP of Global Channels and Alliances Doug Farber.

“We have an audacious vision at Freshworks to help millions of companies delight their employees and customers around the world. Today’s market offers a unique opportunity to help companies everywhere reshape their customer and employee experiences with efficient software that’s easy-to-use, powerful and cost-effective. Our newest go-to-market executives come with proven track records of delivering customer growth and customer success at a massive scale. Together with our existing GTM leadership team, we believe they will help us move closer to achieving our vision and building an enduring, profitable software company,” said President Dennis Woodside.

Shafiq Amarsi, senior vice president of go-to-market strategy and operations, will oversee sales and marketing operations, strategy and program management, sales enablement and IT. Shafiq spent the last 8 years at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he led the worldwide sales strategy, operations & enablement teams. At Amazon, Shafiq helped the company achieve hyper-growth by building a world-class, multi-billion dollar GTM organization. Before AWS, he spent 16 years at Microsoft where he began as an enterprise strategy architect, went on to hold several sales leadership roles in the US and internationally, and eventually led Microsoft’s global sales and solutions strategy.

Shafiq said, “Freshworks is a strong match for my expertise in scaling systems, tools, mechanisms and enablement to create world-class GTM teams. Together we will help companies around the world embrace a powerful yet simple tech stack to create amazing customer engagement experiences.”

Murali Krishnan, senior vice president of customer experience, will oversee customer support, onboarding and digital expansion. In his most recent role at Sprinklr, Murali helped set up the Customer Delight organization, which focused on post-sales customer lifecycle management, including retention and upsell for Sprinklr customers. Before Sprinklr, Murali was the Global Innovation leader for EY Global Delivery Service, and before that served as a VP of Services at Dell-EMC leading business transformation and social media support.

Murali said, “Freshworks is well-positioned with an energetic customer-first support team focused on retention and expansion. By staying true to who Freshworks is at the core - delivering fast, long-lasting value to our customers - we will be able to thrive.”

Shafiq and Murali join the executive leadership team reporting to Freshworks’ CEO Girish Mathrubootham and to President Dennis Woodside along with Chief Marketing Officer Stacey Epstein, Chief Product Officer Prakash Ramamurthy, Chief Financial Officer Tyler Sloat, Chief Legal Officer Pam Sergeeff, Chief Human Resources Officer Suman Gopalan, and acting Chief Revenue Officer Pradeep Rathinam.

Doug Farber joins the company as senior vice president of global channels and alliances. He will oversee North America, LatAm, APMEA and European Partner and Alliances teams, the “Freshworks for Startups” program, and our global technology and independent software vendor (ISV) partnerships. Doug was most recently Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances at Elastic. Before that he held multiple roles at Google Cloud over 8 years, including Senior Director of Global Business Development and Managing Director of JPAC. Prior to that he spent nine years at Salesforce, where, as one of the first 50 employees, he held foundational roles, including as VP of APAC Operations. Doug also has worked at Oracle and Accenture. He will report to Pradeep Rathinam, acting CRO at Freshworks.

Doug said, “Freshworks’ partner strategy has matured beyond relationships with traditional resellers and I can't wait to see where we can invest more with leading technology vendors and uplevel our partnership model to accelerate global expansion.”

About Freshworks Inc.
Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) makes business software people love to use. Purpose-built for IT, customer support, and sales and marketing teams, our products empower the people who power business. Freshworks is fast to onboard, priced affordably, built to delight, yet powerful enough to deliver critical business outcomes. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks operates around the world to serve more than 60,000 customers including Allbirds, Blue Nile, Bridgestone, Databricks, Klarna, NHS, OfficeMax, and PhonePe. For the freshest company news visit www.freshworks.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

© 2023 Freshworks Inc. All Rights Reserved. Freshworks and its associated logo is a trademark of Freshworks Inc. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any first parties of Freshworks Inc. or any aspect of this press release.

Investor Relations Contact:
Joon Huh
ir@freshworks.com
650-988-5699

Media Relations Contact:
Jayne Gonzalez
pr@freshworks.com
408-348-1087

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bc8abb5e-f742-49cf-8280-dca64a4ebd95

 

FAQ

What recent leadership changes has Freshworks announced?

Freshworks announced the hiring of three new senior vice presidents to strengthen its go-to-market leadership team.

Who are the new executives at Freshworks?

The new executives are Shafiq Amarsi (SVP of GTM Strategy and Operations), Murali Krishnan (SVP of Customer Experience), and Doug Farber (SVP of Global Channels and Alliances).

What is the goal of Freshworks with the new appointments?

The goal is to capture market demand for its SaaS solutions and enhance customer experience and engagement.

What experience do the new SVPs bring to Freshworks?

They each have extensive backgrounds in customer success and sales leadership, having worked at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google Cloud.