Clari Appoints Industry Veterans to Board of Directors

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Clari, the mobile-first sales productivity platform that combines design and data science to help field sales teams drive more business, today announced its board of directors. Clari has built a board of trusted advisors with diverse backgrounds and a range of operating experience to help Clari power the sales teams behind industry-leading businesses. Joining CEO Andy Byrne and CTO Venkat Rangan on the Clari board are: Aaref Hilaly, partner at Sequoia Capital and former CEO of Clearwell Systems; Enrique Salem, former CEO of Symantec and Brightmail; and Mark Gainey, co-founder and CEO of Kana and Strava. The combined experience of these leaders spans information discovery and management; security and enterprise technology; and consumer, mobile and CRM products. Together, they have an established track record of building enterprise companies that have transformed how people do business.

"There is clearly a renewed focus on improving CRM – investors, pundits and people using the solutions all recognize that the current systems, though essential to business, have not kept up with the needs of large field sales teams," said Salem. "This has created a huge opportunity for innovation. By merging complex data science with mobile usability, Clari is on a rapid trajectory to disrupt the CRM space."

This news continues a momentous month for Clari. The company emerged from stealth on April 3, 2014 with $6 million in funding from Sequoia Capital to "address the two biggest challenges faced by every sales team: selling more product, and forecasting more accurately," according to board member and Sequoia partner, Hilaly.

At DEMO Enterprise, Clari announced the general availability of its sales productivity platform, which was already actively in use by sales teams at VMware, Juniper, Cisco, Box, and Nimble Storage. In the past few weeks, the company continues to broaden the relationships with those teams while bringing on additional leading enterprise companies to its roster.

"Today's CRM systems were not designed to improve sales productivity on the road. But Clari is solving this problem with a mobile app that sales people actually want to use," added Gainey. "Clari brings together the experience of a great consumer app with enterprise-grade functionality for a solution that is as powerful and effective as it is easy to use."

"We are working to solve real problems with a product people love to use while surrounding ourselves with tech industry veterans who share our vision," said Byrne. "Aaref, Enrique, and Mark provide complementary skill sets that elevate Clari to a new level. They bring a keen eye into the challenges enterprises face, expansive knowledge of sales processes and mobile technology, and a history of building successful companies from the ground up."

Clari's Board of Directors

Aaref Hilaly
As a partner at Sequoia, Hilaly works with enterprise, internet, and mobile companies. Prior to joining Sequoia in 2012, Hilaly served as CEO of Clearwell Systems, where he worked closely with Byrne and Rangan. He was also the founder and CEO of CenterRun, a pioneer in datacenter automation, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems.

Enrique Salem
Enrique Salem brings more than 25 years of executive leadership, business strategy, and board experience to Clari. Most recently, Salem served as president and CEO of Symantec, where he worked for 19 years in a variety of leadership roles. Prior to Symantec, he served as CEO of Brightmail and SVP of products and technology at Oblix and Ask Jeeves. In March 2011, Salem was appointed to President Barack Obama's Management Advisory Board.

Mark Gainey
Mark Gainey has been building successful companies for nearly 20 years. He currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of Strava, an online network that connects the global community of athletes. Founded in 2009, millions of athletes have joined Strava for the competition and camaraderie found in tracking and sharing their fitness activities. Gainey also founded Kana Communications, an enterprise software firm, in 1996 and served in various capacities, including CEO, president, and chairman.

Andy Byrne
Andy Byrne brings 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development and management to the board. Prior to Clari, Byrne was part of the founding executive team at Clearwell Systems, which he helped grow from pre-product and pre-revenue in 2005 to a $100 million run rate until its acquisition by Symantec in 2011 for $410 million. Byrne was also co-founder and CEO of Timestock, a pioneer in application performance management, which was acquired by Wily Technology.

Venkat Rangan
Venkat Rangan provides more than 30 years of technological innovation and leadership experience to his role as CTO. Before joining Clari, Rangan was the co-founder and CTO of Clearwell Systems, working alongside Andy Byrne. Rangan had previously served as vice president of technology at Rhapsody Networks, vice president and chief architect at VitalSigns Software, and held roles at Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

About Clari
Clari is the mobile-first sales productivity platform, combining mobile, design, and data science to help field sales teams drive more business, reduce manual reporting, and offer new levels of visibility into deal progress. Sales teams from VMware, Cisco, Box and Nimble Storage use Clari to know more, sell more and update less. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Clari is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. To get additional information, visit us at Clari.com, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

Media Contact:
Sarah Spitz
Bateman Group for Clari
[email protected]
347-382-9731

SOURCE Clari