Saba expands talent management expertise and deepens focus on customer success with the appointment of Pete Low, Karen Williams, and Debbie Shotwell to executive positions
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. and OTTAWA, Ontario, May 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Saba, a global leader in talent management and engagement, today announced the expansion of its executive team to include key leaders of Halogen Software. Pete Low, former Chief Financial Officer at Halogen, has been named Saba's CFO, and Karen Williams, previously Chief Product Officer at Halogen, has been appointed Saba's Executive Vice President of Customer Advocacy.
After finalizing their acquisition of Halogen Software on May 1, 2017, Saba is now one of the largest independent talent management providers in the world. With combined expertise and scale, Saba plans to help organizations meet their employees on new terms and achieve breakthrough business performance, by delivering a new generation of talent management innovation along with an unrivaled focus on customer growth and success. The appointment of Pete and Karen as key Halogen executives to the Saba leadership team signals the first step towards the realization of this mission.
To further amplify the company's focus on the intersection of employee engagement, culture and business value creation, Saba has also appointed Debbie Shotwell, talent management veteran and former human resources executive at Taleo and BigCommerce, as Saba's Chief People Officer.
"The combination of Saba and Halogen is going to be transformational in talent management, because it brings together two organizations who understand that innovation is important, but customer success is paramount," said Pervez Qureshi, CEO, Saba. "As executive leaders of the new Saba organization, Pete, Karen and Debbie bring proven leadership and deep expertise to the company, but more importantly, they will all play a critical role in unifying our teams, driving strategic value for our business, and helping us to deliver a truly unmatched experience to the customers we serve."
About Pete Low, Chief Financial Officer:
Pete Low will oversee Saba's finance and administration, legal, information technology, and security, risk and compliance functions. Pete served as CFO of Halogen Software for more than a decade and was instrumental in guiding Halogen through its Initial Public Offering on the TSX in May 2013, and the acquisition of Halogen by Saba in 2017. Prior to Halogen, Pete was a Managing Partner at Axis Capital Corporation, investing in early stage technology companies. He was actively involved in the strategic direction of many of the firm's portfolio companies, serving as either Chief Financial Officer or a Director for many of them. Prior to founding Axis, Pete was a Senior Tax Manager at Deloitte LLP, servicing its high technology clients. He has served on a number of boards and committees of for-profit and non-profit organizations, and was the recipient of Ottawa's Forty under 40 award in 2001.
About Karen Williams, Executive Vice President, Customer Advocacy:
Karen Williams will champion Saba's commitment to customer advocacy and satisfaction, and will oversee the customer support function for the company's more than 4,000 global customers. Karen is a tenured executive with leadership expertise spanning customer success, software development, and product management. At Halogen Karen served as Chief Product Officer, overseeing all facets of how Halogen's products were built and supported. A customer-focused product leader, she brings more than two decades of experience in the high tech industry to Saba. Prior to Halogen, Karen served as Vice President of the global Business Intelligence & Predictive Analytics Development team at IBM Software Group; and as Vice President of Customer Success and Support for the global IBM Business Analytics Support organization.
About Debbie Shotwell, Chief People Officer:
As Chief People Officer, Debbie Shotwell will expand Saba's people strategy, connecting employees and culture to business value. Debbie brings more than 25 years of experience building high-performance teams and creating cultures that deliver results. Before joining Saba, she served as Senior Vice President of People and Culture at BigCommerce, where she oversaw talent development, employee communications and total rewards programs. During her tenure as HR leader, BigCommerce was recognized as an employer of choice in San Francisco, Austin, and Australia. Prior to BigCommerce, Debbie was Chief People Officer at Good Technology where she implemented talent programs that increased employee engagement and reduced turnover. She was also instrumental in the successful integration of five companies during her tenure. Additionally, Debbie has held executive HR leadership positions at Taleo, PeopleSoft, and AvalonBay. She has also served on the board of directors of Pleasanton Partners in Education and 101 Best and Brightest.
About Saba
Saba delivers a cloud-based intelligent talent management and engagement solution used by leading organizations worldwide to hire, develop, engage, and inspire their people. With machine learning at its core, Saba Cloud offers proactive, personalized recommendations on candidates, connections and content to help employees and businesses lead and succeed. It is purpose-built on a highly scalable platform that exceeds industry security and reliability standards. Following the acquisition of Halogen Software, Saba has more than 4,000 customers and 33 million users across 195 countries. For more information, visit http://www.saba.com.
SOURCE Saba
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