Tech Luminaries Leave Google and Microsoft to Create the New Generation of Enterprise Software at Hearsay Social

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Hearsay Social®, provider of the world's most trusted social sales and marketing platform, today announced that it has named founding executive of Google Enterprise and Silicon Valley luminary Michael Lock as its chief operating officer. Additionally, Mark Gilbert, a Microsoft Corporation veteran with an extensive history of leading successful product teams, has been named the company's vice president of product. Lock and Gilbert will bring their experience in leading world-class teams and products at Google and Microsoft to execute on Hearsay Social's one-of-a-kind vision to power every business-to-customer relationship on social media.

Lock brings to Hearsay Social over 25 years of experience in technology sales and marketing including 15 years within large technology organizations such as IBM and Oracle. Most recently, he served eight years with Google building the company's enterprise arm into a $1B business with products now considered industry-standard, such as Gmail and Google Drive.

Similarly, Gilbert brings more than 15 years of enterprise and consumer product design experience to Hearsay Social, having served as head of product for a variety of key business units at Microsoft including System Center, Visual Studio, and Bing; driving technical and product strategy for Microsoft's $17 billion server and tools business; and building out Microsoft's product presence in Europe and Asia.

Having spent the past decade building the largest SaaS businesses in the industry, Lock and Gilbert will now be directing their efforts to helping companies embrace the power of social sales and marketing. Focused not on cost reduction but on using new technology to provide top line revenue growth, Hearsay Social allows enterprises to exploit the most powerful form of communication of our time: social media.

Comments on the news:

"Michael Lock and Mark Gilbert are world-class leaders and incredible technology visionaries who created products loved by millions," said Hearsay Social CEO Clara Shih. "Their leadership and breadth of enterprise product experience will drive transformational innovation for the industry and Hearsay Social's customers."

Hearsay Social COO Michael Lock said, "I am excited to join Clara and her team to enable enterprises to take advantage of social media. At Google Enterprise, we were the first to bring widely adopted consumer technologies to the corporate world. At Hearsay Social, our mission is similar: to allow corporations to leverage existing social networks, originally envisioned as consumer technologies, and enable those companies to build meaningful customer relationships that drive top line revenue."

"Hearsay Social is a disruptive force of innovation for the enterprise," said Mark Gilbert, vice president of product, Hearsay Social. "I am thrilled to join a company of bold thinkers and entrepreneurs, and to bring the frenetic social media innovation of Silicon Valley to Fortune 500 organizations in a way that drives productivity and delivers ROI."

About the Hearsay Social Platform

For enterprises with large sales organizations or store networks, Hearsay Social's social sales and marketing software will enable your salespeople to increase revenue using social media by acquiring and continuously engaging customers on social platforms. Hearsay Social is the only software that increases revenue, referrals, and renewals by transforming the entire enterprise into a social business, including sales, marketing, compliance, and HR.

• Hearsay Social Sales Module for easy social media page and profile management for non-technical sales users, one-click publishing of content and campaigns provided by corporate marketing teams, and intuitive personal analytics.
• Hearsay Social Marketing Module for the sophisticated needs of social media marketing teams. Manage hundreds of corporate social media pages and review thousands of sales-managed pages. Easily manage thousands of apps and posts per day and suggest engaging content to employees, stores, or branches. Now including Content Exchange to discover, curate, and share content from content partners.
• Hearsay Social Compliance Module for regulatory compliance infraction monitoring, capturing, archiving, and Rogue Page Finder.
• Hearsay Social Enterprise IT Module including single sign-on (SSO), LDAP directory integration, and integration with CA Siteminder and HP Autonomy to deliver security, compliance, ease of use, and scale.

About Hearsay Social

The world's largest companies, including Northwestern Mutual, Thrivent Financial, Farmers Insurance Group, and 24 Hour Fitness, use Hearsay Social's award-winning technology platform to achieve regulatory compliance, build stronger customer relationships, and bolster their brand across all the major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and foursquare. Hearsay Social, a SIFMA strategic partner, has raised $21M from Sequoia Capital, NEA, and top executives from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and YouTube, and is headquartered in Silicon Valley with dedicated local presences in New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, London, and Paris.

Hearsay Social Blog: hearsaysocial.com/blog

Facebook: facebook.com/hearsaysocial

Twitter: @HearsaySocial

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/hearsay-social

Google+: http://plus.google.com/+HearsaySocial

Editorial Contact:
Virginia Nicoletti
408.655.5005
[email protected]

SOURCE Hearsay Social