Appointment brings industry veteran in CRM and cloud to the Artesian team as it establishes itself as a leader in the Social CRM market
Artesian Solutions (“Artesian”), a leading provider of cloud-based Social CRM and brand surveillance software, has today announced the election of Dr. Steve Garnett as chairman of its board of directors. This follows a recent announcement from Artesian that it has secured £2m in Series A financing from Octopus.
Garnett is chairman of Europe at salesforce.com and has had one of the most distinguished careers of any European executive in the technology industry. Garnett has been a member of the executive management team of three software startups that include some of the most successful software companies in history.
Garnett started his career joining Oracle Corporation prior to its IPO in 1986, working in various technical and sales positions, including director of UK sales as well as vice president of European marketing & alliances. He was at Oracle Corporation for 12 years as the company grew to become the world’s 2nd largest software company.
Garnett joined Siebel Systems in 1997 as vice president of Europe and a member of the Founder’s Circle. From 100 employees, the company grew in eight years to become the world’s 5th largest software company with 8,000 employees and a $60b market capitalisation at its peak.
After spending nearly 20 years in high-profile roles at both Oracle Corporation and Siebel Systems, Garnett was selected to head European operations and become part of the executive team at salesforce.com, and helped to take the company public in 2004, resulting in a market capitalisation that has been as high as $20bn. Garnett was recently named in the top 50 most influential Britons in technology by the Daily Telegraph.
Throughout his career, Garnett has been committed to using his resources to produce positive social change for under-served children. He is a board member at Teach First, an organisation focused on eradication of educational disadvantage by getting young top-flight graduates to spend two years teaching in the UK’s most problematic inner-city schools. Garnett has a degree in mathematics and a doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Manchester, and holds a number of professional affiliations and board positions.
Andrew Yates, Artesian’s chief executive officer and co-founder said:
“As chairman of our board of directors, Dr. Steve Garnett will help steer and support Artesian’s ambitious plans. His proven experience in transforming early stage businesses into some of the world’s most successful software companies will be hugely beneficial to us, and also our customers. There are many challenges associated with scaling-up a business – especially when you are already experiencing 200% year-on-year growth – so I’m delighted that Dr. Garnett will help guide Artesian during this very exciting era of Social Business.”
Dr. Steve Garnett said:
“Artesian is certainly the company to watch in the Social CRM software space. I have watched the company grow, establish a large number of customers very quickly and deliver significant customer success, a key attribute of a SaaS business. I’m very confident in Artesian’s future, as it is clear to me the business delivers commercially valuable insight that can change the way large UK enterprises engage with their customers, for the better. I’m excited by Artesian’s vision, its team and I am really looking forward to helping the company on its journey.”
