SER has announced the appointment of John David as its new Chief Revenue Officer. David has over 25 years of experience in sales and over fifteen years in sales leadership roles. His appointment signals a strategic move for SER Group to accelerate its growth in EMEA, North America and the rest of the world. David has extensive experience in scaling software companies, mainly in the US. Though he also built up the sales operation in Asia at Macrovision.
The appointment comes a few months after TA Associates (“TA”) made a strategic growth investment in SER Group. SER has over 600 employees across 22 offices in 11 countries throughout EMEA. Headquartered in Bonn, Germany this appointment signals its desire to expand its presence in the US market. It currently has a single office in Boston, it will be interesting to see whether it considers opening up more.
The move comes as SER wins awards for its Intelligent Content Automation solutions and Doxis. Doxis is its modern AI-powered Intelligent Content Automation offering. The recent Spark Matrix report named SAER as a distinguished leader. With IDC MarketScape for Intelligent Document Processing 2023 also naming it a leader.
David has experience in building and leading global sales operations. He has been tasked with building one in the US as SER aims to build on its established presence. David will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina and will have global responsibility.
Dr. John Bates, CEO of SER, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome John David to SER. John’s extensive experience and exceptional skills in building and scaling sales organizations make him the ideal leader to drive our revenue growth and expand our presence in North America, EMEA and beyond. His strategic vision and ability to foster high-performing sales teams will be invaluable as we continue to win North American clients and grow our substantial operations in EMEA.”
Who is John David?
David joins from Flexera/Revenera where he was Senior Vice President of Sales. In his most recent role, he was responsible for Flexera’s North American core new business and Global volume business. During his tenure, he increased monthly forecast variance to actual by 28% and seller productivity by 14% YOY.
David held leadership positions at Flexera/Revenera for fifteen years. He was VP of Global Sales and Renewals for Revenera, growing revenues from $78 to $117million over four years. That saw a $400 million increase in enterprise value. And led to a successful PE transaction from TA to Thoma Bravo. It might be that success which prompted TA to recommend him to Bates.
Prior to Flexera, he revived the Asia Pacific business as Macrovision. Based in Tokyo, he built partner communities and direct sales teams for Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. While the release did not specifically state this, is this an area that the SER Group might look to expand into?
David commented, “I am honored to join SER at such an exciting time in its growth journey. The company’s innovative solutions and strong market position provide an exciting platform for expansion. I look forward to working with the talented team at SER to develop and execute our strategy to accelerate revenue growth and deliver exceptional value to our clients around the world.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
To make a difference in the US, European Software vendors need to find the right leaders. Ones who can build a sales team and have the contacts to help deliver the revenue they expect. David is an individual who has proven that he can achieve growth. Even in trying circumstances and can also build sales teams.
At the moment, there are only two open positions in Boston, where the SER Group office in North America is located. One is in professional services and the second in pre-sales. Expect to see more in the coming weeks/months as David looks to build a team to accelerate the growth that the TA investment is fuelling.
