Kantata has confirmed three C-Suite appointments that it recently made. Vikas Nehru joined the firm in August as CTO with respoibility for engineering, support and the Kantata platform. He joins, replacing Ken Ringdahl who left the firm to become Chief Technology Officer at Emburse after eighteen months at Kantata.
Nehru will lead and accelerate the development of AI on the Kantata platform that will operate across both Kantata SX and Kantata OX. The two solutions are within its Professional Services Cloud platform. He will lead the efforts to drive new features that will “enhance decision-making, improve employee engagement, and deliver personalized experiences to clients.”
Kantata has also appointed Jeff Nicholson as Chief Marketing Officer. It brings to an end the strategy of combining Sales and Marketing in a single role. Chief Revenue Officer JD Miller has left the company, though his LinkedIn profile is not up to date. He has been removed from the Kantata leadership page, though. It appears that Jennifer Schutz, is currently leading the Sales operations function as SVP Business Operations. It is unclear when Kantata will find a permanent replacement to the CRO role.
Nicholson will bring a renewed focus for Kantata to capitalise on the opportunity within the professional services technology landscape. Will it change the messaging that obfuscates the two solutions that Kantata has in its arsenal?
The third appointment is perhaps the least surprising. Sarah Edwards is confirmed as the sole Chief Product Officer, a role that she shared with Jared Haleck for three years before his departure to join Suralink in July this year. Edwards joined Kimble Applications in 2013 and became Co-CPO in 2021 with Haleck after the merger with Mavenlink and its subsequent rebranding as Kantata. She will now oversee the global product strategy for the entire Kantata Professional Services Cloud.
Who is Vikas Nehru
Nehru has more than twenty years of experience creating and evangelizing B2B SaaS, Cloud, and AI solutions. Over the last couple of years, he has been working as an advisor in the role of Chief Product and Technology Officer to several startups. His last full-time role was with Acqueon as CTO. He has also held CTO roles at 3CLogic and Verint.
Nehru also spent nine years at KANA, the omnichannel customer engagement platform, leading product management, engineering and support. He has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from the University of Alberta.
Who is Jeff Nicholson
Nicholson joins having similarly been spending time working as an advisor, mainly to SpotLogic, a SaaS platform for driving greater sales outcomes for B2B sales forces. He had previously held the CMO role at Duetto and other senior marketing positions.
He has over 20 years of experience often in product marketing but latterly in a broader capacity. At Pegasystems he was the Global Leader of CRM strategy, having held the Interim GM for CRM position. His leadership experience includes stints at Kitewheel, Pitney Bowes, Portrait Software, Kronos, and Bottomline Technologies.
Nicholson has been tasked with bringing a fresh and compelling market vision to Kantata. It will be interesting to see how that develops in the coming months.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Has Michael Speranza, CEO of Kantata, found his dream team? Edwards has worked with Haleck over the last few years and will have gained valuable knowledge of the Kantata OX product and the new platform it is developing.
The three appointments are significant. They will need to work together closely to ensure that the messaging aligns with the product direction. Speranze commented, “Kantata’s leadership evolution is a strategic move to redefine how we meet and exceed the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace.
“With Vikas, Jeff, and Sarah leading key areas, we are positioned to anticipate market trends and shape them. This team will drive innovation that enables our customers to continue unlocking new success levels through innovative, AI-powered solutions and our customer-first product strategy.”
