Planful has announced that Melissa Dreuth has been promoted to the dual role of Chief Customer & People Officer. She previously served as Chief People Officer and Chief of Staff to the CEO. The position of Chief Customer Officer became vacant when Kimberley Simms left the company in October. Simms is now Go-To-Market and Commercial Excellence at TPG after four years at Planful.
In her new role Dreuth will add the responsibility for all customer-facing functions, Business Operations. She will continue to lead the people function.
Grant Halloran, CEO of Planful, commented, “Mel has played a vital role in Planful’s transformation and rapid expansion in recent years, overseeing growth in our workforce by 35% last year while maintaining our award-winning culture. Her ability to execute with precision and inspire teams has helped elevate Planful into a market leader. In this expanded role, she will bring that same focus and energy to our customer-facing teams, as well as further enhancing our internal use of AI.”
Who is Melissa Dreuth
Dreuth joined Planful (formerly Host Analytics) in 2019 as SVP of People and Culture and was promoted to Chief People Officer and Chief of Staff to the CEO in 2021.
Unusually for a Chief People Officer, her background is not just in HR. At Infor, she led a global product support and customer success team. She joined Infor after it acquired Orbis Global where she had been Chief of Staff to the CEO. At Orbis Global, she helped recruit and train Sales, Customer Success and Support staff for San Francisco, Sydney and London offices.
After Infor, she joined Base CRM as Operations Manager before rising to the role of Director of People & Business Operations. When Zendesk acquired Base CRM, she joined Betts Recruiting as VP of People and Business Operations.
Dreuth has a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Africa and attended the Executive LEAD program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
On LinkedIn, she commented, “I’m incredibly honored to step into the role of Chief Customer & People Officer at Planful.
“Since joining Planful in 2019, my focus has always been on people—our employees, our customers, and our partners. We’ve built an award-winning culture, scaled our global teams, and helped organizations transform their financial performance. Now, I’m excited to bring that same energy to our Customer Success teams, ensuring that our customers continue to feel just as supported and empowered as our employees do.
“Huge thanks to Grant Halloran for the trust and opportunity and to the entire Planful team.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
The significant career advancement for Dreuth comes at an important time for Planful. At the start of this year the firm was a winner in the inaugural application innovation awards. It was recognised for Financial Reporting, Financial Close Management, and FCCR. At its Perform24 conference, it launched the Planful Solution Hub as well as numerous product enhancements that drove automation, collaboration and innovation across its platform.
Planful will no doubt announce a raft of new enhancements at Perform25 in Miami from May 12 – 15 or London from June 4 – 5. Dreuth may also take centre stage to share her vision of customer success at Planful.
