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Objective:
Zonar Systems is a leading telematics company that has developed a ground-breaking electronic inspection, tracking, and management solution for fleet operations worldwide. They are experiencing 100% year over year growth and very profitable.

Zonar retained the Laurel Group to find new VP of Customer Care to drive and scale their customer care organization worldwide. Zonar set out to find a candidate who has both domestic and international experience, has lead care organizations through massive scale, and has been involved in sophisticated supply chain and logistic challenges with off-shore manufacturing.

Solution:
The Laurel Group did a regional search with focus on the Puget Sound market. We identified and recruited Lance Pilkington out of Precor, a $450M manufacturer of fitness equipment. Lance was with Precor for 15 years having worked in a variety of key roles, including customer care, operations, and project management. He was most recently leading a global project to overhaul and improve Precor’s care organization. Lance started with Precor running their EMEA operations and customer care focusing on direct clients as well as their channel partners.

Investor Facts:
Zonar Systems is privately held.

Objective:
Mercent is a leading provider of online channel marketing technology and services for retailers. Through its award-winning Mercent Retail™ SAAS technology and Mercent Performance™ professional services, Mercent helps the world’s most successful online merchants including 1-800-Flowers, Bass Pro Shops, Brookstone, GUESS?, L'Occitane USA, Redcats Group, and REI optimize online shopping channel marketing campaigns to drive customer acquisition, revenues, profits, and inventory velocity.

Mercent retained the Laurel Group to find new VP of Agency Solutions to own and drive Mercent’s client services strategy and all day-to-day services operations. This person is responsible for the direction and management of all client service functions including client management best practices, team and talent management, team and customer training, and services process automation.

Solution:
The Laurel Group did a regional search with focus on the Pacific Northwest region. We identified and recruited Frank Kochenash. Frank joins Mercent from Razorfish where he created and built their Strategy and Analytics group. There he led a team of 21 strategists and analysts that was responsible from growing annual product revenue by 46%. Previous to Razorfish, Frank was at Amazon where he led the world wide text and digital ingestion operations. In this role, he managed the Kindle content operations and all of the content processing for Amazon’s Unbox and MP3 downloads. Before going to Amazon, Frank was at McKinsey as an Engagement Manager and Associate after serving 6 years in the Navy as both a Submarine Division Officer and Deputy Director of Operations.

Frank has a BS from the Naval Academy and a Master of Philosophy from the Imperial College of London.

Investor Facts:
Madrona Venture Group
The Hillman Company
TVC Capital

Objective:
Edifecs is the industry leader in providing real-time 'edge-of-the-enterprise' transaction interoperability solutions for improving business performance. Edifecs' solutions ensure compliance to improve data quality, enable governance through end-to-end proactive visibility and provide real-time business intelligence by leveraging and deriving business value from transactional data.

The Laurel Group was hired to find a Director of Product Marketing to create and manage all outbound messaging for Edifecs’ product portfolio. This person will be responsible for defining the strategic positioning and the value proposition of all their current and future products.

Solution:
The Laurel Group did a regional search focusing on the Pacific Northwest. We identified and recruited Lance Hood to the role. He comes to Edifecs from Epok, Inc. where he was the VP of Market Development. There he was responsible for all Product Marketing and Business Development efforts for this document management company. Previous to managing the business side of the organization, he was the COO following their acquisition of OneName. Lance’s experience in the document management business combined with his previous work at Health Systems Technology and Philips Medical Systems made him a very appropriate profile for Edifecs’ business.

Lance has a BA from the University of Puget Sound and a MBA from the University of Washington.

Investor Facts:
Edifecs is a private company and has been recognized as one of the 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies and 100 best places to work for in the state of Washington.

Objective:
Printronix, a leading developer, manufacturer and provider of industrial and back-office enterprise printing solutions for office/industrial marketplace and distribution supply chain. Its flagship products and services, including its full selection of thermal, laser and network solutions technologies, integrate seamlessly into networks by delivering unequaled control, unsurpassed diagnostic capabilities and marked cost efficiencies.

Printonix was acquired and taken private by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm in 2008

Printronix retained the Laurel Group to find them a new VP of Marketing & Product Management who has extensive experience building and running a complex marketing and product management group with focus on domestic and international channels. They were looking for someone with a nice combination of big company and small company experience that is strategic yet can roll up their sleeves and execute programs globally while running a full P&L.

Solution:
The Laurel Group did a national search with focus on the Southern California region. We identified and recruited Pendy Pendyala. Pendy joins the company from Hewlett-Packard where for the past 8 years he spent time at the VP level running business units, consumer support, and wireless & internet solutions. Most recently he was VP & GM of their Monochrome LaserJet Business based out of Shanghai, China. He led this $8B worldwide business with double-digit operating profit while transitioning the business from Boise, Idaho to Shanghai. Prior to HP, Pendy was EVP & COO of Mobility Electronics, a $35M start-up company that designs, develops, manufactures and distributes power products for the mobile electronics industry. He also spent time as GM of the Portable Products Group at Adaptec. Prior to Adaptec he spent 10 years at Seiko Instruments USA, where in his last role was VP & GM of their Compact Convenience Products which included an innovative product portfolio of computer products and solutions.

Pendy has his BS in Mechanical Engineering from IIT in Madras, India, an MBA from IIT in Calcutta, India, and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Investor Facts:
Printronix is owned by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.

Objective:
F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), retained the Laurel Group to find a world class VP of Sales to help them increase their Data Solutions revenue. The company has gone through tremendous growth over the last few years and with the acquisition of Acopia, they needed a proven sales executive from the data solutions space to drive this offering.

Solution:
The Laurel Group focused their efforts on direct competitors in the space with a geographic emphasis on the Northeast. We recruited and landed John Dionne as VP of Worldwide Data Solutions Sales.

In his new role, Dionne will be responsible for developing, executing, and overseeing a strategic sales focus on the F5®ARX® file virtualization solution portfolio. This appointment correspond to the company's view that market conditions are ideal for the value proposition that file virtualization solutions offer. The burgeoning growth of file-based data intensifies the need for organizations to better manage their data. Today's news follows the recent expansion of F5's ARX solution portfolio and further underscores the company's commitment to deliver market-leading file virtualization solutions.

Dionne comes to F5 from Polycom, Inc. where as VP, Worldwide Channels and Strategic Alliances he developed, implemented, and managed a global partner strategy that drove sales revenue growth by more than $1 billion. He has also held executive leadership positions at CA (formerly Computer Associates), Inc. and during his 11-year tenure at EMC. In each role, Dionne exhibited the ability to generate significant revenue growth and effectively lead sales and partnership teams.

Objective:
Splunk, the leading provider of large-scale, high-speed indexing and search technology for IT infrastructures, hired the Laurel Group to find a new Director of Product Marketing for their IT Infrastructure and Operations business. Their business is growing rapidly and they needed a product marketing candidate to assume this position and immediately help them monetize revenue through direct and indirect channels. This role reports into Steve Sommer their VP of Marketing, whom we placed in the company in 2008.

Solution:
The Laurel Group did a search with a focus on Silicon Valley. We identified and recruited Leena Joshi to the role. Leena comes from VMWare, where she had a strong track record of success and was most recently a Group Product Manager responsible for the GTM strategy for their vSphere product line. Prior to VMWare, she worked at Intel as an analyst and product manager. She started her professional career at Anderson Consulting after getting a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta. She has a BS in Computer Science from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute.

Investor Facts:
August Capital
Sevin Rosen Funds
JK&B Capital
Ignition Partners

Objective:
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. Parallels hired the Laurel Group to find a new Senior Director of Product Marketing for their Automation product line.

Solution:
The Laurel Group did a search with focus on the North West region. We identified and recruited Stelio D’Alo. Stelio brings nearly fifteen years of leadership experience in product and marketing roles for notable companies like, Rational, which was acquired by IBM, Fortify Software, and Opsware, which was acquired by HP. In his last role at HP, Stelio was responsible for the outbound product marketing of the their network management software business. Stelio graduated with honors in Computer Science from York University.

Investor Facts:
Intel Capital
Bessemer Venture Partners
Almaz Capital Partners