As seen on WWD.
Mobile in-store platform provider Tulip Retail has added two positions to its executive suite: chief financial officer and chief revenue officer. The additions follow the company’s growth and global expansion.
Taking on the cfo role is Saeideh Fard. The chief revenue position is being filled by Deborah Surrette.
Fard previously served as group cfo at TravelEdge since 2015. Tulip said in a statement that she will be “responsible for managing Tulip’s financials and employee success, including financial planning and analysis, tax management, employee hiring, staff diversity and professional development.”
Prior to TravelEdge, Fard held executive positions at Marketwired and Sysomos. “Fard holds Canadian and U.S. CPA designations and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers,” the company noted. “She is a speaker and volunteer for several women in leadership organizations and holds a board of directors seat with JobSkills, a Canadian not-for-profit committed to advancing opportunities for underemployed citizens.”
Ali Asaria, Tulip’s chief executive officer, said Fard “understands the needs of a rapidly growing SaaS company, and has experience scaling global finance operations through multiple stages of growth.”
The ceo added that Fard also knows how to “optimize the use of venture capital funding and we will look to her to develop financial strategies that leverage the recent investments from Kleiner Perkins and Salesforce.com.”
Fard said Tulip is “reinventing retail with mobile apps that empower store workers.” She added that she is looking forward to “building a culture [at Tulip] that is committed to workplace diversity.”
For her part, Surrette will be “responsible for driving revenue for Tulip, including growing the sales organization, expanding globally, and building out the Tulip partner ecosystem.”
Asaria said Surrette’s “extensive experience in retail, SaaS, cloud, and mobile solutions at IBM and Sterling Commerce will add tremendous value to our team. She understands what it takes to expand globally and strengthen our network of technology partners.”
At IBM, Surrette led sales at the Watson Customer Engagement business “covering commerce, order management, marketing and supply chain solutions,” the company noted. At Sterling Commerce she served as senior vice president of global sales and operations.
Surrette said “retailers that are thriving today are bridging the online and in-store divide to deliver unified commerce, offering a memorable, convenient in-store experience.’
Tulip’s clients include Coach, Michael Kors and Kate Spade, among many others.
