Heather Cook (Seismic)
Former Dell business veteran Heather Cook has been named as the new Asia Pacific vice president for sales and marketing enablement platform provider Seismic, as the company looks to further drive its regional expansion.
Cook has previously held executive management roles at a range of technology companies, including Hootsuite, at which she was APAC general manager, Marketo (now part of Adobe), Oracle and Dell, where she was, for a time, enterprise operations lead for Asia Pacific and Japan.
Seismic said that Cook brings to her new role leadership, coaching and business transformation experience in the technology industry – across APAC, North America and European markets.
“Heather has an impressive record of growing markets within a business, nurturing high-performing teams, and championing diversity,” said Doug Winter, Seismic co-founder and CEO. “This level of experience, combined with Heather’s in-depth understanding of marketing technology buyers and trends will be critical to Seismic’s success as we enter the next phase of growth in A/NZ and Asia.
“More importantly, Heather’s expertise will immediately add value to our customers transforming their sales and marketing capabilities to thrive in this digital-first world,” he added.
Broadly, Cook is charged with driving Seismic’s continued expansion and growth in Australia and New Zealand as well as key Asian markets.
Cook’s focus will be on orchestrating business operations and leading the team in delivering exceptional customer experiences in these regions. She will collaborate with Seismic’s regional team and alliance partners to expand its customer base in A/NZ while spearheading future growth in Asia.
“Governments across Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore have announced commitments towards building digital economies, helping their workforces acquire digital skills and supporting local businesses in adopting technologies,” said Cook. “I have always been passionate about helping companies transform their businesses with emerging technologies.
“It is an exciting time to join the team because Seismic provides the opportunity to play a key role in the digitisation journey and talent upskilling of companies. With its automation, AI and data analytics capabilities, the platform helps sales and marketing teams gain in-depth understanding of customers to inform business strategies.
“Furthermore, turbulent market conditions have tempted many companies across Asia Pacific to apply band-aids to the operational effectiveness of their frontline teams, without a long-term view of the domino effect it could have on customer experience. Research found that 57 per cent of customers have stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience.
“Uniting sales, marketing and services capabilities using technology to excel in customer experience becomes crucial for businesses to stay competitive and resilient in this volatile environment,” she added.
In late 2019, Seismic geared up for an assault on the local market after bulking up its Asia Pacific (APAC) team.
Sarah Hayward, a fintech specialist and former head of Calastone, joined as senior director for global accounts in A/NZ, and James Shands, who has a background that included Qrious and Ricoh NZ, came on board as senior director for enterprise sales A/NZ.
The pair joined the vendor’s then recently-appointed director of partner and alliances for APAC, Hydar Al Ammar, a former KPMG veteran, who joined the company earlier that year, and Richard Kulkarni, former Qualtrics enterprise sales director, who stepped in to join Seismic as vice president for APAC in April 2019.
Cook replaces Kulkarni in the company's APAC leadership role.
