NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diligent Corporation (NZX:DIL), the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based platform for the secure electronic production, distribution and collaboration of confidential information for boards, committees and leadership teams, today announced the appointment of Melinda Lee Ferguson as Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer. Ferguson brings a long track record of scaling multiproduct sales teams globally and deep expertise into the secure solutions that senior executives and leading companies rely on to run their businesses. She will report directly to Brian Stafford, President and CEO of Diligent. Ferguson will take the lead on driving the growth and efficiency of Diligent's global sales organization, transforming the organization into a multiproduct sales team and supporting client development.
"I'm pleased to welcome Melinda to our Diligent team as we enter into this exciting new phase of growth for the company. Melinda is a proven industry leader who has successfully built and led sales teams to outperform across a variety of regions and across multiple products," said Brian Stafford, President and CEO of Diligent. "As part of the Diligent leadership team, we're excited for Melinda to leverage her expertise in scaling our growth initiatives and supporting our transformation from a single product company with Diligent Boards to a multiproduct company with the addition of Diligent Teams."
Ferguson comes to Diligent from CA Technologies where she served more than 17 years in various sales and senior leadership roles, most recently as General Manager and SVP of UK and Ireland for the security and systems software provider. Ferguson's prior role at CA Technologies was SVP and Area General Manager of the Central US and Canada and SVP of North America Customer Portfolio Management.
"Diligent is leading the way in secure SaaS-based collaboration solutions and is used by more than 100,000 senior executives and board members who want compliant solutions to better communicate," Ferguson said. "I am excited to join the team at Diligent to scale its growth initiatives across multiple products and drive a winning sales culture that is aligned with Diligent's strong focus on customer success."
Ferguson joined CA Technologies in 1998 and worked her way through direct sales roles and sales leadership positions, taking on several regional leadership positions throughout North America, until she was elevated to her most recent role as the GM and SVP for CA Technologies' UK and Ireland business. During her career at CA Technologies, Ferguson won the prestigious CA Worldwide Sales Leader of the Year award. Ferguson graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business. She will be relocating from London to New York City to be based out of Diligent's headquarters.
About Diligent (NZX: DIL)
Diligent is the leading provider of secure corporate governance and collaboration solutions for boards and senior executives. Over 3,300 clients in more than 60 countries and on all seven continents rely on Diligent to provide secure, intuitive access to their most time-sensitive and confidential information, ultimately helping them make better decisions. The Diligent Boards (formerly Diligent Boardbooks) solution speeds and simplifies how board materials are produced, delivered and collaborated on via any device, removing the security concerns of doing this by courier, email and file sharing. Diligent is a publicly listed company (NZX:DIL) with nearly $US 100 million in annual recurring revenue, based on previously reported revenue retention rates. Visit www.diligent.com to learn more.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements made in this press release that state Diligent's or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that these statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. All forward looking-statements are only as of the date of this press release and Diligent undertakes no obligation to update or revise them. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause Diligent's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. For example, if we do not attract the most qualified and experienced employees our financial performance and revenue growth may suffer. Factors which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements include, without limitation, economic, competitive, regulatory and technological factors affecting Diligent Corporation's operations, markets, products, services and other factors set forth in the Company's Risk Factors included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 16, 2015.