Paddle, the complete payments infrastructure for SaaS companies, today announces it has appointed Rob Fletcher as its new Chief Customer Officer, and hired Emilie Bierschenk as VP of Global Demand Generation and Rob Konowalchuk as VP of Risk and Compliance.
The three senior appointments follow a landmark year in which Paddle raised a $200m funding round and acquired US startup ProfitWell.
Incoming CCO Rob Fletcher brings over twenty years of experience growing software businesses. Like COO Jimmy Fitzgerald, he joins Paddle from ServiceNow, where he was responsible for defining the company’s Customer Success strategy globally, as well as leading ServiceNow’s services division across Europe. Prior to ServiceNow, Fletcher was at Hewlett Packard for just under a decade, where he led the company’s EMEA SAP business. At Paddle, Rob will join the Executive Committee and head up the company’s implementation, customer success and customer support teams.
In line with its international expansion, Paddle has also appointed Emilie Bierschenk as VP of Global Demand Generation, based in Denver, Colorado. A seasoned digital marketing executive, Bierschenk joins Paddle from Quantum Metric, where she was Senior Director of Revenue Marketing and was responsible for building the company’s global demand, digital, marketing operations and business development teams.
Finally, Rob Konowalchuk joins Paddle as VP of Risk and Compliance, bringing twenty years of experience across three continents. Born in Canada and based in London, Konowalchuk previously headed up enterprise risk management at high-growth fintech Revolut, and is a former director at PwC. He will focus on building a slick, innovative and robust risk management function at Paddle, putting in place the processes and frameworks to enable Paddle to safely move into the next stages of its growth journey.
Rob Fletcher, Chief Customer Officer said: “The $100bn SaaS revolution has unlocked limitless opportunities to make a better working world for everyone, and there’s never been a greater need for SaaS-powered digital transformation around the globe. But there’s also never been more competition within the software industry. Paddle has an unparalleled ability to help SaaS companies differentiate themselves and grow in this market, and I fell in love with the team’s mission of empowering software companies by removing the traditional barriers to growth. It’s the perfect time to join a company at the very forefront of SaaS innovation, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Christian Owens, CEO and co-founder of Paddle, said: “This year has already been a milestone year for Paddle, which I’m beyond proud of. We raised our Series D funding round - achieving unicorn status - and acquired ProfitWell, a company myself and co-founder Harrison dreamed of working with nearly a decade ago. And as we begin the next stage of our journey and continue our global expansion, we’re delighted to bring onboard Rob as CCO - with his track record leading some of the world’s most successful software businesses - as well as critical hires Emilie and Rob Konowalchuk to bolster our marketing and compliance efforts across the US and UK.”
Paddle is used by over 3,000 software companies in more than 200 markets worldwide to manage the likes of their checkout, payments, subscriptions and taxes. The company recently announced its $200m acquisition of US subscription metrics firm Profitwell, aimed at integrating ProfitWell’s tools into the Paddle platform to offer an all-in-one ‘do it for you” offering for SaaS businesses worldwide. These new hires follow the appointment of ProfitWell’s Patrick Campbell as CSO and Facundo Chamut as CPO, as Paddle strengthens its senior leadership team ahead of the next stage of its global expansion.