Planet Expands Sales Leadership Team as It Prepares to Go Public
25 November 2021 - 1:00AM
Business Wire
Planet, a leading provider of daily data and insights about
Earth, today announced an expansion of its leadership team with the
addition of Michael Goldberg, Vice President of Sales Operations,
Debbie Queen, Vice President of Sales, Americas, Simon Alford, Vice
President of Global Pre-Sales, and Leslie Mertz, Global Director of
Sales Development. Earlier this year, Planet entered into a
definitive merger agreement with dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV
(NYSE:DMYQ), a special purpose acquisition company, to become a
publicly-traded company.
As Planet scales its business and readies itself for the public
market, these experienced sales leaders join a global, world-class
team that is focused on accelerating the company's growth. Planet
drove over $110 million in revenue in FY2021A. As Planet prepares
to go public, among the uses for capital raised will be further
expanding the sales and marketing function.
“We are at a pivotal moment in Planet's journey. Nothing is more
important than bringing in top sales talent to drive new
customer-centric programs and build a robust sales pipeline. With
the exceptional combined leadership experience of Michael, Leslie,
Debbie, and Simon, we feel confident that Planet is now set-up for
even greater success,” said Planet’s President Kevin Weil.
As the Vice President of Sales Operations, Michael Goldberg
brings over 25 years of experience in the technology industry to
Planet. He predominantly worked in sales operations and financial
planning and analysis, most recently serving as the Head of Global
Business Operations for OneLogin and the Senior Director of Sales
Operations and Enablement at Skuid. Michael is skilled in
streamlining sales tools and processes, improving integrations, and
optimizing cross-functional and customer-facing initiatives in
support of business objectives. This expertise stems from his long
history of leadership roles in companies, including Salesforce,
Seagate, Autodesk, and Nextel Communications.
As the Vice President of Sales, Americas at Planet, Debbie Queen
brings over 18 years of business to business sales experience and
leadership expertise in acquisitions and account management. Before
moving to Planet, Debbie was the Sr. Manager - Design &
Manufacturing, North America Territory Sales at Autodesk. She has a
proven track record in strategic vision implementation for solution
sales and has worked extensively in developing sales team
structures. Prior to Autodesk, Debbie worked as the Director of
Sales at ReadyTalk, a cloud communications provider, where she was
responsible for the performance and success of Account Executive
and Inside Sales teams. She also served as an Account Manager at
Aerotek, supporting new business acquisitions and account
growth.
Joining Planet as the Vice President of Global Pre-Sales, Simon
Alford brings a wealth of knowledge and experience leading global
Pre-Sales and Products teams. Prior to joining Planet, he served as
the Director of Global Pre-Sales - Digital Manufacturing Group at
Autodesk, and their Director of Automotive Products. Simon has a
proven track record scaling innovation and operations excellence,
helping create the conditions for high performance. Prior to
Autodesk, he was Head of Pre-Sales & Services at an Autodesk
Manufacturing Partner, worked in product management and user
experience at Siemens Digital Industries Software, and began his
career as a design engineer in the Automotive industry.
Leslie Mertz joined Planet as the new Global Director of Sales
Development. Leslie brings over 20 years of experience in sales
development and marketing in life sciences, sustainability and
technology. Prior to joining Planet, she was the Business
Development Manager at Aurora Solar, a technology company that
builds software solutions for distributed solar projects. There,
she scaled the sales development team, oversaw pipeline development
for Mid Market, Enterprise, and Strategic Accounts, and supported
exceptional levels of company growth with the generation of new
logos and expansion revenue. Prior to Aurora Solar, Leslie worked
closely with revenue teams to support sales development at
ProspectCloud, Insperity, and Escalent.
As Planet joins the public market, the company will become a
public benefit corporation (PBC), in which its mission will be
encoded into its corporate DNA, obligating Planet’s directors to
stay true to their mission as part of their fiduciary duty to their
stockholders. Planet’s public benefit purpose is: “To accelerate
humanity to a more sustainable, secure and prosperous world by
illuminating environmental and social change.”
About Planet
Planet is the leading provider of global, daily satellite
imagery and geospatial solutions. Planet is driven by a mission to
image the world every day, and make change visible, accessible and
actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet
designs, builds, and operates the largest earth observation fleet
of imaging satellites, capturing and compiling data from over 3
million images per day. Planet provides mission-critical data,
advanced insights, and software solutions to over 700 customers,
including the world’s leading agriculture, forestry, intelligence,
education and finance companies and government agencies, enabling
users to simply and effectively derive unique value from satellite
imagery. To learn more visit www.planet.com and follow us on
Twitter at @planet.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211124005851/en/
Press Megan Zaroda Comms@planet.com
IR Chris Genualdi ir@planet.com
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