Aconex appoints a US-based CMO

The apparent transition of Australian-founded Aconex into an American corporation took another step last week with the announcement that experienced US SaaS executive Blaine Mathieu had been appointed as chief marketing officer of the SaaS project collaboration vendor.

According to the news release, Mathieu brings more than 25 years of management experience in marketing, product management, sales and business development, operations, and acquisitions. Previously, he was chief products officer at Mindjet, where he led go-to-market and product planning for the company’s transition to a SaaS business model. He also served as chief marketing officer at Lyris, a provider of SaaS integrated marketing automation solutions, and before that was at Corel Corporation, Adobe Systems and Gartner.

In just over two years, we have seen the Melbourne-based software developer invest in several experienced US executives as it has entrenched itself in California’s technology heartland, fuelling some speculation about an initial public offering, IPO.

• October 2011 – [name removed at subject’s request] was appointed senior vice-president, sales and marketing (no longer with Aconex)
• May 2012 – Steve Recht was appointed chief finance officer
• October 2012 – Frank Kopas was appointed general manager, US
• November 2012 – Patricia Cuthbert appointed as vice-president, finance

In November 2011, Aconex also bolstered its board of directors by appointing two new non-execs, one of them former Bechtel Enterprises president Paul Unruh.

Update (28 December 2013) – Earlier this month, Mathieu left Aconex after just a month’s service, becoming President and CEO of Selectica. Neither his Linkedin profile nor the Selectica news release (5 December) make any mention of Aconex. The 30 October 2013 Aconex news release quoted Lee Jasper:

“Adding Blaine Mathieu to the Aconex senior management team is a major win … Blaine will be an important catalyst to help drive the next phase of our growth.”

The one time SVP sales and marketing lasted six months (October 2011 – April 2012) and now Mathieu has lasted barely a month. I guess he was headhunted for the two roles almost simultaneously, and jumped for the one giving him CEO responsibility rather than staying as a CMO. So: will Aconex now resume its search for a CMO?