Daversa Partners Recruits Chief Customer Officer for Retain.ai

April 14, 2022 – Customers matter. It sounds simple. But these days, companies are coming to better accept and understand that concept and weave it into their strategic vision. So it is that businesses of all kinds are increasingly bringing aboard chief customer officers (CCO), the most effective of whom wield influence across an organization and into the C-suite. And though the titles can vary from place to place, the customer-drive mission of the role remains the same.
Daversa Partners, which helps build leadership teams for growth and venture-backed companies, recently assisted in the recruitment of Angela Han as head of customer and chief customer officer of Retain.ai. Managing director Joe Patalano and senior associate Jacqueline Napolitano led the assignment. “Angela’s experience is the ideal fit for Retain,” said Eric Chernoff, CEO of Retain. “We work with the largest enterprises in the world and her ability to solve complex, multifaceted challenges while focusing on the customer will be game-changing for Retain and the industry as a whole. With Angela’s leadership, we will further define and advance the category of customer insights engine.”
Ms. Han brings over 20 years of customer service experience to Retain. She joins the company after two years at Pluralsight, a Utah-based technology based workforce education platform, where she served as chief customer officer. During her tenure there, she was pivotal in lifting retention rates by double digits, spearheading initiatives in customer value, and driving cross-functional, data-oriented efforts that fostered relevant business outcomes. Prior to her role at Pluralsight, she held leadership roles at SendGrid, Concur, PlayerLync, and other notable companies where she led customer-centric initiatives.
“I am thrilled to join Retain; they are blazing the trail for an entirely new category in the SaaS realm,” said Ms. Han. “The vision and roadmap that Eric and the team have set forth position Retain to become the go-to leader in helping enterprises understand how to optimize their workflows and deliver optimal value for their own customers.”
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Retain is a customer insights engine that delivers a trusted, flexible system for identifying and sharing customer teams’ best habits that drive revenue and retention. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and is backed by Baseline Ventures, Upside Partnership, Afore Capital, and Industry Ventures.
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Daversa Partners, founded in 1993, builds executive teams for growth stage and venture backed companies. Its global footprint spans two continents and eight offices, giving its teams visibility into the entirety of the market. Daversa is dedicated to developing meaningful relationships with entrepreneurs, executives and investors across consumer and enterprise businesses. In addition to its primary location in Westport, Conn., the firm has offices in New York; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Orlando, FL; London; and Waterford, Conn. where the firm maintains a data and people analytics facility.
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Since 2015, Mr. Patalano has focused on B2B enterprise software and has emerged as one of the tech industry’s most sought after head hunters. He focuses on sales, marketing, customer success, revenue operations, and product executive positions. Most recently, he has built out the VP and C-level teams for companies including Uipath, Podium, Zuora, IronNet Cybersecurity, Bolt, Egnyte, Fireblocks, and Weka
“Joe has undeniably been an asset to Daversa Partners since day one, and I am incredibly excited to watch him reach this milestone,” said Paul Daversa, CEO. “It goes without saying that Joe brings tenacity, hustle, humility, and a deep understanding of industry knowledge to each and every search he tackles.”
Ms. Napolitano has spent several years in Daversa’s headquarters building out the management teams for enterprise B2B companies. She connects with sales, marketing and customer success executives in alike industries and has done work with Outreach, Auth0, Apollo, Egnyte, etc.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media