Polachi Fills Board Positions for Progress Software

March 29, 2018 – Executive search firm Polachi Inc. has placed Sam King and Angela Tucci as new members of the board of directors at Progress Software in Bedford, MA.

The board, through its nominating and corporate governance committee, and with the assistance of Polachi, selected Ms. King and Ms. Tucci from a large pool of highly qualified individuals, including candidates suggested by the company’s shareholders. The search process, which was initiated and publicly announced in October, emphasized diverse individuals with experience as senior executives in the enterprise infrastructure software industry.

“Sam and Angela are both highly accomplished business leaders with extraordinary track records and they bring a wealth of expertise and diversity to our board of directors,” said John R. Egan, chairman of the board of directors for Progress. “The success of this search is in keeping with the board’s longstanding and continuous focus on ensuring it has the right skills and perspectives to enable the company to execute on its business strategy, strengthen its competitive position and deliver value to all its shareholders.”

New Board Members

Ms. King is senior vice president, general manager and chief strategy officer of Veracode, the application security business of CA Technologies. In her role, she is responsible for all functions of the Veracode business unit. Over the past decade, Ms. King has held roles of increasing seniority at Veracode including executive vice president, corporate strategy, product management and marketing; GM of the company’s mobile business from 2012 to 2015; and senior vice president of product marketing from 2009 to 2012. Prior to that, she led the development of security-as-a-service offerings at VeriSign, and held leadership roles in product management, product marketing, professional services and customer relationship management at the company.

Ms. Tucci is CEO of Apto, a web-based software for managing customer relationships, properties, listings, deals and commissions for commercial real estate brokers. Prior to that, she was the general manager of the Agile Management Unit of CA Technologies from 2015 to 2017. From 2014 to 2015, she led a 300-person global sales, consulting services, and marketing team as the chief revenue officer of publicly-traded Rally Software. She originally joined Rally Software as chief marketing officer in 2013. Ms. Tucci previously held positions as chief strategy Officer at Symantec and NEON Enterprise Software.

Progress Software offers a platform for developing and deploying mission-critical business applications. Over 1,700 independent software vendors, 100,000 enterprise customers and two million developers rely on Progress to power their applications.

Polachi provides access executive search services to technology, clean technology, private equity and venture capital companies. The firm recruits executive leaders for a company roster that includes Aspen Technology, Bottomline Technologies, Attunity, Cognizant Technologies, MAM Software, Trillium Software/Harte Hanks, FleetMatics, Lionbridge, Sparta Systems, Sevcon, Epsilon, Cognex, Plug Power, Mediamorph, Witricity, BlueConic, Perkins School, Knoa, and Visual IQ, among others.

Luring Directors

Director recruiting has grown markedly more challenging, report recruiters who conduct searches in that area. According to Egon Zehnder, heightened expectations now placed on boards have elevated both the professional standards and personal commitment required of all directors.

At the same time, many boards find that the supply of independent-minded “board experienced” directors – especially those who can add vital forms of specialized skills and expertise – is limited. Such candidates are widely sought after yet sometimes hesitant to take on the intensive responsibilities now required of board service.

As a result, companies continue to turn to executive search firms to help them lure new board members. Most in demand are women, senior leaders with global experience, ethnically diverse professionals and Millennials.

Here’s a brief look at a small selection of search firms and their recent board work taken from the Hunt Scanlon Media newswire archives:

Kincannon & Reed placed Roland Wolfram and Elin Miller as new members of the board of directors at Fall Creek Farm & Nursery. Mr. Wolfram previously served as VP and general manager of emerging markets at Nike. Ms. Miller is a veteran agricultural and management executive with more than 30 years of senior leadership experience in the corporate, government and …

Executive search firm Diversified Search has placed Christopher M. Connor as a member of the board of directors at International Paper Company in Memphis. Managing director Lauren E. Smith led the assignment. Mr. Connor retired as executive chairman of the Sherwin-Williams Co. in December.

Korn Ferry assisted Mutual of America Life Insurance Company in adding Dr. Ellen Ochoa to its board of directors. Alan Guarino, vice chairman in the firm’s CEO and board services practice, led the search along with senior client partner Maureen Ryan. Dr. Ochoa is the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Spencer Stuart assisted Fred’s Inc. (Fred’s Pharmacy) in adding Christopher W. Bodine, Peter J. Bocian, and Michael K. Bloom to its board of directors. The directorship placements are part of an ongoing reconstitution process at Fred’s in which the board has been actively engaged, with the assistance of Spencer Stuart.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Will Schatz, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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