Corporate-backed mobile marketing platform Urban Airship appointed Christopher Dean as chief revenue officer (CRO) on Friday. Dean’s role will largely consist of directing Urban Airship’s sales and business development from its San Francisco office.
Dean previously held several positions at online communication software developer Skype, including chief strategy officer (CSO), and was in charge of the company’s global development.
In November Urban Airship secured $15.1m in series C funding on Sunday from telecommunications conglomerate Verizon, enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce.com, and venture capital (VC) firms Foundry Group and True Ventures.
In addition to his work at Skype, Dean previously performed similar strategy and business development roles at companies including communications software firm Actiance (then known as FaceTime Communications), investment banks Texada Capital and Epoch Partners, and small business destination site SmartAge.com, and provided consultancy services for Apple, Adobe, IBM and Oracle during his time at marketing firm Regis Mckenna.
Dean said: "Urban Airship has the opportunity to take the leadership position in a new and important category of products critical to companies that are now interacting with customers on mobile devices. The team is a blend of the very best technical, marketing and creative talent I’ve seen in a long time, and I’m excited to be part of it."
The appointment follows the hiring of Brent Hieggelke as Urban Airship’s chief marketing officer (CMO) last month. Hieggelke was previously a co-founder of online holiday home rental site Second Porch.