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Press Release

Talkdesk reinforces focus on new revenue, growth opportunities with appointment of Kathie Johnson as chief marketing officer

Talkdesk reinforces focus on new revenue, growth opportunities with appointment of Kathie Johnson as chief marketing officer


Accomplished executive and marketing influencer to accelerate Talkdesk momentum and industry leadership through new go-to-market strategies and brand awareness


  • Talkdesk expands executive leadership team with appointment of award-winning marketing veteran Kathie Johnson as chief marketing officer (CMO)
  • Johnson will oversee all aspects of the company’s global corporate marketing, product marketing and corporate communications to strengthen and raise awareness of the Talkdesk brand 
  • This appointment signifies Talkdesk’s increased commitment to, and recognition of, marketing as a strategic asset in new enterprise revenue opportunities

SAN FRANCISCO — November 12, 2019 — Talkdesk®, Inc., the cloud contact center for innovative enterprises, today announced a strategic hire to its executive management team with the addition of Kathie Johnson as chief marketing officer (CMO). Johnson will champion development and execution of Talkdesk’s marketing strategy to build a truly global brand and ignite greater enterprise market opportunities. She is based in the company’s San Francisco headquarters and reports directly to Tiago Paiva, Talkdesk chief executive officer (CEO). 

Johnson brings to Talkdesk more than two decades of expertise in global marketing leadership, including software as a service (SaaS) marketing and demonstrated success accelerating revenue growth through full-funnel marketing. Before joining Talkdesk, Johnson held diverse executive marketing and communications positions at Salesforce — a Fortune 500 company, and Dassault Systèmes — a Fortune Future 50 company.

During her tenure at Salesforce, Johnson served as senior vice president (SVP) of marketing, responsible for growing the company’s approach with a focus on seven industries and 18 sub-verticals. Previously at Salesforce, she was integral to the success of marketing’s organizational transformation following the Demandware acquisition. During her career, Johnson’s work has been celebrated with domestic and international recognition, including the prestigious European Excellence Awards, Communicator Awards, Internet Marketing Association (IMA) Impact Awards and Telly Awards. 

In this newly created position, Johnson will be a strategic activist in building differentiated marketing capabilities throughout the company as a whole, with responsibility and oversight for all aspects of Talkdesk marketing and creative services. She will focus on shaping corporate brand and strategy — elevating the company’s public profile — to ensure Talkdesk is well-positioned to meet tomorrow’s customer and market challenges.  

“The addition of a CMO to the Talkdesk executive management is one of the most important decisions we’ve made, and it is an honor to have Kathie Johnson accept this position,” said Tiago Paiva, CEO, Talkdesk. “Talkdesk is a unique company. We are completely disrupting the contact center software market, making some of the other players in this space uncomfortable. We need a CMO who can push creative limits, who isn’t afraid to take risks and who moves fast. Kathie is that CMO. She will be instrumental in shaping the next chapter of Talkdesk history and a cornerstone of what we are building.”

“I am thrilled to join Talkdesk, an innovative and disruptive technology leader that celebrates the importance of customer experience with easy-to-use and easy-to-implement cloud-native contact center software,” said Kathie Johnson, CMO, Talkdesk. “As a marketer with a passion for building, this is a dream job for me. I’m excited to package Tiago’s inspiring vision with Talkdesk’s innovative and intelligent technology, enabling companies to turn customer experience into a competitive advantage.” 

This appointment comes during a period of unprecedented growth and momentum for Talkdesk. Since its inception in 2011, Talkdesk has grown to one of the most recognizable names in the contact center industry. The company has nearly 900 employees in seven offices worldwide. Most recently, Talkdesk was positioned as a Leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service North America and named to the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100 list. 

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About Talkdesk

Talkdesk Enterprise Cloud Contact Center empowers companies to make customer experience their competitive advantage. With enterprise-class performance and consumer-like ease of use, Talkdesk easily adapts to the evolving needs of sales and support teams and their end-customers, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, productivity and cost savings. Over 1,800 innovative enterprises around the world, including IBM, Acxiom, 2U, Trivago and Peloton, rely on Talkdesk to power their customer interactions. Learn more and request a demo at www.talkdesk.com. 

Media Contacts:

Talkdesk Public Relations

[email protected]