Zendesk, Inc. a leading customer experience and engagement software company, today announced plans to continue to expand its footprint across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) by appointing Amy Foo as Managing Director.
The announcement follows a year of strong growth, where Zendesk ANZ saw a strong double digit growth in total number of customer accounts including a number of high-profile enterprise customer wins, including Showpo and Xinja. This boost solidifies Zendesk ANZ as the largest market in the region, and fourth largest market for the company globally. ANZ was also a significant contributor to the Asia Pacific (APAC) region’s growth, which saw more than 50 percent increase in revenue, outpacing the company’s year-on-year revenue growth of 41 percent.
Amy Foo, Managing Director ANZ and Vice President Finance and Operations APAC, Zendesk, said, “It is remarkable to see how much the CX landscape has changed since we opened our first APAC headquarters in Melbourne in 2010. Homegrown startups and global enterprises alike have embraced how Zendesk sees the future of CX, however there are still some challenges ahead as the gap between customer expectations and reality widens. My first priority is to work with our engineering and go-to-market teams to help our customers see how they can bridge this gap, while continuing to strengthen our growth mindset.”
Under Amy’s leadership, the organisation will continue to deepen its relationships with the market’s startups and small-to-medium sized businesses, and further showcase its product offerings to large scale, multinational enterprises. This focus supports Zendesk’s roadmap for being a multi-billion dollar company by continuing its upmarket momentum, and leveraging the recent launch of products such as Zendesk Sunshine, Zendesk Sell, and Zendesk Explore.
According to Elena Gomez, Chief Financial Officer, Zendesk, “Amy is a natural leader. She has built immense trust and respect across all levels and functions of the organisation over the past six years. I am excited to see how she will lead our business into our next phase of growth, particularly in a mission-critical market like ANZ.”
A key factor to achieving its growth has been Zendesk’s continuous investment into finding and fostering local talent. The number of employees grew by almost half (49 percent) in FY18 to more than 300 people across engineering and go-to-market roles (including sales, marketing, people operations, and finance) spread across offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland.
Key to its people growth has been ongoing partnerships with the Victorian Government via programs with InvestVic and LaunchVic to attract talent across both tech and non-tech roles. For example, Zendesk was recently featured in LaunchVic’s Scale Up Your Career campaign. These partnerships, as well as expanding and emulating their success outside of Melbourne, will be a key part of the brand’s future growth plans.
Amy takes the reins from Brett Adam, who recently moved into the role of Chief Architect, based in the company’s global headquarters in San Francisco. Amy joined Zendesk in 2013 as Finance Director for Asia Pacific, and will retain her current role as Vice President Finance and Operations for the region in tandem with her new Managing Director title, and will continue to report to Elena Gomez, Zendesk’s Chief Financial Officer.
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