Alida appoints new senior executives in product management, customer experience and AI to drive growth in the CXM industry

Alida (formerly Vision Critical), creator of the world’s first Customer Experience Management (CXM) and insights platform,  announced the appointment of Scott Barkley as Senior Vice President, Product Management, Paul Hagen as Principal Director, CXM and Manuel Zahariev as Vice President of Engineering (AI & Analytics). These senior industry leaders will define product strategies that grow Alida’s product portfolio as a leading player in the CXM market.

Scott Barkley brings over 20 years of software expertise in leading global product management, most recently as VP, Head of Product for Cisco’s internet of things (IoT) business unit. Prior to joining Cisco, Barkley spent 11 years at Jasper Technologies as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team responsible for product management. Over the course of his career, Barkley has led hundreds of software releases used by thousands of enterprise customers in over 100 countries, along the way building software companies into globally relevant unicorns.

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As Senior Vice President, Barkley will lead the product management team at Alida and is responsible for roadmap execution across the company’s product portfolio. He holds an MBA from Kellogg and a BA from Princeton University. He is based in Silicon Valley, California.

Paul Hagen joins Alida as Principal Director, CXM. Hagen brings two decades of deep CX experience, defining how organizations interact with people to deliver better experiences. Before joining Alida, Hagen has held Principal roles at West Monroe Partners and Forrester Research, advising executives on large global CX deployments. He was President at Kairos Strategies, providing business and technology strategy services to socially conscious small business and non-for-profit organizations.

As Alida’s CX thought leader, Hagen will lead CXM product strategy and CX design thinking. He will advise Alida customers globally and deliver CX best practices, insights and trends. He holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University and a BA from Stanford University. He is based in Silicon Valley, California.

Manuel Zahariev joins as Vice President of Engineering (AI & Analytics). With 15 years of executive experience, including CTO at Alida from 2005 – 2010, Zahariev is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics expert. Before rejoining Alida, Zahariev worked at Skwez Technology, leading client discovery of patterns in large genetic databases. He has held a variety of executive leadership roles in the AI and Machine Learning space, including Chief Product Officer at Vonigo and CTO at Tyze Personal Networks and Partnerpedia.

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As Vice President, Engineering, Zahariev will lead Alida’s AI & Analytics team to build high-performance analytical technology that is embedded across Alida’s CXM portfolio. He holds a PhD in Computing Science from Simon Fraser University. He is based in Vancouver, Canada.

“Scott, Paul and Manuel bring deep product expertise and technology leadership to Alida. I am thrilled that they chose to expand their careers at our company,” said Riaz Raihan, Alida’s President of Products & Engineering. “With their collective wealth of experience, Alida’s product innovation will reach new heights and disrupt the VoC market, providing our customers with next-generation CXM and insights solutions to build great customer experiences. Innovation is the life blood of Alida.”

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