Ulrik Bo Larsen, Founder of Falcon.io and CEO of Brandwatch since 2021, hands over the reins as Tran is elevated from President and Chief Commercial Officer

Brandwatch, the leading enterprise social suite, announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Ulrik Bo Larsen, has moved into an advisory role at the company. Larsen has transitioned the leadership of Brandwatch to Cali Tran who is promoted to the role of President and CEO. Tran was previously the President and Chief Commercial Officer at Brandwatch and is now tasked with steering the company through an important new phase of growth.

Larsen took the helm of Brandwatch in June 2021 after it was acquired by Cision. He led the merger between Brandwatch’s award-winning consumer intelligence platform with Falcon.io’s world-class social media management capabilities. In addition, Larsen oversaw Brandwatch’s acquisition of Paladin, a social influencer marketing solution, in March 2022 and Brandwatch’s admission into an inaugural elevated marketing partnership with TikTok.

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Before his time as President and CEO at Brandwatch, Larsen held the same position at Falcon.io, a company he founded in 2010. Falcon.io was acquired by Cision in January 2019 and merged with Brandwatch in 2022. The position that Brandwatch now finds itself in is the vision Larsen and Brandwatch Founder Giles Palmer established in 2017. With their joint vision realized, Ulrik is now joining Palmer as a Brandwatch advisor where both will continue to contribute to Brandwatch’s success and future.

“A company’s founder is special, and that’s doubly true when we’re talking about the caliber of founders like Ulrik and Giles,” said Brandon Crawley, interim CEO of Cision and Managing Director at Platinum Equity, which acquired Cision in 2020. “They built stellar products and teams, and we are happy to keep them close so Brandwatch can continue to benefit from their expertise. I expect a seamless transition as Cali is a proven leader who has shown he knows how to transform companies and bring them to new heights. His appointment is very exciting news for our customers, employees and everyone in Brandwatch’s universe.”

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Tran has a lot of experience building high performing teams and driving growth for profitable technology-enabled, global companies. Before joining Brandwatch, Tran held executive leadership positions at a number of leading marketing technology companies such Centerfield Media, Vericast, and Valassis either as President, Chief Commercial Officer or CEO.

Earlier in his career, Tran led digital transformation initiatives for large, multinational marketing and business services companies at MacAndrews & Forbes and invested in hyper-growth marketing technology enabled start-ups North Bridge Venture Partners. Tran was also a part of the seed stage team at Ancestry and a Co-Founder of Agilix Labs.