Acquia Expands Senior Leadership Team with Key Executive Appointments
BOSTON – July 14, 2015 – Acquia, the digital experience company, today announced the appointment of two digital agency pros to key executive roles leading operations and talent acquisition & development. Preston B. Bradford joins Acquia from Publicis.Sapient as its first chief operating officer. Heather Hartford, formerly of online fashion innovator Rue La La and global digital agency DigitasLBi, will lead Acquia’s talent organization as chief people officer, a new role for Acquia as the company looks to invest in its future.
As digital transformation drives global organizations, they turn to Acquia for the expertise, technology, and passion they need to succeed in the post-browser era of digital experience delivery. Their need to think ahead has propelled Acquia’s business; the company surpassed $100 million in revenue last year, moving its corporate headquarters to Boston to accommodate a rapidly growing team of 700 professionals. As Acquia enters its next stage of growth, both Bradford and Hartford bring a long record of leading high-growth companies and their supporting functions. Each has a rich and unique set of experiences building teams, driving global expansion, and delivering bottom-line results.
“Preston and Heather bring vast experience leading global organizations and will scale the company’s operations and talent to match our mission to power the world’s best known brands and organizations on the Acquia Platform,” said Tom Erickson, Acquia CEO. “Their leadership will further drive our work in helping our customers build, deliver and optimize digital experiences with greater agility and resiliency.”
Bradford held various global leadership roles during his more than 20 years at Publicis.Sapient: guiding the company through its transition from a private to a publicly listed company, mergers and acquisitions, financial core operations, global shared services, real estate, security and IT as well as managing director of Sapient’s operations in India, Canada, the U.K. and the federal government business. While at Sapient, he was an instrumental leader in growing the company from 100 people to more than 12,000. Most recently, he was the chief development officer and a managing director of Publicis.Sapient.
As Acquia continues to grow, Acquia’s executive team sought to bring on a leader to help the company build a team to meet its customers’ needs. As chief operating officer, Bradford will initially focus on the customer experience across all stages of their journey. Additionally, he will look across all operational aspects of the business to ensure scalability and effectiveness while ensuring a great experience for Acquia customers, partners, and its people.
“Digital transformation has gone far beyond marketing campaigns; today every business process and application is being disrupted by digital,” Bradford said. “Acquia customers are driving this revolution, and that is propelling the company’s growth. The team at Acquia is passionately committed to our customers’ success and to ensuring our business processes and operations scale to achieve the highest levels of satisfaction and delight. This is a great opportunity for me to bring my many years of experience to help grow and scale Acquia as a market leader.”
As Acquia’s chief people officer, Heather Hartford will provide key insight and expertise in building and sustaining Acquia’s fast-growing team. Hartford was previously chief people officer at Rue La La, where she led the online fashion innovator’s expansion from 100 to 700+ employees and facilitated growth and diversity through hiring practices and retention/development programs.
Prior to Rue La La, she held several senior leadership positions at DigitasLBi and was responsible for the global agency’s revenue, profits, and talent management.
“Acquia is a leader in Boston’s burgeoning innovation economy. We value passion, integrity, intelligence and initiative in each and every team member we hire,” Erickson said. “Heather’s experience building successful teams at high-growth companies and on the front line of digital innovation is invaluable as we pursue the next stage of our growth and evolution.”
“Acquia has reached a critical growth stage, and the relocation of its headquarters to Boston positions the company and its people in the epicenter of the tech community,” Hartford said. “We’re focused on continuing to add critical skillsets to our teams while ensuring we are a culture that enables all of our associates the opportunity to grow and enhance their careers. The sky's the limit for Acquia’s people, and I’m thrilled to join an incredible team that will be a valuable part of the Boston tech community for many years to come.”
About Acquia
Acquia is the digital experience company. Intuit, Warner Music Group and Stanford University are among the more than 4,000 organizations that are transforming their digital businesses with Acquia’s open cloud platform. Global 2000 enterprises, government agencies and NGOs rely on Acquia to create new revenue streams, lower costs, and engage audiences more deeply through content, community, commerce and context.
For more information visit www.acquia.com or call +1 781 238 8600.
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