Credit: Dreamstime
Black Pearl Mail has finalised the move of company headquarters from Wellington to Scottsdale, Arizona, as the independent software vendor (ISV) targets international expansion.
To facilitate such growth, the Microsoft partner is hiring and expanding in the Valley while also growing R&D facilities in New Zealand.
Backed by venture capital fund AZ Crown, Black Pearl recently appointed Cherryl Pressley as CEO and Corey Frank as chief revenue officer (CRO).
Founded by Nick Lissette in 2012, Black Pearl is a specialist email platform with expertise across email branding, management and design, in addition to digital media, strategy and marketing.
“Black Pearl Mail is not just another email platform,” said Tim Crown, principal of AZ Crown Investments. “It’s a powerful marketing analytics technology that transforms email from simply a ‘dumb’ tool with minimal actionable data insights into a ‘smart’ hub that delivers optimal experiences for an organisation’s customers.
“This technology helps customers maximise email use as a digital marketing channel, something they use every day but hasn’t historically yielded much in the way of marketing results.
“I’m also extremely pleased about the additions of our CEO and CRO to our executive team, and am eager to see just how far we go from here.”
Meanwhile, Pressley comes from a strong leadership background, having spent the last 14 years at Microsoft in various senior leadership roles.
Most recently, Pressley was leading strategy and sales for Microsoft’s global distribution partner network.
“Our founder, Nick Lissette set an aspirational vision when he created Black Pearl Mail, and now we’re perfectly positioned to realise that vision,” Pressley added. “The move of our headquarters to Scottsdale has opened up numerous possibilities for the company and allowed us to work with wonderful partners such as AZ Crown.
“While my role as CEO is new, I’ve served on the board of Black Pearl Mail for the past 18 months and I’ve been extremely impressed with the product and company potential. We now have the key players in place and I'm confident great things are to come.”
Furthermore, Frank is known for co-founding KnowledgeNet, which was acquired by Thomson Reuters, as well as co-founding two other venture funded tech companies in the valley, The 41st Parameter - acquired by Experian - and StormWind Studios.
The Black Pearl executive team also currently includes founder Lissette, now in his new role as director and CTO, and Crown as chairman of the board.
