Spoke Software Appoints Frank A. Vaculin as President and CEO

Spoke Software Appoints Frank A. Vaculin as President and CEO

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Spoke Software, the leading provider of enterprise relationship networking solutions for sales professionals, today announced that it has appointed Frank A. Vaculin as its president and chief executive officer. Vaculin succeeds Ben T. Smith IV, who remains on the board and an active supporter of Spoke.

A 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley, Vaculin brings a unique blend of experience, including CRM, hosted applications, knowledge management and search, which is directly applicable to Spoke. With particular expertise in sales and marketing, Vaculin will build and execute Spoke's long-term business model, adding to Spoke's customer traction, and strengthening strategic industry relationships -- while focusing the company on operational efficiency and profitability.

"From the moment we began our CEO search, we've been looking for someone with Frank's gifted ability to match a technology vision with a broad market opportunity," said Tim Guleri, general partner at Sierra Ventures and board member of Spoke. "We appreciate Ben's vision in getting Spoke started, and look forward to Frank's strategic focus, proven management skills and deep industry experience to build on Spoke's success."

"Frank is recognized as a results-oriented CEO with a track record of building high-performance teams and successful companies while operating in rapidly evolving marketplaces," said Rob Theis, general partner at Doll Capital Management and board member of Spoke. "He's an inspiring leader with the intelligence, business acumen and market savvy to take Spoke to the next level."

"Spoke is the ultimate sales prospecting tool because it delivers the access and insight sales people need to open doors and accelerate the sales cycle," said Frank Vaculin. "By empowering their sales teams to more effectively leverage their own extended relationship network, Spoke's clients drive more leads, more deals, and more revenue...faster."

Prior to joining Spoke, Vaculin was CEO of TeaLeaf Technologies. He was previously executive vice president at Ask Jeeves where he grew revenues from 0 to $24 million, and presided over the company's initial public offering. Vaculin has also held various vice president-level positions at Softbank Services Group and Borland International.

"Since we founded the company in 2002, we have been focused on driving sales execution for our customers via relationships, Frank brings the background and experience necessary to take Spoke from our initial success through its next phase of evolution in making this happen," said Ben Smith, Spoke co-founder and board member. "He has managed companies through the rapid customer and revenue growth we are experiencing at Spoke, and I'm very excited he will be successful doing so here as well."

About Spoke Software

Spoke Software, founded in June 2002, is the leader in enterprise relationship networking solutions that help sales people close more deals faster by discovering and leveraging their most valuable asset - their extended relationship network. Through the Spoke Network, customers have access to over 24 million relationships, enabling them to find decision makers at target accounts and "paths" to those individuals. By minimizing data entry, safeguarding privacy, and ensuring relationship control, Spoke accelerates user adoption and maximizes sales productivity. Spoke Software is a privately-held company with investment from US Venture Partners, Sierra Ventures, Partech International and DCM -- Doll Capital Management. For more information visit http://www.spoke.com/ or email us at information@spokesoftware.com.


Source: Spoke Software

CONTACT: Kelly Cytron of Kelcyn Communications, +1-415-285-9208 or
kcytron@kelcyn.com, for Spoke Software

Web site: http://www.spoke.com/


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