Clari has always been fortunate to have a world-class board of directors working alongside us to build something remarkable.
Today, our team of advisors got even stronger, as we announced that veteran CFO Kelly Battles joins Clari’s board of directors and will Chair our audit committee.
I often say that a company’s board is one of a CEO’s most powerful weapons, and that business leaders should maximize their strengths at every turn. Doing so requires assembling a board with complementary strengths, which is why I’m so excited to welcome Kelly.
Kelly brings over 30 years of leadership experience in finance and strategy, having served as CFO for four companies across multiple industries. She also has deep expertise serving on boards, currently sitting on the boards of DataStax, Arista Networks, Genesys, and Alpha Medical.
Kelly also knows Clari. She’s watched us grow for the last several years, cheering our success from the sidelines. She has close relationships with Clari CFO Alyssa Filter and Clari board member Enrique Salem, a partner at Bain Capital Ventures. She also knows what we are capable of. As someone who oversaw corporate finance, and whose job depended on the output of revenue teams, Kelly understands the power of Clari and revenue operations in unlocking business growth.
“In my experience, the best CFOs focus on the future with the CEOs,” she says. “Weaker CFOs spend too much time in the past.”
Kelly sees how Clari empowers CFOs to live in the future, because getting the forecast right enables them to better optimize for the next quarter, the next year, and well on down the road.
If a forecast is in danger, Clari offers warning signals early enough that executives can troubleshoot. If Clari is showing that the company will excel beyond their forecast, executives can determine where to double down on investments across the business.
“If we’d had Clari at companies where I have been CFO, we would have been able to make better and faster strategic decisions while accelerating growth with the added confidence and depth of understanding Clari provides in critical areas such as revenue forecasting and sales productivity,” Kelly told me.
As an accomplished CFO, I can’t think of anyone better suited to lead our audit committee. It’s a big job and she’ll have a lot of work on her plate, but there are so many other strengths she brings to the table. Her vision, leadership, and strategic planning experience will help Clari embark on its next phase of growth.
Kelly is a CFO that lives in the future, and that’s exactly what Clari needs as we look towards the horizon and chart our course into the future.
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