Freshworks revenue chief Pradeep Rathinam resigns, Abe Smith to take over

Pradeep Rathinam, the chief revenue officer (CRO) of Nasdaq-listed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Freshworks, has resigned from the firm he had joined in 2020.

“Our CRO Paddy (Pradeep) Rathinam is departing. Freshworks and we have hired Abe Smith as global field operations leader… Paddy joined us in 2020 and he has had a phenomenal career here… He has decided to move on now, and I wish him all the best,” Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshworks, told Moneycontrol.

Rathinam founded AnsweriQ, an AI-based customer service automation company, which was acquired by Freshworks in 2020 after which he joined the firm as the chief customer officer.

On April 27, 2023, the Board of Directors of Freshworks appointed Rathinam as the chief revenue officer.

“The reason for management changes is also that we have within us SMB commercial business, which is predominantly marketing-led and field business is predominantly outbound activity and field sales… As the company matures, we figured that it is important to manage these two separately to take the business to the desired revenues,” Mathrubootham said.

Rathinam’s role is now divided between Smith and Mika Yamamoto who was appointed as the chief customer and marketing officer (CCMO) recently.

Before AnsweriQ, Rathinam was the CEO of Aditi Technologies and spent over a decade at Microsoft as general manager of the independent software vendors business.

Rathinam holds a business management degree from Delhi University.

Freshworks in a media statement on February 7 said that it has appointed Abe Smith as chief of global field operations.

While Smith will be taking over Rathinam’s role, he will also be responsible for leading field sales worldwide as Freshworks grows upmarket and new business increasingly comes from field sales.

“Smith brings nearly 25 years of experience at public software companies Zoom, Oracle and Cisco (WebEx), leading teams responsible for building relationships to top enterprise customers and driving more than $1 billion in revenue,” the firm said in a statement.

Smith joins the executive leadership team and will report to Freshworks’ President Dennis Woodside and Mathrubootham.

Management rejig 

There has been a slew of management changes within the SaaS firm. It recently appointed former Adobe and F5 executive Mika Yamamoto as its first chief customer and marketing officer (CCMO). Freshworks also appointed Johanna Jackman as the new Chief People Officer (CPO).

The firm’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Shan Krishnaswamy left the company in September 2022 amid a management rejig, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) major said on March 8.

In September of 2022, Freshworks appointed Dennis Woodside as president. He was responsible for leading Freshworks’ global business operations and strategy.