Hearsay Systems Appoints Mike Boese as CEO; Founder Clara Shih Transitions to Executive Chairperson

Key leadership hires address surge in platform demand and utilization, prepare company for next stage of growth

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hearsay Systems, trusted leader in compliant human-client experience for the financial services industry, today announced that Mike Boese has been named CEO. Clara Shih, who with Steve Garrity founded the company on September 1, 2009, will transition from CEO to Executive Chairperson, remaining on the board of directors.

“After 11 years of building Hearsay and serving as CEO, the time has come for me to pass the torch. The next decade for Hearsay requires a different leader than the last, and we are very fortunate to have Mike here as that leader,” says Shih. “Spending the past six months working side-by-side with Mike amidst a global crisis, I have seen how he leads with courage, grit, and compassion. Mike has scaled companies and teams exactly to the next phase of where Hearsay needs to go, and I know the company will flourish under his leadership.”

“Clara’s decision to move to the Executive Chairperson role and transition the CEO reins to Mike comes at a logical inflection point. Hearsay is seeing a surge in demand as last-mile, compliant engagement has now become mission-critical for every financial firm,” says Frank Defesche, Hearsay board member and SVP & GM at Veeva. “With record levels of sales and product usage over the past six months, Mike’s intense focus on customer success, track record of driving growth at software companies, and strong leadership have given the board confidence that he is the right leader for Hearsay’s next decade.”

“I’m thrilled to lead Hearsay into our next chapter, building on the incredible work Clara has done to create this market and build products and a customer base that is second to none. The pandemic has underscored the critical importance of authentic, last-mile engagement. We are doubling down on this unprecedented market opportunity to help every financial firm modernize its field operations and customer experience,” says Boese.

Boese joined Hearsay as COO in Q1, after 25 years of executive leadership at some of the world’s most iconic software companies including Taleo, SAP, PeopleSoft, and Oracle. Most recently, he was co-founder and CEO of Plantt and CEO of Certent, a fintech SaaS company where he oversaw 5x revenue growth, significant margin expansion, and drove key strategic partnerships with leading brokerages and wirehouses. Boese’s priorities will include building upon Hearsay’s position as the leading authentic, last-mile communications platform for financial services advisors and agents, ensuring the success of the Hearsay customer community and further advancing Hearsay’s growth initiatives.

In response to increased demand, including a 300% increase in utilization of Hearsay’s platform, Hearsay has also bolstered its broader leadership team for this new phase of growth and innovation. New leadership hires include Joe Van Remortel as VP of Customer Success and Pradeep Ananthapadmanabhan as VP of Client Services. Van Remortal joined Hearsay from DocuSign, where he led the Customer Success/Account Management organization and helped grow the company into a global leader. Ananthapadmanabhan was formerly Chief Customer Officer at Celtra and the Digital Customer Experience practice leader at Deloitte Digital prior to that.

About Hearsay Systems

Hearsay Systems is reinventing the advisor-client experience in wealth management, property and casualty, and life insurance. The Hearsay Client Engagement Platform allows advisors and agents to authentically and intelligently grow business relationships by proactively guiding and capturing the last mile of digital communications. Only Hearsay delivers the human-client experience at scale.

Over 170,000 advisors and agents at the world’s largest financial services firms leverage Hearsay to scale their reach, optimize sales engagements, and deliver exceptional client service that builds stronger relationships and grows their business. Built for the enterprise, Hearsay guides field organizations to deliver a consistent and compliant experience to each and every client to ensure all advisors and agents perform like your best.

Hearsay is headquartered in Silicon Valley with locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the Hearsay blog.