Lithium Technologies Names Sunil Rajasekar SVP of Engineering

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lithium Technologies, the leader in Social Customer Experience, today announced that is has named Sunil Rajasekar as Senior Vice President of Engineering to drive the ongoing expansion of Lithium’s award-winning platform while continuing to rapidly scale the company’s engineering organization.

“The social customer experience is now a strategic imperative and Lithium is singularly focused on enabling brands to engage and enlist their social customers as a critical competitive differentiator”

The appointment of Rajasekar, a recognized engineering leader, will allow Lithium to continue to solidify the leadership of its core technology platform and deliver even more groundbreaking innovation that enables companies to turn their Web properties into vibrant social destinations that empower consumers as true extensions of the brand.

“The social customer experience is now a strategic imperative and Lithium is singularly focused on enabling brands to engage and enlist their social customers as a critical competitive differentiator,” Lithium President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Tarkoff said. “Sunil will be a key driver of our technology platform that enables brands to deliver innovative and engaging social experiences with real, measurable business results.”

“It’s a true testament to the strength and prowess of our engineering that we have been able to add a leader of Sunil’s caliber to the Lithium team. I am honored and excited to welcome him to Lithium,” Tarkoff said.

With 15 years of experience at companies ranging from Intuit to Oracle and Cisco, Rajasekar is incredibly adept at rapidly scaling engineering teams. He has a deep understanding and successful track record of leading engineering organizations in fast moving, high-volume SaaS and mobile businesses.

Rajasekar, who joins immediately, reports directly to Tarkoff.

Most recently, Rajasekar served at Intuit as Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Intuit Financial Services where he led a team of more than 300 for the $400 million business unit that was responsible for Intuit's key consumer, mobile and business banking operations along with TurboTax Online Banking and other offerings to financial institutions.

Appointment adds to extensive recent milestones

Lithium’s latest senior management appointment adds to an extensive list of recent milestones achieved already in 2012, including announcing that Lithium was positioned in the “Leaders” Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Social CRM. (See separate release)

Lithium continues to win significant engagements with new and existing marquee customers spanning the automotive, consumer products, entertainment, financial, retail, technology and telecom sectors. In the first half, Lithium added many industry leaders such as Barclaycard, DemandForce by Intuit, Indosat, Nest Labs, Pervasive Software and many others to its roster of more than 400 of the world’s most iconic brands.

Selected highlights

▪		Announced Lithium positioned in “Leaders Quadrant” of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Social CRM;
▪		Named to The Wall Street Journal’s “The Next Big Thing” list;
▪		Secured $53.4 million Series D funding round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and including new investor SAP Ventures;
▪		Strengthened the Lithium Board of Directors by appointing Pete Sonsini, NEA General Partner & Co-head of NEA’s enterprise software practice group; Geoffrey Moore, well-known strategist and best-selling author; and Jeffrey Miller, former Chairman and CEO of Documentum;
▪		Continued aggressive global expansion with launch of Paris, Singapore and Sydney offices;
▪		Unveiled significant innovations and advances in social marketing and support along with new strategic offerings during the Lithium Network Conference (LiNC) 2012 that brought together hundreds of pioneering Lithium clients and industry visionaries;
▪		Launched Lithium Response™ that enables brands to increase customer satisfaction while reducing costs and improving call center efficiency
▪		Launched next-generation Lithium Social Marketing Solution™, adding new features that include rich media interactions, ad hoc groups, streaming conversations and a powerful new ratings and reviews module.

Customer quotes & highlights

▪		Barclaycard US General Manager-Consumer Markets Paul Wilmore said: “Barclaycard Ring is a fantastic example of how Barclaycard US drives to be a customer-focused company. Barclaycard Ring’s innovative levels of simplicity, transparency and service are impacting the way we do business across our products and services. We believe this is the way all companies will engage with customers in the future.”

▪		Demandforce by Intuit, a leader in online marketing and communications, is leveraging Lithium's community platform to provide its thousands of small business owners with a platform to connect, share, and learn from each other in real-time.

		Annie Tsai, chief customer officer at Demandforce, said: "We recognize small business owners are experts in their craft and not necessarily acquisition and retention marketing. We are providing a safe, industry agnostic environment for them to engage and learn from each other’s successes, while deflecting traditional support costs. We are excited for them to take full advantage of Generation Demandforce, our online community."

▪		Pervasive Integration Products Vice President and General Manager Lance Speck said: “We’re excited about implementing Lithium to enhance the overall customer experience by making our employees’ and partners’ product expertise more readily available to customers and partners while gaining real-time insights into what our key stakeholders would like to see in future product development. The combination of an engaging platform that leverages gamification and the ease with which it integrates into the Pervasive Galaxy™ infrastructure makes Lithium a win for Pervasive partners, customers and employees alike.”

About Lithium Technologies

Lithium helps companies unlock the passion of their customers. Lithium software powers amazing Social Customer Experiences for more than 400 iconic brands including AT&T, BT, Best Buy, Indosat, Sephora, Skype and Telstra. Lithium helps companies grow brand advocacy, drive sales, reduce costs and accelerate innovation to create a brand nation that redefines the customer experience. For more information, visit http://www.lithium.com, or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and our own brand nation – the Lithosphere. Lithium is privately held with corporate headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. and offices in Europe, Asia and Australia.