Industry Pioneer Stephan Dietrich Joins Optimove Board: “The Stars Are Aligning”
Serial entrepreneur, Neolane co-founder and former General Manager of Adobe Campaign, brings unrivalled experience and expertise in enterprise marketing and international scaling to the Optimove board. "Optimove brings all the core foundational pieces that brands need to perfectly master their engagement with their customers", he said
Optimove is serious about providing the best, all-in-one Customer-Led Marketing solutions to any brand looking to grow the right way via their existing customers. But merely saying that is easy. Backing that up with steps that bring us and our clients closer to that goal is much harder.
This is why we’re delighted to announce the addition of top-tier serial entrepreneur Stephan Dietrich to our Board of Directors as an independent, non-executive member.
Stephan brings a second-to-none, game-changing experience and point of view. In 2001, he co-founded his brainchild Neolane, making him one of the early pioneers of the marketing technology industry. Right up our alley, don’t you think?
In 2013, Adobe acquired Neolane for $600M, and Stephan subsequently became Vice President and General Manager of the Adobe Campaign business. Under his leadership, the company more than quadrupled its revenue in five years, and he was instrumental in defining the Marketing Cloud category.
Born in Strasburg, he currently resides in Boston, a Guest Lecturer at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, President of the SaaS Club at French Founders, and an independent investor and advisor to several international SaaS scale-ups.
“I’m passionate about and have trailblazed the marketing automation space,” he said. “As an early pioneer of the space, I have a good sense of the size of the opportunity, the expectations of the marketers, and the market trends. And at Optimove, under Pini Yakuel’s leadership, the execution has been flawless.”
Stephan’s addition to the Board comes on the heels of some joyous recent milestones for Optimove. We raised a $75M investment led by Summit Partners, doubled our headcount in less than a year, and acquired two companies (Kumulos and Graphyte) that significantly expanded our capabilities. We have launched new tools, doubled down on Generative AI, and taken significant strides toward becoming an all-in-one Customer-Led Marketing platform.
Stephan agrees. “The stars were aligning with Optimove,” he says, “because it is in a scale-up status with solid foundations and momentum. For marketers, Optimove brings all the core foundational pieces that brands need to perfectly master engagement with their customers.”
AI has a significant impact on all our lives, and so too in marketing. Optimove’s market-leading AI capabilities” significantly influenced Stephan’s decision to join the Board. “What was blowing me away at Optimove are really two superpowers, the analytics and AI,” he added. “Optimove has built a uniquely differentiated platform with a big vision of applying AI to automating and orchestrating customer-led journeys. The company has definitely taken that to the next level.”
“I’m delighted and proud,” said Pini Yakuel, Optimove CEO & Founder. “Stephan is a seasoned industry executive with a unique point of view and with nearly 30 years of experience leading successful SaaS businesses. He has a record of accomplishments as a transatlantic leader, advisor, and board member. His go-to-market experience in growing and scaling SaaS companies from inception to several hundreds of millions in revenue across multiple verticals is genuinely second to none.”
Mr. Dietrich concluded, “I’m excited to partner with Pini and his talented management team that has an analytical obsession with driving tangible value for their end customers.” The excitement, Stephan, is all ours. Welcome to the team!
Guy Leshno, a seasoned PR and Communications professional, with a successful track record in leading PR strategies and projects in emerging startups. With over a decade of experience, his expertise lies in blending creative ideation, analytics, and expert writing capabilities, driving brand awareness, and improving sales.
