B2B Cloud Software Marketing Veteran Andres Botero Joins BlackLine As Chief Marketing Officer

Leading cloud financial automation software provider adds former SAP marketing executive to lead global marketing strategy

News provided by

BlackLine

Sep 04, 2018, 09:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL) announced today that B2B cloud software marketing veteran Andres Botero has joined the financial automation software company as chief marketing officer. As CMO, Mr. Botero will be responsible for driving BlackLine's global marketing strategy as the company seeks to capitalize on the growing worldwide demand for solutions that drive greater efficiency, financial governance and risk management across the spectrum of accounting and financial operations. Botero will report to Chief Operating Officer Marc Huffman.

"Andres is a global B2B marketing leader skilled at driving results across all functions of Marketing, as well as disparate geographies, cultures and time zones," said Mr. Huffman. "He has demonstrated tremendous success working in alignment with sales organizations to help grow several leading enterprise SaaS/cloud companies and build their brands globally. We expect Andres' leadership and expertise will help us clearly articulate to the market all the capabilities and benefits that BlackLine brings to our clients."

Botero joins BlackLine with more than 20 years of experience at B2B cloud enterprise software leaders. He most recently served as senior vice president, Alliances, Channels and chief marketing officer at CallidusCloud, the Nasdaq-listed, profitable and rapidly growing leader in the Sales Performance Management, Configure Price Quote and Learning markets, acquired by SAP for $2.4 billion earlier this year. Prior to that, Botero was CMO at Aria Systems, a cloud-based monetization platform for subscriptions and usage-based businesses, and at Steelwedge, the leader in cloud-based Sales & Operations Planning, acquired by E2Open. Previously, Botero spent over eight years with SAP, where he led global marketing for one of its major lines of business - Supply Chain Management - launching new solutions and growing market share. Prior to SAP, he served in sales operations at Siebel Systems (acquired by Oracle).

Botero holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes (Bogota, Colombia) and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

"BlackLine is recognized as the clear market leader and pioneer of financial close automation solutions. With a tradition of strong innovation and unwavering focus on customer satisfaction, BlackLine is in an exciting position to streamline additional processes across the entire Finance & Accounting function," said Botero. "The market demand and potential are vast, and I'm looking forward to helping the company accelerate its market momentum and bring the benefits BlackLine's customers enjoy today to the finance and accounting masses around the world."

The company also announced that Mario Spanicciati will continue to report to CEO Therese Tucker and will be responsible for global strategy, corporate development and building out BlackLine's global alliance ecosystem. He also will remain a member of BlackLine's board of directors. Mr. Spanicciati has worked alongside Ms. Tucker since 2004, launching and heading up the company's EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) operations for several years. Under Spanicciati's direction, the BlackLine Financial Close Suite for SAP® Solutions became an SAP-endorsed business solution, making it the de-facto standard for the SAP ERP installed base.

"Mario has been instrumental in building BlackLine into the market leader we are today," Tucker said. "He created the thriving business we have in Europe and forged key strategic relationships, such as our long-standing partnership with SAP. Going forward he will oversee strategic initiatives across the entire global organization as we continue to scale the business, expand our ecosystem of alliances worldwide and drive long-term growth."

About BlackLine
BlackLine is a provider of cloud-based solutions that transform Finance and Accounting (F&A) by automating, centralizing and streamlining financial close operations, intercompany accounting processes and other key F&A processes for large and midsize organizations. Designed to complement virtually all ERP and other financial systems including SAP, Oracle and NetSuite, BlackLine increases operational efficiency, real-time visibility, control and compliance to ensure end-to-end financial close management and accounting automation from within a single, unified cloud platform.

Enabling customers to move beyond outdated processes and point solutions to a Continuous Accounting model, in which real-time automation, controls and period-end tasks are embedded within day-to-day activities, BlackLine helps companies modernize accounting operations with intelligent automation, ensuring more accurate and insightful financial statements and a more efficient financial close. More than 2,400 companies with users around the world trust BlackLine to help ensure balance sheet integrity and confidence in their financial statements.

BlackLine is recognized by Gartner as a Leader in its 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Close Solutions and as a pioneer in the cloud market for enhanced financial control and automation.

Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.blackline.com.

Forward-looking Statements:
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "potential," "would," "continue," "ongoing" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding our growth plans and opportunities.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon BlackLine's current plans, estimates and expectations and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith beliefs and assumptions as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any assumptions prove incorrect, actual performance or results may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to risks related to the Company's ability to execute on its strategies, attract new customers, enter new geographies and develop and sell new features; and other risks and uncertainties described in the other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the risks described under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 8, 2018. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE BlackLine