Alida hires tech execs and updates platform

Scott Barkley joins Alida as senior vice-president, product management. Most recently vice-president, head of product for Cisco’s internet of things (IoT) business unit, Barkley will lead Alida’s product management team and be responsible for the product portfolio.

The company has appointed Paul Hagen as principal director of customer experience management (CXM). He will lead Alida’s CXM product strategy an design thinking, and advise clients globally.

Prior to Alida, Hagen held principal roles at West Monroe Partners and Forrester.

Manuel Zahariev has also joined Alida as vice-president of engineering (AI & analytics), leading the team to build analytical technology across the company’s CXM tools. Zahariev has previously held AI and machine learning leadership roles at companies including Vonigo and Tyze Personal Networks.

Barkley and Hagen are based in San Francisco, California, while Zahariev is based in Alida’s headquarters in Vancouver, Canada.

Riaz Raihan, president of products and engineering, Alida, said: “Scott, Paul and Manuel bring deep product expertise and technology leadership to Alida. With their collective wealth of experience, Alida’s product innovation will reach new heights.”

Alida has updated its digital insights platform, Alida Sparq, with new features including enterprise controls and advanced data privacy, offering secure access to data and personally identifiable information (PII) collected through the platform.

The company has also added AI and machine learning functionality, a mobile app for admins, and quick polls.