We are very happy to announce that Chris McLaughlin has joined Nuxeo as the Chief Marketing Officer. Chris brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge in the content management space and we are thrilled to have him onboard with us!
We asked him a few questions about why he wanted to join Nuxeo, his experience here so far, the product and the content management market in general. Here’s what he has to say.
Q: Why did you decide to join Nuxeo? What was it about the company, the product, or both, that made you want to join?
The first thing that I appreciated about Nuxeo was the quality and passion of the people I met. This began with Matt Cahir, CRO, and Eric Barroca, CEO, and extended to the investors, the Board and every employee I met. Not only was everyone excited about the company, its products and its incredible growth, they were clearly passionate about how their technology would change the way organizations work with their content, transforming it into valuable assets.
I was also incredibly impressed with the Nuxeo Content Services Platform. Having been in the Enterprise Content Management market for almost 20 years, I have seen my fair share of these technologies. I saw the Nuxeo Platform as modern, well-architected and highly performant without the legacy dependencies that many Enterprise Content Management software have. It has rich functionality for DAM systems and ECM use cases, including [Document Management systems]/solutions/document-management/, knowledge management systems and case management platform. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use right out of the box or can be fully configured for unique customer requirements. In short, I saw a product that provides the full breadth of content services, but without the complexity and high cost of ownership like other offerings in this space.
Let’s face it, this market is ready for change. Organizations are frustrated with their current vendors as well as the lack of new thinking. The time is right for next-generation solutions, like Nuxeo, to come to the forefront. And this is what I saw in Nuxeo - a young, innovative company that is poised to take on a large, established market and make a difference.
Q: How has your experience been so far at Nuxeo?
In a word, fantastic. Not only have the team members been extremely welcoming, they’re also incredibly smart and talented. I am finding more and more to be excited about as I learn more about Nuxeo, its products and its people. We have such an amazing story to share, I get so excited just thinking about it.
And, I have to say, our relationship with Goldman Sachs and Kennet Partners has given us the resources to be successful. Having worked at start-up organizations, I am used to leading small teams and being very resourceful to get things done. What I am not used to is a CEO and Board who ask, “What do you need to be successful?” and then go about helping you to find the resources you need.
Q: Tell us a little about your work prior to joining us.
Well, I spent the last six years working for EMC’s Enterprise Content Division in three very different roles. Most recently, I was the divisional CMO, responsible for bringing their products - like Documentum, InfoArchive and LEAP - to market. I also spent a year at the General Manager for one of their vertical teams, leading their product and go-to-market activities for the Energy & Engineering industry. And, for my first three years at EMC, I ran their worldwide Partner and Channel Sales organization.
Before EMC, I spent four years at a tech startup, Thunderhead, where I was their CMO and SVP of Business Development. In 2008, Thunderhead was recognized as the fastest-growing technology company in Europe, topping the Deloitte Fast 500. Prior to Thunderhead, I held senior roles at FileNet, another ECM software company, and at Inforte, an eBusiness consultancy.
Q: What do you think about the future of Nuxeo as a company, the products, as well as where the market is headed?
I think the future is extremely bright for Nuxeo.
As I mentioned above, I think the enterprise content market is poised on the precipice of change. Yes, it’s a mature market. Much has been written about the demise of ECM and many of these technologies haven’t lived up to their billing or promise. But, the basic business problems associated with ECM still remain: most companies create a massive amount of content daily; they struggle to find and manage information that already exists; and, in today’s digital era, they look for new ways to leverage information, turn content into valuable assets, and explore new business models and revenue sources.
These problems aren’t going away and, in most cases, are more important now than ever before. So, I don’t care if you call it ECM, Digital Asset Management or Content Services, there is still a massive opportunity to help companies better leverage their information, to unlock the full value of their assets. And, I believe that Nuxeo, with its next-generation content platform, is the right technology, in the right place, at the right time to help solve these problems.
As for where the market is headed, I will save this for a future blog. But, for now, suffice it to say that organizations are looking for easy-to-deploy, discrete apps and readily scalable, modular platforms that can address multiple use cases and add immediate value to their businesses. And, here again, I think Nuxeo is uniquely positioned to lead the future of this market.
Q: If there is one thing about Nuxeo you would like to tell the world about, what would it be?
Just one thing? OK. I’ll keep it simple. I have never seen a company - an entire group of people - who are so collectively focused on and passionate about technology. This begins with our CEO and permeates all the way down in our organization. We are constantly on the lookout for new tools and technologies that will make the Nuxeo Platform more functional, more performant, and more valuable for our customers.
This is what it boils down to. If you are going to reinvent an industry and lead the market into a bright, new future, it has to begin with passion. Nuxeo has a passion for data - not just content - and the role that data plays in converting content into valuable business assets. Nuxeo also has a passion for innovation, growth and creating a bright future for itself and its customers by helping them succeed.
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
I have a few, simple passions. The first is my family. My two daughters are away at college, but my son is still at home and I really enjoy attending his high school football and basketball games. I also enjoy playing basketball and try to make time for at least one or two runs a week. And, more recently, I have discovered sporting clays, which is a shooting sport that requires a lot of practice and concentration as well as decent hand-eye coordination. It can be - at the same time - both incredibly frustrating and rewarding, and I have just begun to compete in local and regional tournaments.