Ken Mandel to head HootSuite in APAC

Social relationship management platform HootSuite has appointed Ken Mandel as its managing director for Asia Pacific.Mandel(pictured) has experience in both sales and digital advertising in APAC and brings a wide range of enterprise innovation and executive leadership experience to HootSuite. He will now be responsible for HootSuite’s regional growth strategy and rapid expansion with enterprise customers.“With our current momentum and global expansion plans, the APAC market holds tremendous unlocked potential in the enterprise business sphere,” Mandel said.According to a spokesperson, HootSuite plans to expand its presence throughout the entire APAC region with an initial focus on Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia.  She also added that because Hootsuite is building a regional presence in APAC, there are a range of roles available to fill over the coming months, including sales and pre-sales,  account management, lead generation, business development, partnerships, marketing and PR and human resources.Prior to joining HootSuite, Mandel was managing director of Salesforce Marketing Cloud for APAC, and before that he was Buddy Media’s first hire in the region. Mandel led Buddy Media’s growth in the region until it was acquired by Salesforce.com in 2012.Before his role at Salesforce.com/Buddy Media, Mandel was Yahoo!’s regional vice president of APAC. At Yahoo!, Mandel opened four new markets in under two years and monetized Yahoo’s product lines display, search, ad network, mobile, and the Right Media exchange. He has also worked as CEO of APAC for Neo@Ogilvy.Recently, Hootsuite received a global venture capital funding of US $165 million in August. With the investment, Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite told Bloomberg that he hopes this will help HootSuite build its business without seeking funds via an initial public offering.“Mandel’s insights will help push widespread enterprise adoption of HootSuite across the Asia Pacific region and I am pleased to welcome him to our executive team,” Holmes added.Competitors for HootSuite includes the likes of TweetDeck, Radian6, Lithium, Conversocial Revie, Viralheat and others globally.However the spokesperson added that what differentiates the brand is its “scalable solution for both current and evolving requirements”.“In addition to supporting several Asian languages, HootSuite’s App Directory has more than 60 apps and extensions including Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and Mixi - and we will continue to evaluate emerging regional social networks and partnerships giving our customers a level of flexibility our competitors do not offer today,” she added.To date, there are 53 APAC-based enterprise customers, representing a 20% increase in growth this quarter. Enterprise clients in APAC include the Australian Red Cross, Jetstar Airways, and the City of Sydney. HootSuite is also used by Virgin, PepsiCo, Sony Music, FOX, and 744 of the Fortune 1000 companies.