Plano-based Cien.ai, a go-to-market AI analytics platform, has appointed Joanna Ridgway as senior vice president of global sales and Steve Valenta as senior vice president of strategic partnerships.

“We’re extremely pleased to welcome Joanna and Steve to our leadership team,” Cien.ai co-founder Margot Carter, who was recently recognized as an AI 75 innovator by Dallas Innovates, said in a statement. “The thriving Texas business community is driven by innovation. By adding these two key leaders, we will expand our reach and help companies leverage AI to achieve significant productivity gains.”

An experienced financial executive, Ridgway will lead the Cien.ai global sales team and foster client relationships in management consulting, private equity, and financial services, the company said.

Most recently, Ridgway led the Santander Bank, N.A., regional corporate banking team. She has nearly 20 years of combined expertise at JPMorgan, Bank of America, Fifth Third, and in private equity. She was awarded the German Marshall Fund Memorial Fellowship (2012), DBJ Women in Business (2021), and selected as a D CEO 500 Business Leader in 2022.

The company said Valenta will lead its strategic partnerships and other business development efforts, establishing new and strengthening existing relationships with cloud and AI companies such as Salesforce.com and Microsoft Azure. A seasoned professional services executive, Valenta served most recently as a director at Stout, a global advisory firm. Prior to that, he was senior managing director at Nasdaq and has also held positions at EY and Arthur Andersen.

Launching new GTM Suite

The company said the timing of the appointments aligns with its launch of a turnkey “Proof Of Value” (POV) offering of its GTM Suite, which uses AI analysis to transform Go-to-Market teams.

Cien.ai said some of its unique capabilities include the ability to identify and quantify revenue growth friction points in just a few days, without complex rollouts, and even when a client has less-than-perfect CRM data.

“Everyone has concerns about their data quality,” Ridgway said. “Cien.ai’s ability to address data quality issues automatically to deliver insights that help drive optimal outcomes is a game changer for companies.”

The launch of its new POV program adds significant value to its robust GTM Suite, the company said.

Valenta said Cien.ai’s “composable” cloud architecture allows partners and clients to “control exactly where and how data is stored and processed,” enabling new and highly secure collaborations.

He added that the product’s ability to identify over $10 million in actionable growth opportunities for a mid-market company makes Cien’s new POV offering “extremely attractive for private equity and management consultants to white label,” especially with the current emphasis on cost-effective growth.

Founded in 2016, Cien.ai helps companies analyze and transform B2B go-to-market teams faster, deeper, and more cost-efficient than ever before. The company said it delivers platform and data products that don’t require complicated rollouts.

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