North Plains Systems, the leader in helping companies effectively connect with and engage their customers through visual media, today announced the addition of key members to its executive team to support the continued global growth and thought leadership position of the company. The executives come from strong industry backgrounds with experience in driving sales and business growth at companies such as OpenText, Artesia (now OpenText), Autodesk, Platform Computing (now IBM), Computer Associates and Deloitte. The new executive members include :
- Mark Millar, CFO
- Paul O’Donnell, Executive VP, Global Sales
- Mark Finch, General Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
- Yojiro Nishimura, General Manager for Asia Pacific (APAC)
“As North Plains continues our momentum and strives to be the best rich media solutions provider, it is imperative that we have business and technology leadership that will help the company grow to the next level. I’m very excited that we are attracting some of the top talent in the industry that not only have strong backgrounds in both, but also understand the needs of our customers and the market,” said James Christopher, President and Chief Executive Officer of North Plains.
Executive Bios
Mark Millar is responsible for all aspect of Finance, Legal and Human Resources globally. He has more than 30 years of experience in the international technology industry, mostly as VP Finance or CFO. Prior to joining North Plains, Millar was CFO at Syncapse Corp, CFO at Platform Computing and VP Finance at SOLCORP. During this time, Millar has been responsible for all aspects of Finance, including numerous acquisitions, capital raises, as well as a number of successful exits. Millar started his career at Deloitte where he obtained his C.A. designation. He graduated from Queen’s University with a BA Honours in History and Economics.
Paul O’Donnell is responsible for global go-to-market strategy and execution management across all North Plains sales channels. He has more than 30 years of experience in Information Technology. Initially entering the market in a number of technical and technical management roles, O’Donnell co-founded a software development and services company in the UK. Following the sale of his company, he held various positions in technical sales, sales, sales management and general management for companies such as Lotus Development Inc., Fujitsu UK Ltd, Peak Technologies Inc. and recently, OpenText Corp.
In the last 15 years O’Donnell leveraged his leadership, analytical and broad business skills to focus on a number of business transformation projects that have resulted in both organic and acquisition lead revenue and profit growth. O’Donnell has extensive international experience, having lived and conducted business in Eastern and Western Europe, Eastern Mediterranean and the Americas. He was born and educated in Scotland, graduating in Computer Science from Bell College of Technology.
Mark Finch is responsible for North Plains’ operations in EMEA. His priorities are ensuring customer and partner satisfaction and increasing awareness of North Plains across the EMEA region in order to expand from the strong existing base in the UK. He has been a pioneer in the software solutions industry for more than 25 years, starting in consultancy with Admiral (now LogicaCMG) and moving into selling infrastructure management solutions with Computer Associates, where he ran a new business division. Informix was his first introduction to the digital media world. He then spent the last 12 years at Artesia (acquired by OpenText) building and expanding the European Digital Asset Management business. At OpenText, as the VP of Customer Experience Management Solutions for Northern Europe, Finch grew the business organically by more than 20% by focusing on digital media solutions. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Kingston University.
Yojiro Nishimura is leading North Plains’ new Japanese subsidiary, North Plains K.K. as the new General Manager for the Asia Pacific region (see press release, North Plains Expands Asia Pacific Presence with New Subsidiary in Japan). Nishimura’s experience in sales and professional services will help drive rapid adoption and growth in the territory. Prior to joining North Plains, he was senior manager at Autodesk and Alias Systems. During this time, he was responsible for business development and delivery management of professional services in the rich media markets of Games, Feature Films, Broadcasting, Automobile and Manufacturing. Nishimura started the services business in the Asia Pacific region and grew it to a multi-million dollar in annual revenue venture in just a few years. Nishimura has educational backgrounds in engineering and a MBA from the GLOBIS University in Japan.
About North Plains
With over 1,400 installations supporting over one million active users worldwide North Plains is recognized as the leader in helping global brand managers, marketers, content creators, publishers and media companies to efficiently and effectively engage and connect with their target audiences through visual media including images, photos, videos and 3D designs. North Plains’ market-leading software portfolio enables companies to address a number of needs across the Creative Marketing Lifecycle, including work-in-progress creative production systems, digital asset management infrastructure and comprehensive marketing and brand asset management solutions. In addition to providing a complete portfolio of software products, North Plains is uniquely positioned when it comes to the integration and implementation of product and software solutions with its professional services team and a rich network of resellers and global technology partners. Since 1994, North Plains has helped its customers stay ahead of their rapidly changing marketing needs. With offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan, North Plains counts many of the world’s leading companies and brands among its satisfied clients. For more information, please visit http://www.northplains.com.