Email optimisation platform SparkPost has named Michelle Byrd as their new Chief People Officer. SparkPost is the world’s largest email-sending and optimization platform, accounting for the delivery of nearly 40% of commercial emails globally. Sparkpost’s clients include industry leaders Adobe, Zillow, The New York Times, Booking.com, Rakuten, and Zynga. 

Byrd comes to SparkPost after her time as Chief People Officer at multi-cloud data management company Zaloni and VP of Global Human Resources and Talent at SilverPop. During her time at SilverPop, Byrd navigated the cloud-based digital marketing provider through their acquisition by IBM, implementing a holistic range of human resources and talent management programs to scale. 

“As the industry further embraces digital marketing, we’re seeing a shift of budgets into email and an explosion of interest in email marketing tools and analytics to optimize return on investment for the email channel,” said SparkPost CEO Rich Harris. “The next several years will be transformative for email as new technologies dramatically improve the email user experience and drive marketing effectiveness. We are excited to play an important role in the email ecosystem and we are lucky to attract a seasoned and creative leader like Michelle to help us achieve operational excellence. Michelle has consistently built outstanding teams and cultures in her career and we expect her to do the same here at SparkPost.”

Back in January 2021, SparkPost secured a $180 million funding from LLR Partners, NewSpring Capital and PNC Bank and are going to dedicate the funds to investing in the expansion and innovation of their cutting-edge marketing email technology. Byrd will no doubt bring her extensive experience and expertise into using these funds and driving this growth for SparkPost even further in her new role as Chief People Officer. 

“I’m excited to join SparkPost at a time of tremendous growth and to help scale and retain our most valuable asset–our people,” said Michelle Byrd. “SparkPost is a company that truly lives by its core values for both its employees and customers and I’m excited to be a part of the successful chapters ahead.”