Zendesk strengthens APAC leadership with new regional COO, SVP of sales

This week, Zendesk strengthens its regional leadership bench with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) veterans Wendy Johnstone and Gari Johnson to accelerate growth in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, which accounts for more than 10% of the company’s global business with over 24,000 customers, as of the latest financial results (Q1 2020).

Johnstone joins Zendesk as the company’s first regional Chief Operating Officer, where she will spearhead go-to-market strategies and operations for APAC and report into global Chief Operating Officer Tom Keiser. Based in Singapore, she brings over 25 years of experience in numerous senior marketing and operations roles at Salesforce, EMC, IBM and, most recently, Microsoft.  

Working closely with Johnstone is Gari Johnson, Senior Vice President, Sales, Asia Pacific, who will drive the company’s growth strategy and expand its customer base in the region. Previously at Salesforce, Johnson’s experience spans more than 30 years in sales, operations and marketing roles at Oracle, Intralinks and IBM, to name a few. Johnson is based in Sydney and reports into Norman Gennaro, President, Worldwide Sales. 

Together, Johnstone and Johnson are set to steer the APAC business through these unique times in an effort to support Zendesk’s long-term goal of becoming a multibillion-dollar revenue company.

Earlier this year, Johnson’s predecessor, Sandie Overtveld, stepped into a newly created role within the business as the Vice President, Strategic Enterprise Accounts for APAC and EMEA and is now based in Europe.