Talkwalker to new heights with Tod Nielsen as new global CEO

Talkwalker to new heights with Tod Nielsen appointed as the new global CEO. A SaaS and software platform visionary, Nielsen will succeed Robert Glaesener, who will become chairman of the board of directors and will help oversee the successful transition.

Talkwalker is a consumer intelligence company, helping global brands combine a broad range of social and owned data, into powerful and easy to action insights. By uniting award-winning technology, with the highest levels of customer support, our AI-powered platform connects the dots between what customers think, say, and do. We enable customer-centric companies to drive revenue, increase retention, and reduce costs.

Nielsen is an industry veteran, globally recognized for his combination of strategic vision and operational capabilities, developing industry-leading platforms. Most recently, he was president and CEO of FinancialForce. He brings decades of experience in leadership roles at companies such as Salesforce, VMware, and Microsoft, and is known for his ability to help companies scale and grow significantly.

“I’ve always been an advocate of customer focus and customer centricity – brands that listen to their customers, and adapt quickly to their needs, will be market leaders,” said Tod Nielsen. “Today, that customer responsiveness and understanding is more critical than ever.”

“When the opportunity arose to work with Talkwalker,” Nielsen added, “I was excited to take it. Talkwalker helps our customers understand and get closer to their customers by translating consumer intelligence to make actionable business decisions.”

During Glaesener’s 10-year tenure, Talkwalker has seen exponential growth, growing from a small start-up to a global enterprise business with 500 employees worldwide. 2020 was a year that crystallized the importance of consumer intelligence, with over 800 new brands choosing Talkwalker to understand their customers better. This resulted in another successful year, with an impressive 38% revenue growth year-on-year, and a 46% growth in enterprise clients.

“Growing Talkwalker into a leading consumer intelligence platform and helping our global clients understand and profit from the extraordinary changes in digital consumer behavior has been an exciting journey”, Robert Glaesener said.

“Tod is the right leader to take the company to new levels of scale and growth, and I am looking forward to working with him as he takes the helm,” added Robert.

“My mission is to build upon Talkwalker’s foundation of growth and success,” Nielsen continued, “and to place Talkwalker’s impressive technology and platform at center stage in this dynamic market. I’ve been fortunate to experience firsthand what it takes to scale and grow companies to this level and beyond, and I look forward to applying those experiences in context to Talkwalker.”

This success has long been established within their client base, and the wider industry. Today, Talkwalker was recognized as a Leader in The Forrester New Wave™: AI-Enabled Consumer Intelligence Platforms, Q3 2021. This recognition will continue as Talkwalker commits to opening more global offices in Europe and Asia, strengthening its partner ecosystem, and connecting with more clients, partners, and strategic collaborators.

“While continuing to develop and expand our value proposition and market category, Talkwalker has focused on educating and empowering its users.” Nielsen said.

Also added, “I want this to continue – to not only help Talkwalker’s growth, but that of our partners. To have a widespread positive impact on our ecosystem.”

“We are thrilled to have Tod join the Talkwalker team as the new CEO,” said Roland Pezzutto, a principal at Marlin Equity Partners.

Further explained, “He has broad experience within the technology industry having grown global organizations to billions of dollars in revenue. We believe his vision and leadership will further accelerate Talkwalker’s growth and scale the company into a market- leading consumer intelligence platform.”