Australia’s own commercial aerial imagery company, Nearmap, announced two new senior executive hires to drive its next phase of growth.
Shane Preston will join the team as Vice President of Sales and Silvia Arrigoni will be Vice President of Marketing.
Building on its successful expansion into the US market and a recent first-time capture of New Zealand, Nearmap has invested in two new VPs to facilitate growth locally and overseas.
The appointments follow a strong first half of the financial year, with the company increasing its global customer base by 16 per cent and revenue by 38 per cent year-on-year.
Preston will lead the Australian sales teams across new business, strategic customer relationship management, customer success, and government engagement. He joins Nearmap following a three year tenure as Managing Director for business advisory firm, Black Wallaby, where he specialised in the growth and commercialisation of technology businesses.
This background will be important as the company continues on an accelerated growth trajectory, both locally and globally. The team also indicated to Spatial Source that it plans to release new offerings later in the year, including 3D imagery that will compete with fellow Australia aerial imagery company, Spookfish.
Arrigoni, the new VP of Marketing, will steer the marketing division’s strategies and work closely with the company’s business heads to drive organic growth, nurture customer relations and increase brand awareness through marketing. Arrigoni brings decades of experience to Nearmap having previously held positions as Head of Brand Marketing at online lender, SocietyOne, and as Group Business Director for marketing agencies including HAVAS and Arnold Furnace.
Rob Newman, Nearmap CEO and Managing Director, said: “Silvia and Shane will play a critical role in expanding our current customer base and ensuring we continue to grow in the right direction, capturing new markets and ensuring that businesses around the world understand how they can leverage our groundbreaking technology.”
“Every day, people are finding new ways to utilise our imagery to give their businesses the competitive edge,” Newman continued. “Silvia and Shane will be the steady hands that guides our marketing and sales efforts as we continue to push the boundaries of aerial imaging technology and expand our coverage around the world.”
Preston’s prior experience founding and leading 3D modelling software business, Solidtec, has leant him unique insight into Nearmap’s growth potential as especially as it moves into the 3D imagery market.
“As soon as I was introduced to the Nearmap platform, I was hooked,” said Preston, “I saw the amazing quality of images available, covering such an unbelievable range of locations and dates and my mind immediately flew to all the possible business uses.”
Similarly, Arrigoni has worked with a number of innovative tech clients throughout her career.
“Nearmap is the pioneer in the aerial imagery space — there is no other business like it in Australia and I’m thrilled to play a part in guiding the company to the next level of growth,” she said. “Nearmap has a number of groundbreaking announcements in the works. The best part is, that as the technology continues to improve, such as the imminent integration of 3D imagery into the platform, its potential uses only increase”.