E-mail marketing service provider Lyris has named Tina Stewart its SVP of marketing. Her hire is the company’s second significant appointment under new CEO Wolfgang Maasberg.
Stewart, a 20-year marketing industry veteran, joins Lyris from Juniper Networks, a networking, security and software company. At Juniper, she led online strategy, including social media efforts, such as the Juniper J-Net Community forums and blogs, as its senior director of digital and Web marketing.
Effective immediately, Stewart is managing the Emeryville, CA-based company’s global corporate marketing, reporting directly to Maasberg. Maasberg would not confirm whether Blaine Mathieu, Lyris’ CMO since 2008, had left the company.
“Tina is directly tied into developing a clear social strategy,” Maasberg said. “We need to speak relevantly to our customers.”
Maasberg, who replaced former CEO Luis Rivera in August, also appointed Jim Lovelady as SVP of sales in late October. Lovelady had worked at Epsilon, Acxiom and Infogroup. Maasberg, 38, previously was VP of sales in the Americas at Omniture.
Lyris reported a 6.6% year-over-year decline in its fiscal year 2011 first-quarter revenues. During the quarter, which ended September 30, it produced a net loss of $3.2 million on revenues of $10.1 million. In the same quarter of last fiscal year, it saw a $797,000 loss on revenues of $10.8 million.
Maasberg cited “the impact of the macroeconomic environment on client churn and e-mail volume” on Q1 performance, as well as severance for its former chief executive and layoffs of 43 employees in a “right-sizing,” which began when he joined.
However, the company is optimistic about the sales of its marquee product, Lyris HQ, which it introduced three years ago. Lyris HQ integrates search, social and mobile functions into e-mail marketing services, as well as Web analytics.
“I’m disappointed with the results, but I’m bullish in terms of what I see in our technology,” Maasberg said.
Earlier this week, Lyris rolled out social media components for the platform. It expects to add features and services in Q2 as well.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the company’s revenues for the first quarter. Its Q1 revenues were $10.1 million, and $10.8 million for the same period of last year.
