Astute Expands Leadership Team to Drive Outstanding Customer Experience and Rapid Growth Initiatives

After its recent acquisition of iPerceptions and Socialbakers, Astute continues momentum, hiring Zarnaz Arlia as CMO and naming Shellie Vornhagen as CXO

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Astute, Inc. (“Astute”), a leading customer engagement platform, announces Zarnaz Arlia as Chief Marketing Officer and Shellie Vornhagen as Chief Customer Experience Officer. In their new roles, Arlia and Vornhagen will lead Astute’s efforts to bring together marketing, care and commerce experiences.

As CMO, Arlia will be based in San Francisco and oversee the integration of Astute’s marketing organization with recent acquisitions of iPerceptions and Socialbakers. Arlia comes to Astute with 20+ years of experience leading marketing teams at a number of technology companies, including Adobe, Neustar, and Sitecore.

"My goal as the leader of Astute's marketing organization is to build a high-performing organization that will drive awareness and expand the customer base," said Arlia, "We want to shape customer experience from the inception phase all the way to the purchase phase -- and then create an infinite loop of customer experiences that inspire them to come back again and again.”

Vornhagen most recently served as the SVP of Marketing and Client Services for Astute. Vornhagen came to Astute from Oracle where she led global market strategy for Oracle’s retail business unit. As CXO, Vornhagen, who is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, will play a key role in the company’s overall business strategy and will focus on building an unparalleled end-to-end customer experience for Astute’s clients.

“Today more than ever experience is the key differentiator for businesses,” said Vornhagen. “I’m excited and honored to move into the role of Chief Customer Experience Officer at such an exciting time for the company. Just as Astute is dedicated to empowering brands to have outstanding interactions with their consumers, we must keep the experiences we deliver to our customers as a core focus as we continue to grow our business.”

After the events of 2020, Astute has seen a widening gap across all industries in customer expectations versus the experiences they are having with brands. There is a clear disparity between what people expect from their engagements with a brand versus what the brand is capable of delivering. As consumers demand more, the lines between customer care, customer experience and marketing have become increasingly blurred.

Brands are searching for the most effective solutions to help close the gap in customer experience. Astute’s customer engagement platform is designed to do just that -- giving brands the ability to delight customers across every touch point in the customer journey.

“As we advance on our goal to be the go-to platform for Customer Experience, we need the right leaders in place to enable our ambitious growth efforts. Shellie and Zarnaz will both play a key role in ensuring that our customers and our customer’s customers remain priority number one,” said Astute CEO Mark Zablan. “They are exceptional leaders who know how to engage customers and drive growth.”