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Kinaxis hires supply-chain industry veteran Morgan to lead sales and marketing efforts

October 31, 2024

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Kinaxis has hired a seasoned supply-chain software executive to oversee its sales and marketing efforts as it looks to kickstart growth in the face of growing investor unrest. The Kanata company announced late Wednesday it has tapped industry veteran Mark Morgan for the newly created role of president of commercial operations. Kinaxis said Morgan will be in charge of several key aspects of the supply-chain management software firm’s business. In addition to managing Kinaxis’s global sales teams, he will also be responsible for the company’s go-to-market and strategic operations team, as well as its global customer care and business consulting operations. During a conference call with analysts Thursday morning, Kinaxis executive chair Bob Courteau said the Texas-based executive is “a well-liked, proven leader that knows our space extremely well and has scaled businesses well beyond a billion in revenue.” Later in the call, Courteau reiterated his belief that Morgan will accelerate sales growth at Kinaxis, which has more than doubled its customer count in the past three years as demand for its software has skyrocketed amid global conflicts and a spate of major supply-chain bottlenecks. “What we’ve got to do now is take advantage of our position in the marketplace, and that’s where Mark Morgan comes in,” Courteau said. “He gets this industry.” Morgan brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience at some of Kinaxis’s biggest competitors to his new role. In late 2023 and early 2024, he served as chief commercial officer at Coupa Software, which specializes in procurement and supply-chain design applications. Morgan joined Coupa after a five-and-a-half-year stint at supply-chain management software firm Blue Yonder, where he spent four years as chief revenue officer and briefly held the title of interim CEO from February to July of 2022. Morgan described his new job as a rare opportunity. “Kinaxis is the clear leader in planning and AI-driven supply chain orchestration with the largest blue-chip customers, deepest domain expertise, a robust and modern portfolio, and really exciting prospects,” he said in a statement. Morgan’s appointment comes as Kinaxis faces mounting scrutiny from shareholders who are concerned about where the company is headed amid ongoing upheaval in its senior leadership ranks. In the past two months, two high-profile investment firms have publicly called on Kinaxis’s board to “aggressively” explore the possibility of a sale. The investors made it clear they aren’t happy with the steep decline in Kinaxis’s stock price since late 2020, as well as the pending departures of CEO John Sicard and chief sales officer Claire Rychlewski, who are leaving a C-suite that has already seen several key figures exit in the past 12 months. Kinaxis recently hired Goldman Sachs to advise it on maximizing its value to shareholders. In his opening statement to analysts on Thursday, Courteau said there have been “inquiries about the company” but did not elaborate. “While the board has not closed the door to any path, there have not been any material developments,” he said. “We’re following a process here to create value for the company,” he said later in the call, adding the search for a successor to Sicard – who is retiring as CEO at the end of 2024 but plans to stay on as an adviser for another year – is “advancing.” Morgan’s hiring captured much of the attention as Kinaxis reported its third-quarter earnings. The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, posted a profit of $6.8 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, in the three-month period ending Sept. 30. That compares with a profit of $7.4 million, or 25 cents per diluted share, a year earlier. Meanwhile, Kinaxis’s sales continued to rise, with revenues increasing 12 per cent year-over-year to $121.6 million. The company said its pipeline of new business is growing, adding that while its total 2024 revenues will likely come in at the lower end of its projected guidance of between $483 million and $495 million, its projected adjusted EBITDA margins of 20 to 22 per cent are getting closer to its target of 25 per cent. Courteau noted the company is forming “more strategic relations” with resellers and major sales channel partners, including Accenture. “This will create a snowball effect that will reinforce Kinaxis’s leadership position in the market,” he said. “Our competitive position has never been better.” Sales are taking longer to close as prospective customers scrutinize expenditures more closely, Courteau conceded. But he said Kinaxis is still winning more market share than its competitors, and those customers are sticking with it – the firm has a retention rate of more than 95 per cent. “The neat thing about our category is that once a customer signs with Kinaxis, they stay with Kinaxis,” he said. “We’re seeing increasing churn coming from those competitors, and we’re going to take advantage of that. “We’re doing all the things that great software companies do.” Kinaxis shares were down $2.77, or just under two per cent, to $154.58 in late-afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.