Board Member, Advisor, CMO


Dave Laverty

Dave draws on 30+ years of executive leadership experience in high-tech marketing and the software industry, specializing in GTM strategy.


30+ Years of Industry Leadership Experience

Dave has a proven track record in developing and implementing strategic go-to-market plans to drive growth and market expansion, brand positioning and visibility, digital engagement and analytics.His leadership spans both large complex organizations as well as start-up, early stage companies.Click below to download a copy of Dave's resume or scroll down to learn more.


Experience Overview

Advisor Experience

2017 – Present - Bridge Growth Partners, LLP - Senior Advisor, Technology and Strategy for private equity firm. Advise SaaS and Services portfolio companies on growth strategies, go-to-market sales and marketing and value creation, advisor to senior management.2016 – Present - Chairman, Board of Directors, Rhode Island PBS Foundation – led board effort to merge two prominent public media outlets to form a new powerful public media company servicing southern New England; led vision and long-term strategic planning for the organization and the communities the new organization will serve; led CEO search committee to recruit a new CEO to lead the organization.2017-2021 - Finalsite, Inc. – Board of Directors - private equity owned SaaS solutions provider focused on the education market; successful exit to Veritas 12x ARR, 28x Cash EBITDA2016 – 2023 - Demand Spring – Board of Directors – strategic marketing firm specializing in Marketo marketing automation advisory, deployment and managed as a service; revenue marketing strategy and digital engagement.2016 – 2017 SY Partners, Leadfully Advisory - Mentor and coach for a leadership development program for emerging Fortune 500 business leaders and organizations.


Executive Experience

2008 – July 2016 IBM Corporation

Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, IBM Data & Analytics Division (2009 - 2016)• Global marketing responsibility for $8B Analytics Division of IBM including Market Strategy, Portfolio Marketing, Vertical Industry Solutions; Managed team of 400 marketing professionals and $190M budget; positioned IBM as a leader in the Big Data and Analytics market segment, and as a cloud SaaS provider.• Facilitated M&A and marketing integration for division acquisitions including SPSS, Guardium, Netezza, Initiate, Cloudant, The Weather Company, and strategic alliances with X (Twitter) and Box; Initiated IBM’s market positioning and investment in the Internet of Things Division. Consolidated a diverse product portfolio into a cohesive, market leading strategy; led cross company competitive initiative to improve positioning and market share.• Led strategy effort to transform and modernize IBM’s overall global marketing function by defining new disciplines, market categories, digital and brand strategies, roles and function alignment; Developed and integrated marketing best practices across IBM.• Member IBM Growth and Transformation Team (top 300 IBM executives) six years; member IBM Geography Expansion Team four years – senior executives assigned to growth countries to assist and advise Country General Managers in formulating a growth strategy and plan, mentor local employees and support local press and client engagement.


2002 - 2008 Cognos Incorporated - market leading business intelligence and performance management software company acquired by IBM in 2008.

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer• Elevated Cognos’ image as a leading enterprise performance management solutions provider; established a unified global brand and drove a consistent, focused go-to-market strategy that ultimately positioned the company as the category leader in both vision and innovation with analysts, press and thought leaders.• Implemented a digital demand generation process of discovery, prospect engagement and sales lead conversion, and deployed a marketing automation system supported by analytics driven decision making.• Led organization through major global product launches regarded as game changing initiatives; initiated a vertical industry approach to improve relevance and value of analytics, built industry advocates team; integrated numerous acquisitions; coordinated alliance activities (IBM, Accenture, Deloitte).• Company grew from $450M to $1B during tenure before the IBM acquisition.


2000 - 2002 Surebridge, Inc. - venture backed cloud service provider offering application management and hosting services acquired by Navisite.

Vice President, Marketing• Established the marketing function and developed company brand positioning, and messaging. Built awareness and demand generation pipeline process; grew to a profitable $26M business.


1990 – 2000 Lotus Development Corporation (Acquired by IBM 1995)

Vice President of Marketing Americas• Led marketing strategy and execution in support of product and professional services division covering U.S. and Canada; created organization and drove significant improvement in competitive position and revenue contribution.• Served in a number of management positions rising from Channel Marketing Manager to Brand Manager, to Director, Brand Marketing, and Vice President.


Prior Experience

Prime/Computervision (Acquired by PTC) International Market Manager
Linkware Corporation - Marketing Manager
NCR Corporation - Sales Representative - retail, wholesales distribution segments
EducationBachelor of Science in Business Administration, Bryant UniversityAssociationsPast Chairman, Marketing Executives Council, The Conference Board; CMO Council Advisory BoardHobbies - avid skier, golf, past Boy Scouts of America parent advisorMarried, father of 4