San Francisco, California, United States, November 2025 — Planful Inc., the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software, today announced the appointment of Richard Parke as Chief Customer Officer. Parke brings over 20 years of experience building and leading world-class customer-facing organizations, including Avetta and Convergys (now Concentrix), with a proven track record of helping companies scale while keeping customers at the center. In 2025, Planful made significant investments in its customer programs, including doubling its Account Relationship team, tripling its technical resources and launching a One-Touch Customer Portal, giving customers instant access to expert knowledge and assistance. The company also introduced a premium offering, Planful Admin Managed Services (PAMS), that provides customers with a dedicated Planful expert to help manage, optimize, and evolve their Planful environment.
“As we expand our customer base and enhance our award-winning capabilities with Planful AI, Richard’s appointment shows we’re committed to providing stellar support and service,” said John Herr, Chief Executive Officer at Planful. “Richard’s extensive experience leading global customer operations and his proven ability to scale customer-centric organizations will help us take our customer programs to an even higher level. His focus on customer success will be instrumental as we continue our growth trajectory and help finance teams tackle their most complex challenges.”
Parke previously worked with Herr at Avetta, where he helped guide the company through significant global expansion while scaling the customer organization. Throughout his career, he has led global teams across customer success, support, professional services, retention and expansion, customer experience technology, and enablement.
“I’m thrilled to join Planful at such an exciting time in the company’s journey as it accelerates its global expansion,” said Richard Parke. “Planful’s innovative solutions are transforming how finance teams work, and I look forward to ensuring our customers achieve maximum value from the Planful platform. By building on the strong success programs already in place for customers, we’ll continue to evolve our customer organization to meet the growing needs of our diverse user base.”
This appointment comes as Melissa Dreuth transitions back to her role as Chief People Officer and Chief of Staff to the CEO. Dreuth had stepped in to lead the customer organization earlier this year while maintaining her responsibilities as Chief People Officer.
Parke will oversee Planful‘s engagement with over 1,500 customers and joins the company at a period of rapid development. In addition to Herr’s appointment as CEO, Planful recently launched Analyst Assistant, which removes the burden of manual analysis for financial teams and provides instant insights, enabling financial professionals to focus on strategy.
About Planful
Planful is the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software. The Planful platform, which helps businesses drive peak financial performance, is used around the globe to streamline business-wide planning, budgeting, consolidations, reporting, and analytics. Planful’s award-winning AI capabilities accelerate decision-making, helping Planful users in over 100 countries to close faster, accelerate cycle times, increase productivity, and improve accuracy. Planful is a private company with more than 1,500 customers, including Bose, Boston Red Sox, Five Guys, Grafton Plc, Gousto, and Specialized, and is backed by Vector Capital, a leading global private equity firm.
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