Smartsheet taps ex-Tableau boss Nigel Mendonca to lead APAC launch

US software provider Smartsheet has opened its first office in Asia Pacific after tapping former Tableau boss Nigel Mendonca to lead its growth.

The work collaboration vendor has opened its first regional base in Sydney having already established a customer and small channel network in Australia, New Zealand and the wider region.

Mendonca told ARN his priority will now be to grow the Sydney office’s headcount and the local channel community, while implementing its global channel program.

“We've got over 83,000 customers in 190 countries around the world and we launched in the UK early last year. And so it is a natural follow on to serve the APAC market. Sydney was a logical starting point because the majority of our Asia Pacific customers are in Australia, New Zealand at this point in time.”

Founded in Bellevue in 2005, Smartsheet supplies a software-as-a-service offering that is used to assign tasks, track project progress, manage calendars, share documents using a tabular user interface.

It currently has a number of partnerships and integrations with the likes of Adobe and Microsoft. 

In APAC, Smartsheet already has around 5,000 customers and already has a small team in place spanning sales, channel development, customer success and marketing.

“Smartsheet is an innovative company that offers tremendous value to organizations in any industry and its growth opportunity is immense,” said Mendonca in a statement. “I look forward to being a part of the company at this exciting time, working with a best in class team to build and expand the Smartsheet brand across the APAC region.”

Mendonca previously spent five years as Tableau A/NZ boss, exiting the business in August following the closure of  Salesforce’s $15.7 billion-acquisition.

During his career, he has also held senior roles at Salmat, Symantec and Xpedite Systems/PGi.