On 16 October 2023 Mr. Ray Hein, one of Propel Software’s co-founders, announced his retirement from day-to-day responsibilities at the firm. He had turned over the CEO role at Propel in 2022 to Mr. Ross Meyercord, a Salesforce veteran,[1] and last held the title of Chief Strategy Officer. Tapping Mr. Meyercord makes sense given that Propel is built on the Salesforce platform and is part of a huge ecosystem of Salesforce application providers, a great strength of the Propel offering.
Mr. Hein has a long history in the product lifecycle management (PLM) market, going back to his role at Agile Software from 1997 to 2007, where he was VP of Product Strategy. At Agile, he was responsible for product vision and strategy, roadmap development and execution, and product management. Mr. Hein was also instrumental in growing Agile through strategic acquisitions that eventually led to their acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2006. During his career, Mr. Hein also held senior management roles at Centric Software, another PLM firm; Vendavo, a provider of B2B pricing and selling solutions; and Apttus (now Conga), a provider of business process management and contract lifecycle management solutions. Vendavo and Apttus both offer configure-price-quote (CPQ) solutions that are a great fit with PLM for product manufacturers.
CIMdata had the pleasure of working with Mr. Hein at many of the stops in his career. His visionary leadership will be missed. Fortunately for Propel, his knowledge and experience will be accessible as Mr. Hein will remain on the Board of Directors.
CIMdata wishes Mr. Hein well in his newest role as Chief Recreation Officer for his grandchildren.