OVERSEAS-based Guyanese Chris Latesh Singh has been appointed Senior Vice-President of Customer Success at Blackbaud, and will now oversee global customer success functions, including management and support, services, operations and technology.
Blackbaud, the world’s largest cloud software company powering social good, announced Singh’s new office last Monday, and in an invited comment, Singh told the Guyana Chronicle that he could not be happier with his new job, as it will allow him to serve more people.
A former resident of Ocean View, Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, Singh migrated to Canada more than 30 years ago.
At his previous job, he was one of the persons who ran a $30+ Billion a year business as the Senior Vice-President and Global Head for Customer Success Management at a company called SAP, which has over 94,000 full-time employees globally, and is the world leader in Enterprise Application, with over 413,000 customers worldwide, and a market cap of over $126B.

Consulting, business development, head of innovation and engineering, software and development, cloud computing and services are some of the key positions that Singh has held. Explaining why he’s now decided to get on board with Blackbaud, he said: “When this opportunity at Blackbaud presented itself, I initially had no intention of leaving SAP and disrupting a 19-year-career. However, when I learnt of Blackbaud’s work in the social-good space, and the impact they had on humanity, it completely resonated with me.” He added: “It was staggering to know their software generated over $100B per year in social-good causes. This means people all over the globe benefited in a meaningful way from their existence.” Singh has taken a Sustainable Business Strategy course at Harvard University, and he said everything he learnt there was put into real-life practice by the team at Blackbaud. “The decision to join was a great way of me fulfilling my purpose on this earth,” he expressed.
A Blackbaud statement published on Yahoo Finance said Singh is a proven business leader with over 17 years of experience leading customer-delight-focused teams. “His strong track record and passion for social good will be an asset in helping our customers achieve their business outcomes to help good take over.”

According to the statement, Singh has deep expertise in enterprise customer success, business transformation and cloud commercial business models, public and private clouds, experience management and sustainable business practices. He has demonstrated success in achieving significant gains in customer satisfaction, references, renewals and incremental cloud subscription revenues. Singh has held key leadership roles in product and software development, innovation, engineering and customer success. He serves on several boards as an advisor. He is a social media influencer and thought leader on customer success, innovation and value-based technology trends. He has been a keynote speaker at various global events such as The Customer Conference, TSIA, SAPPHIRE NOW and the ASUG Annual Conference. Singh is deeply passionate about people and making communities stronger, and he supports many social good causes. Meanwhile, having lived in the USA for a while and relocated to Canada, Singh said he cannot wait for post-COVID to be able to connect with his family and friends here in Guyana. He also loves playing hockey and cricket.

“The pandemic has disrupted so many things in our lives and I pine for the days of being on a cricket ground in the sweltering heat or stick handling on the ice whilst playing hockey; however, this cannot be the case. I’m so glad that I can still get lost in books. This pandemic has allowed me to re-read some classics like Grapes of Wrath and even my old Hardy Boys collection,” he remarked.
He is happy about the attitude of some youths in Guyana at the moment who are showing greater interest in career, education and experience versus a casual outreach on social matters. “This is a very good sign. I’m always eager to help anyone seeking to find their purpose so it is truly heart-warming to see this. When I had announced that I was leaving SAP, the CEO of Canada-Guyana Chamber of Commerce, Natalia Seepersaud contacted me trying to help see if I needed a job. It was a great feeling because she also probed my fit for companies or opportunities in Guyana. All of these examples signal that people are connecting outside of merely transactional ways and are now trying to grow themselves, help others and expand Guyana professionally,” Singh said.