Front Porch Digital Inc. has named Nikesh Kalra U.S. director of sales and marketing. Kalra brings more than 10 years of experience selling digital media solutions in the media and entertainment sector.
"As we build our sales and marketing capabilities, it is essential that we hire strategic thinkers with deep industry knowledge, high-level contacts and a track record of selling success," said Front Porch ceo Mike Knaisch. "Nikesh meets all of these criteria. I am confident that his expertise and relationships in the digital media industry will enable him to make an immediate impact on our business."
In his new role, Kalra will lead the company's efforts to accelerate penetration of the U.S. broadcast industry, and expand into music, film and post production sectors. He will also be charged with managing the company's strategic alliance program.
Most recently, Kalra served as exec director of business development at Digital Fountain in San Francisco. In this role, Kalra repositioned the company from a telecom-based consumer market to core business operations in the media sector, while booking $5 million in sales and partnership alliances in the media and entertainment sector. In addition, he was responsible for quadrupling company revenues and raising $3M in venture capital while leading company expansion into Latin American and European markets.
Previously, Kalra served as director of business development for Streaming 21, where he managed and grew the development team with key accounts, including Disney, WorldCom, HP, Compaq and IBM.
Front Porch Digital (www.fpdigital.com) is develops valuable software and services that convert audio, video, images, text and data into digital formats that enable searching, browsing, editing, storage and on-demand delivery of content in nearly any other digital format through a single capture.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
