Freshworks Gets New Chief of Global Field Operations

Freshworks has announced the appointment of Abe Smith as the company’s Chief of Global Field Operations. He will be responsible for leading field sales worldwide as Freshworks grows upmarket and new business increasingly comes from field sales. Smith brings nearly 25 years of experience at public software companies Zoom, Oracle and Cisco (WebEx), leading teams responsible for building relationships with top enterprise customers and driving more than $1 billion in revenue.

“Abe is an impressive leader who has successfully scaled field sales from local to international and mid-market to enterprise. This makes him exceptionally equipped to support Freshworks’ diverse customer base while helping us engage larger organizations,” said Dennis Woodside, President at Freshworks. “His expertise will be invaluable to Freshworks as we accelerate our field sales to meet soaring demand and complement our inbound motion, all to reach $1 billion in annual revenue in 2026.”

Most recently serving as the Head of International at Zoom, Smith scaled the field sales organization outside the United States as the company grew from roughly $300 million to over $4 billion during his tenure. Before Zoom, he served as President of EMIA (Europe, Middle East, India, Africa) at Cision, where he was responsible for over 2,000 employees. Before that, he was Group Vice President of Oracle’s Global Sales Unit where he achieved annual growth rates of as much as 90 per cent and led the fastest-growing division within Marketing Cloud.

“Freshworks’ success and global reach serve as a beacon of inspiration for millions of entrepreneurs around the world and I’m excited to be part of this incredible team and turn great beginnings into hyper-scale,” Smith said. “Work is changing forever and the next decade will be dramatically altered by generative AI – a tailwind Freshworks is rightly apt to ride. Offering a range of powerful AI-enabled solutions for all aspects of the company is crucial to becoming a billion-dollar company and I believe Freshworks is well on its way to achieving that impressive milestone.”

Smith joins the executive leadership team and reports to Freshworks’ President Dennis Woodside and CEO Girish Mathrubootham.