Uptake today announced that Ganesh Bell will join the company as its President. Bell is considered one of the most creative and innovative global technology leaders today. He will be responsible for scaling Uptake's products, go-to-market strategy, customer success and execution.
Bell joins Uptake from GE, where he was the company's first-ever Chief Digital Officer and led groundbreaking work in helping the industrial sector harness the power of data to become more productive and reliable. As CEO of GE Power Digital, he built the largest and fastest-growing industrial internet business that kick-started the digital transformation of GE's customers. While at GE, Bell was named No.11 on Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business in 2017. Prior to GE, Bell was the Chief Products Officer & EVP at ServiceSource and guided the company through a successful IPO. He is a veteran of enterprise software having held leadership positions across platforms, analytics and applications at SAP, PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards.
Bell comes to the Uptake team at an important time in its history. Backed by Steve Case's and Ted Leonsis' Revolution, Ray Lane's GreatPoint Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Baillie Gifford, Uptake leverages AI and machine learning to build software that makes global industry more reliable, productive, safe and secure. Bell's deep experience in helping define the Industrial IoT category will be critical to Uptake as it expands its global presence across eight industrial sectors. Leading analyst firm IDC projects worldwide spending on IoT software and services will reach nearly $1 trillion by 2021†.
"This is an extraordinary opportunity for Ganesh and me to leverage our strengths and accelerate Uptake's growth in this trillion-dollar industrial IoT market. By staying true to our founder-led vision while adding a globally recognized and impactful leader, we will prove that our collective efforts are greater than the sum of the parts," said Brad Keywell, co-founder and CEO of Uptake. "Together, we will continue to assemble the best talent to deliver the valuable and impactful outcomes our industrial customers need."
"I'm fortunate to join Uptake at what is a seminal moment for the world's industrial companies," said Bell. "Software is the driving transformational force for industrial companies in an increasingly digital world. Uptake's Industrial IoT platform is unique in its core of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. This allows our applications to deliver disproportionate value in the industrial markets we serve."
Uptake was named a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer. It was also designated a "Cool Vendor" in Gartner's Cool Vendor in IoT Solutions 2017* report. Just this month, Uptake was named to Constellation's ShortListTM for Customer Experience (CX): IoT Platforms**.
In 2017, CNBC ranked Uptake No. 5 on its annual disruptors list while Forbes added Uptake to its "Cloud 100" list.
