We are thrilled to announce that Russell Banzon is joining Cresta as our new Chief Marketing Officer. Russell brings over a decade of experience in tech and marketing, and we’re excited to welcome him to the team.
Read on to hear from Russell in his own words about his career journey, what got him excited about joining Cresta, and what he loves to do in his down time.
Welcome to Cresta, Russell! Tell us about yourself – what is your background?
I’ve spent the last decade+ in various marketing roles, helping grow multiple companies from early stage to over $100M in ARR. I’ll be joining Cresta as CMO after spending the last 5 years in the AI space as a senior marketing executive at Gong and, before then, a global demand generation leader in the contact center industry at Talkdesk. In addition to my operating roles, I’m also an advisor at early to mid-stage SaaS companies, helping drive growth. As a numbers person by trade, having graduated with a financial economics degree and spending early career time at Morgan Stanley, I have a passion for both the art and science of marketing. On the personal side, I’m a first-generation American with a passion for DEI and Belonging. Dance has been my craft of choice, spending many years as a semi-professional dancer and director. Lastly, I’m a die-hard Warriors and Raiders fan.
What inspired you to join Cresta?
Three things inspired me to join Cresta. First is the team. Cresta has an incredible roster of leaders and board members that are incredibly passionate about creating meaningful impact for our customers and winning the market. Secondarily, the market dynamics. AI is the next great technology revolution that will change the game and the contact center market is one of the first industries that will be able to benefit due to the structured nature of conversations and repetitive motions. Cresta is already making a meaningful impact for its customers improving close rates, reducing average handle time, and, ultimately, driving more for our customers’ bottom line. Third, but certainly not least, is the opportunity to join an amazing journey. Cresta has strong wind behind us with fantastic momentum, coming off a triple digit growth year.
What is your role at Cresta? What do you imagine a typical day will look like?
At Cresta, I serve the company as Chief Marketing Officer where I lead the organization that drives our brand, demand, messaging, positioning, and communications. The CMO role is a dynamic one where the days are typically atypical. You balance working on marketing campaigns to sales messaging to talking with analysts and beyond on a day-to-day basis. The things that are most consistent, though, are that I am supporting the leadership team in driving Cresta forward as a company and continuously working with customers as a GTM leader.
What about the product got you excited?
In many ways, Cresta feels like magic. To take all conversation data, understand what’s being said using NLP and AI (that’s trained on customer specific data) to drive things like agent coaching, agent co-pilots, or even virtual agents, truly is a feat that feels like the impossible turning possible. Then, if you extrapolate the functionality of our current products and speed of the current progress to project out future capabilities and allow your creativity to roam, that builds an exciting future. This gets me pumped.
What big trends in this space do you envision over the next year?
Now is the time. With the boom of the popularity of AI in 2023 and the development of enterprise applications that drive tangible results to the bottomline like Cresta, the “crossing of the chasm” will happen faster than ever. The next 12 months, I expect us to move from innovators/early adopters into the majority as companies start to understand what it can mean for increased sales or cost reduction. Cresta is at the heart of it all with an incredible opportunity.
What do you think is the most important skill for a new Crestan to have?
As a new Crestan myself, this answer will likely evolve over time, but my initial answer comes from something our CEO, Ping Wu, said recently. “It is always day 1.” I think the ability to have the mindset that it is “always day 1” is a super important skill for any Crestan to have, new or old. Day 1 is filled with enthusiasm. Day 1 is filled with curiosity. Day 1 is filled with the desire to solve hard problems. Day 1 is filled with the humility of a new beginning. The ability to act accordingly typically drives incredible results for someone, no matter what the innate talent level is for that person.
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Please join us in welcoming Russell to the Cresta team!
