For Xavier Chaillot, VP of Global Enterprise Sales Operations, his career journey has involved a myriad of roles across multiple functions at OpenText™ over 20 years, as well as a relocation journey that spans close to 6,000 kilometers (or >3,700 miles!).
Here’s Xavier’s OpenText story:
Can you tell us about how you started out with OpenText?
I joined OpenText through the acquisition of Hummingbird in 2006.
What roles have you held with Hummingbird and OpenText over the years?
It almost seems like it would be better to ask what roles I haven’t held!
- Pre-sales Consultant: I started at Hummingbird in August 1998, as a Presales Consultant in Paris, responsible for pre-sales visits, providing technical support, and fielding support calls for our French customers.
- Product Manager: In 2001, I was offered a Product Manager position in our Montreal, Canada office, with accountability for all activities for a key Hummingbird product suite. So, at 28 years old, I packed my bags and made the move to Canada!
- Product Marketing Manager: Gradually, I switched over from product management to product marketing. I worked with a great team of people, two of whom I have the pleasure of still calling OpenText colleagues today.
- Director of Marketing and Product Management: In 2006, Hummingbird was acquired by OpenText and I was appointed Director of Marketing and Product Management. In this role, I was responsible for our go-to-market strategy for the products acquired through Hummingbird.
- VP of Marketing: In 2013, a OpenText brought together several products into a new group, OpenText™ Information Exchange, now known as OpenText™ Business Network. I was asked to support this broader array of products as VP of Marketing.
- VP of Sales Enablement: A few years later, OpenText created a market development team that focused on new markets and areas for growth Among other things, this led to the creation of the Inside Sales team in Tampa, FL, as well as the birth of the Sales Enablement teams. I stepped in to lead this group for two years.
- VP of Global Enterprise Sales Operations: In 2015, this exciting role became available. Our CFO at the time called me directly to ask if I’d be interested, and I was happy to embrace this great new opportunity to make an impact.
Wow, what a journey! So, what compelled you to stay and develop your career with OpenText over the past 20 years?
I would say my biggest motivation is the people I work with. Through OpenText, I’ve met several mentors that helped me to grow and opened the door to new opportunities.
My OpenText colleagues push me to be better, and to do bigger and better things all the time. I don’t know many people in this company who aren’t willing to help out and push each other to do their best every day.
How would you describe OpenText’s approach to helping employees grow?
I think we’ve made a lot of progress here over the years.
OpenText has a strong leadership development program that is available to employees worldwide. It’s a phenomenal approach to teaching and developing leadership skills internally. It helps people build stronger foundations and I’ve observed it leading to many internal promotions.
Really, I think it’s all about leading by example and giving people a space where they can develop their career and leadership skills. As you can tell by my own story, a lot of the great things I’ve experienced wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t worked with the type of people who genuinely want to help you succeed and see you enjoy what you do. At OpenText, our leaders really strive to do this.
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