NetSuite (News - Alert) has announced that David Downing, a global technology marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience, has been named the Chief Marketing Officer.

 

In this role, Downing will be charged with overseeing all of NetSuite's worldwide marketing initiatives, driving awareness and adoption of NetSuite's Accounting/ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and E-commerce software suites and "spearheading" marketing initiatives.

 

"David's extensive experience in developing innovative sales and marketing strategies for premier technology companies will help our team," said Zach Nelson (News - Alert), CEO of NetSuite.

 

Downing has worked at Adobe, Oracle, Informatica and SAP. Before joining NetSuite, he was Vice President of Marketing at venture-backed MetaLINCS, acquired by Seagate Technology (News - Alert), in December 2007.

 

Previously, Downing also worked at SAP where he was part of the team building support for SAP (News - Alert) NetWeaver among independent software vendors and the venture capital community. As the vice president of marketing at Informatica, Downing was a member of the management team working on the IPO in 1999.

 

"We believe that the next opportunity for NetSuite and its technology is further up-stream, serving mid-market enterprises and divisions of large organizations who are choking on the cost and complexity of on-premise products," Downing said.

 

Earlier this month, NetSuite announced the acquisition of OpenAir for about $26 million. San Mateo-based NetSuite will assume about $5 million of restricted stock units to be held by Open Air employees, which will continue to vest through mid-2010.

 

NetSuite will establish an East Coast headquarters in OpenAir's Boston headquarters and OpenAir's 56 employees are expected to continue in their current roles upon close of the acquisition.

 

NetSuite officials said the acquisition of OpenAir, a vendor of on-demand project management software, will "accelerate development of its products specifically designed for services companies such as professional services, business and IT consulting, legal, accounting, and government contracting."

 

The merger is subject to customary closing conditions. Closing is anticipated for later this month.