Lyris Executive Departs for Responsys

As Lyris ramps up, it’s also seen the defection of some senior executives.

Latest to the online marketing software and services company is Stefan Pollard, consulting services director at Lyris’ EmailLabs. He begins work today as senior strategic consultant at Responsys. There, he will be responsible for helping to guide the San Bruno, CA, company in developing e-mail marketing and lifecycle messaging strategies for clients and improve their return on investment.

Responsys offers a hosted application to help businesses manage marketing messages through e-mail, direct mail, and mobile channels.

“One of the reasons I chose to move over to Responsys is that they have really developed a team of expert consultants with deep knowledge in specific verticals. I can learn and grow and continue to develop as well,” Pollard said. “I’ll be working with some of the biggest clients in the industry, executing more complicated strategies. I will be involved with helping to optimize these campaigns for Responsys clients,” said Pollard, a ClickZ Expert who writes about tips for improving e-mail delivery.

Pollard is one of several recent high-level defections at Lyris, which has been working to integrate and build up offerings such as its ClickTracks analytics software and e-mail marketing platform Lyris ListManager. The firm also supports bid management for search campaigns and Web site services.

In May, Dan Robbins and Sylvie Moreau both left ClickTracks Analytics at Lyris for Enquisite, a search analytics company. Robbins is VP of marketing and Moreau is VP of sales at the San Francisco startup.

And, Dave Dabbah, Lyris director of marketing, left in June to launch a marketing services company, though he declined to provide details because he’s working in stealth mode.

When asked about the personnel changes, Lyris CMO Blaine Mathieu pointed out that Lyris has been on a hiring spree in 2008, growing from 170 to 275 employees from April through July.

“I wish the folks well,” he said, when asked about the departures. ” I don’t think there’s anything to say on an individual basis. On an aggregrate basis, we’ve been dramatically expanding. We’re moving ahead.”

Among the new hires at Lyris: Brian Bailard, SVP, global sales; Heidi Mackintosh, chief financial officer; and Daryl Michalik, senior product manager for PPC. Bailard was formerly an executive at Financial Crossing; Mackintosh was corporate controller at Benefitstreet, and Michalik was a product project manager at Coremetrics. Pointing to himself as another example, Mathieu said he joined Lyris nine months ago after having worked at Corel, Gartner, and Adobe.

The ramp-up, Mathieu said, is designed to support two key initiatives at Lyris. They are the launch of Lyris HQ, an integrated online marketing suite, and the release of Lyris List Manager version 10.

“We’ve brought in a lot of talent from outside the industry. As the online marketing industry begins to mature, we felt [the need] to get beyond the [online marketing] insiders to bring in people with significant operational and executional experience,” Mathieu said.