Siteimprove Inc., a Copenhagen-based digital marketing company with its U.S. headquarters in Bloomington, Minn., announced earlier this month it appointed Shane Paladin as CEO.
Paladin is the first American to lead the company, which employs 180 people in Bloomington.
Prior to joining Siteimprove, Paladin led the services division at Bellevue, Wash.-based SAP, where he was responsible for 19,000 employees and $4 billion in revenue.
Siteimprove offers digital marketing tools that help companies manage large websites by providing data and statistical modeling on one platform.
With Paladin at the helm, Siteimprove plans on doubling its revenue, which is currently over $100 million. The company also plans on investing heavily in research and development.
Paladin said in an interview last week he was offered several different CEO positions, but decided to jump on-board Siteimprove due to the company's growth opportunity, and its core missionof accessibility.
Paladin was drawn to Siteimprove after seeing his son, who has mild cerebral palsy, often run into barriers while navigating the internet.
"It was kind of silly. There were these things my kid wanted to interact with, but it wasn't built well for him," he said. "And had those barriers been removed, he could easily participate and they'd have another user."
One of Siteimprove's products allows companies to increase their online accessibility and make their content more inclusive by adhering to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
"Very few people wake up every day and have a direct correlation to doing goodness in the communities we serve," he said. "And that is a very cool thing."
The company also offers services that optimize digital marketers ability to drive web traffic by increasing their search-engine-optimization and pay-per-click.
With 30% of the company's 600 employees working locally, the Twin Cities will remain a strategic lever of growth for the company, Paladin said.
"We run a lot of customer care and support out of here," he said. "There's something to be said about talking to pleasant people that are intelligent and capable."
