NASDAQ-listed software company Freshworks has announced the appointment of Simon Ma as its new director and regional manager of sales for ASEAN markets.  

“We are excited to have Simon join us to continue bringing Freshworks’ modern software applications to businesses around the world. He has a 12-year history of helping businesses grow their regional go-to-market teams and is exactly what Freshworks needs in the region to execute on our objectives," said Jose Morales, chief revenue officer of Freshworks. 

Prior to the appointment, Ma was the regional sales director for ServiceNow where he was responsible for hiring, coaching, and overseeing business growth across Southeast Asia. 

Possessing exceptional organisational and leadership abilities, Ma excelled at structuring effective sales teams to close negotiations for large, multi-year contracts. His tenure was marked by an impressive growth in new large enterprise business in the region, the company said in a statement.   

"This is a truly exciting time for Freshworks in the market where businesses are focusing strongly on omnichannel customer engagement and hybrid work environments. Freshworks’ is focusing on improving customer and employee experience through an easy to use, modern and intuitive SaaS platform that allows businesses to easily adapt to these new business demands.  I see immense potential for us in the region and I am looking forward to creating impact for all businesses here with Freshworks’ easy to try, buy and use software,” said Ma.  

Freshworks had started strengthening its APAC and MEA leadership bench with the appointment of Ben Pluznyk (who was previously SAP and Oracle) as the country head and sales director for ANZ in November last year. 

In addition, Preethi Bridgement joined to head solution engineering for Freshworks in the APAC and MEA markets. The company also recently hired Varun Vig (ex-Microsoft, Cisco and Deloitte), in Singapore, to head the regional channels and alliances in APJ, India and MEA markets.  

The company currently has active hiring and expansion plans in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam under Ma.