This senior-level appointment reinforces Thunderhead's strategic objective to aggressively grow its worldwide operations, having witnessed consistent 100 percent year-on-year growth and on the back of high-profile customer wins including Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and UBS.

Since 2003, Hughes has held senior executive management roles for several early stage US software companies, including Proofpoint, Watchfire and Apriso. In addition to driving major new business sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, he also held responsibility for service operations and overall profitability for the region. Previously, Hughes spent 6 years with BroadVision, a publicly held US software company specializing in eCommerce solutions, where he was an integral part of the management team that drove corporate revenue from $10M to $440M in just four years. At BroadVision, Hughes served as Senior Vice President of International Operations with responsibility for $85M in revenue and over 500 staff.

Prior to BroadVision, Hughes held senior sales, alliances and marketing positions with both Oracle and Digital Equipment. In total he brings more than 15 years of executive leadership in international high-tech sales, marketing and consulting to Thunderhead. As Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Hughes will be responsible for guiding sales operations worldwide and expanding Thunderhead's market presence into continental Europe and Asia.

"Mark's extensive experience in both large software organizations such as Oracle, and with rapid-growth companies like BroadVision, makes him the ideal professional to extend Thunderhead's track record for industry-leading growth," said Glen Manchester, CEO, Thunderhead. "We anticipate that Mark will bring to the organization both the proven sales disciplines of leading technology companies and the demonstrated experience of having managed the growth of one of the industry's most explosive organizations."

Hughes appointment is timed to coincide with Thunderhead's first worldwide sales kick-off event which is being held in Las Vegas this week. This event brings together Thunderhead sales teams from the US, Europe and Asia Pacific with customers, partners, and industry analysts.

"Thunderhead has a tremendous opportunity to continue to lead the enterprise communications market as it scales its operations worldwide," commented Hughes. "The Thunderhead platform is an innovative, enterprise-class solution with an outstanding value proposition that has been proven with leading financial services organizations worldwide. I'm looking forward to working with Thunderhead's motivated team of sales and technology professionals to help realize the company's international growth potential."