Digital asset management Widen has appointed Deanna Ballew as its first chief innovation officer.
In her new role, she will be leading Widen’s efforts to identify business opportunities, conduct research and development on new technologies and create a long-term strategy for the company.
Deanna said: “So we’ve innovated and we’ve had a lot of new ideas of new products, ideas and processes to try to get them off the ground, and it’s just never really worked very well, so what I’m doing within my new role is putting that focus and discipline to emerging business.
I’m creating an emerging business department, and that department is going to solely focus on strategy that’s going to look for new business ideas that are good for Widen, so we’ll be experimenting and have an opportunity pipeline that we will be working through the different stages of that experimentation and hopefully de-risking those as we find the ones that are going to work. So six years from now, we’ll have three growth software products in the market, not just one.”
Deanna has been working with Widen for 16 years with her last role being the VP of product development. In her role, she modernised Widen’s product development methodology and paved the way to important breakthroughs, including Widen’s customer-first innovation programme that embraces user-centered design and ensures that value is delivered by solving real user problems.
Matthew Gonnering, CEO of Widen said: “Deanna’s talent as a technologist, strategist, and mentor has transformed Widen over the past 16 years. More than a dozen of our leaders grew into their role under her mentorship. Deanna is a role model to everyone in our company and community, and especially to young women who’ve grown up seeing too few women in C-suite roles. Deanna embodies the spirit of Widen, and we would not be where we are today without her. We are honored to name Deanna our first Chief Innovation Officer.”
