TradeGecko marketing VP leaves a mere 3mths after appointment

• Mismatch of expectations between the startup and the senior exec
• Company looking for replacement, denies rumours of high employee churn

SINGAPORE-headquartered TradeGecko is parting ways with its vice president of marketing Jaime Ng (pic), only three months after her appointment.
 
The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup confirmed that Ng had left.
 
When contacted by Digital News Asia (DNA), Ng declined to comment on the reasons behind her departure, saying she was currently still serving her notice.
 
But TradeGecko cofounder and chief executive officer Cameron Priest said it was because she was not the “right fit” for the startup as it had decided to pursue an inbound marketing strategy.
 
“After a couple months with Jaime [Ng] – who has a bit more experience in data-driven marketing – we felt we really wanted to find a head of marketing who deals with inbound marketing, which involves a lot of content-curation type of marketing,” he told DNA by phone.
 
“There’s not a lot of people working in this country [Singapore] who have experience with inbound marketing; it’s still a pretty new thing,” he added.
 
Rumours were swirling over the last couple of days over Ng’s departure. DNA and other media received an anonymous tip, while the buzz was that TradeGecko is facing a high degree of employee churn.
 
Priest flatly denied this. “As a company, we try to keep the best people – we have people who leave whom we rather did not, and let go of some people who weren’t working out,” he said.
 
“This is the biggest company I’ve run, and what I heard from other chief executive officers, getting two out of three hires right is normal – most people will make a bunch of mis-hires.
 
“This is a learning curve for us as we grow and hire more people.
 
“How do we find the exact right people for the right roles? We have made mistakes as we move faster,” he conceded.
 
As for Ng, who has worked with US companies like TripAdvisor and MySpace, she told DNA she is currently exploring other opportunities with large companies.
 
“I am in discussions with several large and well-funded companies on global and regional CMO (chief marketing officer) positions,” she said.
 
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