Rich Kline VP of Solution Engineering, OwnBackup

OwnBackup, Inc. appointed of Rich Kline as VP of solution engineering.

He will play a key part in firm’s strategy to accelerate its solution engineering team.

The solution engineering team already helps customers leverage the OwnBackup solution, both as part of their DR plan and to maintain BC.

Now, the firm is expanding its professional service business to ensure all customers can have a DR plan in place.

“We’re expanding our solution and service department for the benefit of our customers under the leadership of Lihod Rachmilevitch, VP of solution and service,” said CEO Sam Gutmann. “With over a decade of experience managing and growing sales and solution engineering teams at prominent technology firms, Rich Kline will join Lihod’s team to take OwnBackup’s global solution engineering organization to the next level. This promotion will allow Lihod to continue overseeing the technical support and solution engineering groups, while developing the professional service team.”

For the last 11 years, Kline has led a solution engineering team at Salesforce, most recently serving as group VP of solution engineering. During his tenure, he hired over 200 employees and grew his solution engineering team from 6 to 70 people. Over his tenure, he worked with thousands of customers, as well as hundreds of Salesforce AppExchange and consulting partners. In partnership with Salesforce, he has organized the annual Dreamforce charity poker event that has raised more than $150,000 for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.

“I couldn’t be more excited to help build out OwnBackup’s solution engineering department,” added Kline. “I joined Salesforce when it was just 1,800 people. By the time I left, the company had multiplied to over 35,000. At OwnBackup, I look forward to building a similarly high-performing team and growth story.”

Before his tenure at Salesforce, he was at several technology companies, including Apple and Synopsys. Additionally, he co-founded a company that pioneered selling software via the Internet, replacing floppy discs and CDs.

He earned his information systems degree at Drexel University.