Centric Names New EVP

Technology executive Ray Hein has joined San Jose, Calif.–based Centric Software as its new executive vice president of market strategy and business development.

He is overseeing Centric’s PLM (product lifecycle management) initiatives going forward. Hein has close to 20 years of experience in the information-technology industry, having spent the past 10 years at Agile Software working with PLM and in other areas. Hein also held product-management positions with Micom,Micropolois Corp. and Storage Dimensions.

Hein’s hiring goes hand in hand with the company’s closing of $14.3 million in venture-capital financing.

“Ray Hein is widely recognized as an industry thought leader in collaborative PLM solutions and is a great addition to our management team,” said Chris Groves, president and chief executive officer of Centric, in a statement. “We are confident that Ray’s expertise will help us increase the market awareness and customer adoption of our PLM offerings, which are instrumental strategies to achieve our next phase of growth.”

Centric markets and develops PLM solutions specifically for the fashion industry. It focuses on data aggregation functionality to allow all information about the product—visual, data-based, text-based, etc.—to easily be collected in an aggregate repository that is readily accessed by any user without requiring specialized information-technology skills. It also provides multilevel analysis and Web-based dashboards to managers, allowing them to spot trends and exceptions quickly. This helps product teams collect relevant information for product initiatives, form action plans, execute those plans and assess progress against business goals. Clients include Le Coq Sportif, Best Buy, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coleman, Kiewit, Linens-n-Things, Moen and Timex.

For more information, visit www.centricsoftware.com. —Robert McAllister