Coupa Software, a leader in cloud-based spend management, today announced that Paul Watts will lead the company’s Asia Pacific (APAC) region as Vice President of Sales. Watts combines more than 20 years of experience based in the APAC region with his extensive knowledge of the enterprise software space.

In his new role, Watts will be responsible for advancing the company’s go-to-market strategy, business development, overseeing Coupa’s sales team, and supporting enterprise customers in APAC.

“What excited me about this role was the opportunity to take Coupa’s value proposition that has transformed the North American and European spend management markets, and apply it in the APAC region,” Watts said. “The potential for companies across the APAC region to leapfrog from their current legacy processes to leverage next-generation spend management technology offers a unique window of opportunity for both Coupa and the market place.”

Watts joined Coupa from IDBS – a market leader in lab informatics software – where he was the senior vice president of global sales, managing offices & resources across North America, Europe and Japan. As part of this role, he transformed the client engagement process to be fully integrated from marketing communication to post project support.

Earlier in his career, Watts held vice president-level positions in APAC for Metastorm, TIBCO, Staffware, and Optika during his 20 years based in the region while living at various times in Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

“Paul has an enviable track record of building go-to-market strategies in the enterprise software space, something he has done in a career that has spanned the EMEA,North America and APAC regions,” said Rob Bernshteyn, CEO of Coupa. “We are thrilled to have someone with Paul’s calibre of expertise and experience join the team to help ensure that our regional APAC customers derive the same value from our platform as all of our customers worldwide.”

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Watts will be based out of Singapore initially but with the objective to see Coupa opening offices across the region in the months to come. Coupa has offices in countries around the globe, including APAC offices in Australia and India.