SurveyMonkey Hires Autodesk Executive Debbie Clifford as Its New Chief Financial Officer

By STS News Desk On Jun 4, 2019

SurveyMonkey Enhances Survey Collaboration Across Organizations with Flexible Team Plans

Clifford brings nearly 20 years of operational finance experience and leadership in SaaS business model transformation

SurveyMonkey, a leading global survey software company, announced that Debbie Clifford will join its leadership team on July 8 as chief financial officer. In her new role, Clifford will oversee all aspects of finance including financial strategy, planning and analysis, accounting, tax, treasury, and investor relations, in addition to strategic planning and corporate development. With the addition of Clifford, the majority of SurveyMonkey’s executive team members will be women.

Clifford spent the past 13 years in several finance positions at design software company Autodesk, which generates $2.5B+ in annual revenue across its more than 9,000-employee organization. Most recently serving as vice president of financial planning and analysis, Clifford led the finance effort at Autodesk during its strategic business model transformation into the healthy growing, highly profitable large cap business it is today. She was also actively involved in strategic acquisitions and investor relations. Prior to Autodesk, she held positions at Virage, Inc. and Ernst & Young.

“Debbie is a highly respected finance executive whose leadership and operational rigor will be critical as we accelerate our enterprise and international expansion efforts,” said Zander Lurie, chief executive officer at SurveyMonkey. “As one of the key architects of Autodesk’s SaaS transformation, Debbie’s experience and skillset will complement our seasoned executive team as we deepen our relationships with thousands of enterprise customers with new products and growth strategies.”

“I’m delighted to join the team at SurveyMonkey, a company focused on helping organizations turn feedback into actionable insights,” said Clifford. “This is an exciting time as the company capitalizes on its massive footprint to accelerate growth, and I look forward to working with this smart, diverse team to ensure strong financial execution that creates value for customers, employees and shareholders.”

Clifford serves on the boards of Harmonic, a video technology and services company, and GeoHazards International, a disaster prevention organization. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California Los Angeles, and a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business.