Instructure, the leading learning platform and maker of Canvas, announced Rachel Orston as its new Chief Customer Officer. Instructure’s CX team leverages real-world educational experience as it helps customers improve student outcomes, with over half of its CX team having taught or worked in educational institutions. Former Chief Customer Experience Officer Melissa Loble now assumes the newly-created Chief Academic Officer role full-time to further elevate the educator experience and surround customers with academic expertise.
Orston brings over 25 years of experience strengthening customer relationships in various organizations and a deep passion for education. Her leadership experience at various companies, including Fortune 100 businesses and startups in various industries, will prove instrumental as Instructure continues to scale to meet the evolving needs of international customers. She joins Instructure at a time of significant growth, as customers adopt new solutions within the Instructure Learning Platform to fulfill the evolving demands of the learning experience, integrates recent acquisitions and evolves to meet the needs of lifelong learners.
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Prior to Instructure, Orston served as Chief Customer Officer at SmartRecruiters, a hiring platform, leading their post-sales organization and achieving record-breaking customer satisfaction and net retention targets. From 2019 to 2021, Orston held the position of Chief Customer Officer at BetterCloud, where she similarly orchestrated the growth of customer success, professional services and support teams. BetterCloud received a strategic growth investment from Vista Equity in 2022.
“Instructure’s unique approach of surrounding customers with passionate, experienced advocates attracted me to this role,” said Orston. “I look forward to building on a legacy of outstanding customer experience and making learning more accessible as we work alongside educators.”
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“The key to our success is our singular focus on our incredible customers and helping them keep educators at the center of the learning experience,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “Rachel’s background, passion for education, and leadership experience will be invaluable to the company as we work together to meet the unique challenges faced by our global customer base in 2024 and beyond.”
Orston has extensive experience in the world of blogging and public speaking, having presented at several notable events, including SaaStr, Gainsight Pulse and SuccessCon. She is an investor and founding member of CS Angel, as well as a proud member of CHIEF. Orston earned a Master of Business Administration from Georgia Tech and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University.