NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – BirchStreet Systems Inc., the leading cloud-based Procure-to-Pay platform serving the hospitality industry, is pleased to announce the promotion of Mr. Stephen Markle to Chief Executive Officer. Markle will replace Sushil K. Garg, Founder and CEO, who will remain Chairman of the Board and will continue in his role driving the Company’s technology innovations and working with its major enterprise customers. In his new position, Mr. Markle will work closely with the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors to drive the Company’s strategic plan to scale for revenue growth and profitability. As CEO, Mr. Markle will be responsible for continuing to scale Company while maintaining the Business’ commitment to innovation and customer success. Bringing over 20 years of technology and business leadership experience, Mr. Markle joined BirchStreet as COO in July of 2016.
“During the past two years, Steve has truly demonstrated a passion for the Company, commitment to his colleagues, and drive to deliver excellence for our customers,” said Sushil Garg, Chairman of the Board. “With strong domain expertise in Source-to-Pay, a passion for the industry, and in-depth knowledge of our product and service offerings, Steve has been an essential part of our company’s rapid growth and success. Without a doubt, Steve is the right person to lead BirchStreet’s next phase of growth, scale and execution, and extend our position as the leading provider of Source-to-Pay solutions for the Hospitality Industry.”
“We echo Sushil’s enthusiasm for Steve’s promotion”, said Lance Fenton, Partner Serent Capital, a significant minority shareholder of BirchStreet. “We recognized Steve as a real talent when we made our investment in BirchStreet last year and we are very excited for him to take on the role of CEO as the Company.”
Prior to BirchStreet, Markle was Vice President and General Manager, CLM and SRM for Apttus, the category-defining Quote-to-Cash software provider. In 2013 Markle founded BuildBeam, job management software designed specifically for specialty trade contractors and was CEO until it was acquired by DaftLabs in 2016. From 2001 until 2013, Steve was an executive at Ariba (acquired by SAP), a pioneer in Sourcing, Procurement and Business Network space where he ultimately served as Vice President of Solutions Management. In addition to his new role at BirchStreet, Markle will continue as an Independent Director on the Board of MarginPoint, a leading Inventory Management SaaS company.
Markle grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California ever since earning his BSE in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.
