SOMERVILLE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 10, 2024--
SmartBear, a leading provider of software development and visibility solutions, has welcomed Kevin Foster as Senior Vice President of Growth Marketing. Kevin comes to SmartBear from the startup Highway.ai and brings more than 25 years of experience in marketing for various high-growth tech companies. SmartBear is experiencing worldwide growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions, acquiring 10 companies in just over five years and launching three major products in 2023.
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“With Kevin’s track record of success across technology giants, his strong global leadership approach, and his drive to make both customers and our sales team successful, he is a perfect fit for SmartBear,” said Cynthia Gumbert, CMO at SmartBear. “This is an exciting time to join SmartBear as we are driving expansion through innovations in AI and other automation that will help development teams reach new levels of productivity.”
Kevin held marketing leadership positions at PTC for nearly six years, most recently leading marketing for the company’s IoT business. He was Senior Vice President, Product Marketing at Notarize (now Proof) and held marketing leadership roles at Progress, Novell (now Micro Focus), and Hewlett-Packard. Kevin has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and policy and a master’s degree in business administration, both from Washington University in St. Louis.
“The opportunity to contribute to SmartBear, known for its innovation and commitment to work culture, at such a pivotal time in the company’s history is incredibly exciting for me,” said Kevin Foster. “I am thrilled to collaborate with this talented team to drive impactful marketing strategies that will not only fuel continued growth as we meet customers where they are but amplify our brand presence worldwide.”
About SmartBear
SmartBear provides a portfolio of trusted capabilities that give software development teams around the world visibility into end-to-end quality through test management and automation, API development lifecycle, and application stability, ensuring each software release is better than the last. Our award-winning products include SwaggerHub, TestComplete, BugSnag, ReadyAPI, Zephyr, PactFlow, and Stoplight, among others. SmartBear is trusted by over 16 million developers, testers, and software engineers at 32,000+ organizations – including innovators like Adobe, JetBlue, FedEx, and Microsoft. With an active peer-to-peer community, we meet customers where they are to help make our technology-driven world a better place. SmartBear is committed to ethical corporate practices and social responsibility, promoting good in all the communities we serve. Learn more at smartbear.com, or follow on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
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Kevin Foster, Senior Vice President of Growth Marketing, SmartBear (Photo: Business Wire)
BERLIN (AP) — Berlin’s government is offering to give away a villa once owned by Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital.
“I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, told the state parliament on Thursday, dpa reported.
Berlin has repeatedly tried to hand off the site to federal authorities or the state of Brandenburg, where the villa lies, rather than continue to pay for maintenance and security at the complex, which has become overgrown and fallen into disrepair.
Evers renewed that offer on Thursday, calling for proposals that reflected the site’s history. He didn’t say if proposals from private individuals would also be considered.
“If we fail again, as in the past decades, then Berlin has no other option but to carry out the demolition that we have already prepared for,” Evers said.
Goebbels, one of Hitler’s closest allies, had the luxury villa built in 1939 on a wooded site overlooking the Bogensee lake near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin.
A retreat from Berlin, where he lived with his wife and six children, Goebbels used the villa and an earlier house on the site to entertain Nazi leaders, artists and actors — and reputedly as a love-nest for secret affairs.
After the war, the 17-hectare (42-acre) site was used briefly as a hospital, then taken over by the youth wing of the East German communist party, which constructed a training center, including several large accommodation blocks.
After German reunification in 1990, ownership of the site returned to the state of Berlin. However, the city found no use for it. The site has since become an attraction for day-trippers who can pick their way through the overgrown grounds and peer through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the villa.
Goebbels moved back to Berlin in the final phase of the Second World War. He and his wife killed themselves and their children with cyanide capsules in Hitler’s bunker as Soviet troops closed in.
The family’s opulent home on an island in Berlin was sold at auction in 2011.
The former villa of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels is seen on the Bogensee site, near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin, on March 22, 2024. Berlin’s government is offering to give away the villa, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital. “I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, told the state parliament on Thursday May 2, 2024, dpa reported. (Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)
The former villa of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels is seen on the Bogensee site, near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin, on March 22, 2024. Berlin’s government is offering to give away the villa, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital. “I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, told the state parliament on Thursday May 2, 2024, dpa reported. (Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)
