Erin Mulligan Nelson To Join Bazaarvoice Executive Leadership Team

Austin, TX – September 20, 2010 – Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that Erin Mulligan Nelson will join the company as Chief Marketing Officer. Nelson, who will leave her position of CMO at Dell in the next few weeks, is a marketing executive with deep experience in brand strategy, global communications, social media, e-commerce, corporate responsibility, and global research. She joins Bazaarvoice during a period of accelerated global growth as companies worldwide embrace customer conversations as the cornerstone of their business success. Currently, more than 950 brands including Dell, Costco, Macy’s, P&G, and USAA use Bazaarvoice to harness customer word of mouth on more than 2.7 trillion dollars worth of goods and services sold worldwide.

"It is a tremendous honor to welcome Erin to our team," said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. "She fundamentally understands the power of the customer conversations and word of mouth, and she is widely recognized as someone who embraced social early. She will be an amazing asset to the Bazaarvoice team and will play a key role as we cement our leadership and bring the transformative benefits of customer conversations to more and more companies around the globe."

Nelson will replace Sam Decker who announced his resignation last month to pursue new venture opportunities. As founding CMO, Decker led the development of Bazaarvoice’s award-winning product line and the company’s marketing efforts, establishing Bazaarvoice as the category leader in social commerce. Decker will remain actively involved with Bazaarvoice as an Advisory Board member.

"Sam has made an extraordinary impact during his time at Bazaarvoice - both as an evangelist for the company and as an advocate for social commerce programs that deliver measurable results," Hurt continued. "His vision and leadership have driven the evolution of social commerce as both a category and business strategy, and the fact that Erin is joining is a testament to his success in the role he created here."

"I'm extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished at Bazaarvoice, both in terms of our growth and the impact we've made in the industry,” said Decker. “Rarely does an executive get to hand the baton to someone as talented as Erin, and her experience will be critical in driving Bazaarvoice through its next phase of growth."

Before becoming CMO for Dell in January 2009, Nelson spent three years in Europe as the vice president of marketing for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Dell. During her tenure at Dell, she also held leadership positions across marketing and sales in the Consumer, Small and Medium Business, Public, and Large Enterprise business units.

Prior to joining Dell, Nelson worked in brand management at Procter & Gamble, corporate strategy at PepsiCo, and management consulting with A.T. Kearney. Nelson serves on the board of directors of the Ad Council, Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA). She is also a member of the University of Texas McCombs Business School Advisory Council. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in international business and marketing from the University of Texas at Austin.