Spinnaker Support names Castello & Smith to leadership

Spinnaker Support has appointed Pete Castello as chief revenue officer and Belle Smith as vice president of global marketing, expanding its executive leadership team.

Castello will lead the company's global commercial operations across sales, solution consulting, customer success, and partner and alliance strategy. Smith will oversee global marketing, including brand, demand generation, product marketing, field marketing, communications, and marketing operations.

The hires come as Spinnaker looks to build on growing demand from Oracle, SAP, and VMware customers seeking greater control over software support and deployment decisions, as well as alternatives to vendor-led roadmaps.

Spinnaker has more than 1,000 clients globally and says it has continued to post double-digit revenue growth over the past 12 months, driven by expansion among both new and existing customers.

Chief Executive Officer Matt Stava said the appointments align with the company's operating priorities as it scales.

"Our growth is being driven by a clear focus on the customer and how we deliver value," said Matt Stava, Chief Executive Officer of Spinnaker Support. "Pete and Belle know how to lead teams that stay close to customer needs while also improving how the business operates and goes to market. That's what will allow us to keep growing and serve customers at a higher level."

Castello joins with senior commercial leadership experience in enterprise technology. He most recently served as chief revenue officer at Datavail and previously was chief commercial officer at Navisite.

He takes on the role as software customers reassess support contracts, subscription models, and migration timelines. VMware has been a particular area of activity, with customers facing pricing and packaging changes following Broadcom's takeover of the virtualization software business.

Spinnaker says its VMware practice has signed multiple enterprise clients and supports organizations running vSphere 7 beyond Broadcom's end-of-support deadline. The offering is part of a broader pitch to companies looking to delay or avoid platform changes imposed by large software vendors.

"Most of the conversations I've had with customers come back to the same issue: they feel trapped," said Pete Castello, Chief Revenue Officer of Spinnaker Support. "They're being asked to spend more, move faster, and give up control, all at once. What Spinnaker offers is a way to step back and make those decisions on your own terms and timeline, without putting your operations at risk. I'm looking forward to working closely with the leadership team to build on that momentum and scale the business in a way that stays true to what customers actually need."

Marketing role

Smith joins after senior leadership roles at Datavail, Duck Creek Technologies, and Navisite. She will lead the company's global marketing strategy, with responsibility for aligning marketing activity with sales pipeline and revenue generation.

The appointment points to a push for closer coordination between commercial and marketing functions as Spinnaker expands internationally. The company recently opened an office in South Africa through a partnership with African Rainbow Capital, creating a regional delivery and engineering hub for the EMEA market.

That move adds to a broader period of investment in operations and support delivery. Spinnaker says its support teams average more than 20 years of L4 engineering experience and that its customer satisfaction rating stands at 98.1%.

The company has also been developing an internal AI and machine learning tool called Spinnaker Intelligence. It says the system uses anonymized historical data to help engineers resolve issues more quickly and surface expertise from across the organization.

Management has linked that work to demand from customers seeking to automate parts of ERP operations while retaining flexibility across their broader software estates. Spinnaker also cited interest in open-source ERP options among customers reviewing long-term vendor commitments.

"Companies are starting to realize they have more leverage than they think," said Belle Smith, Vice President of Global Marketing at Spinnaker Support. "They don't have to follow a vendor's timeline or accept rising costs as a given. Our job is to make that clear, show what alternative options are possible, and give them the confidence to act on them. I'm excited to partner with the leadership team to expand our reach and help more organizations understand there's a better path forward."