December 2025: Thought Industries appoints Sarah Phoenix as Chief Product Officer and Julien Denaes as Chief Strategy Officer under CEO Irana Wasti.
This article is news from 2025. Thought Industries has updated its products since it was published. See the Customer Knowledge AI Platform for the current product.
Summary: On December 18, 2025, Thought Industries appointed Sarah Phoenix as Chief Product Officer and Julien Denaes as Chief Strategy Officer, following CEO Irana Wasti’s arrival in October. The appointments supported a new strategy to connect customer learning to measurable business outcomes.
Strategic appointments follow CEO arrival as company leads innovation in AI-first Learning & Intelligence Platform
BOSTON, Mass., December 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ – Thought Industries, a leading customer learning platform (now the Customer Knowledge AI Platform), today announced the appointment of Chief Product Officer Sarah Phoenix and Chief Strategy Officer Julien Denaes as the company enters an ambitious new chapter under CEO Irana Wasti. The expanded leadership team will guide Thought Industries’ strategy to evolve from a traditional learning platform into an AI-powered Customer Intelligence & Growth Platform that connects learning to measurable business outcomes.
“Businesses need to grow through the success of their customers,” said Irana Wasti, CEO of Thought Industries. “To help our customers drive key strategic business metrics, our North Star is an AI-first Customer Intelligence & Growth Platform that unifies learning data, customer behavior, and intelligent actions to deepen loyalty, grow revenue, and unlock continuous value creation. These leadership appointments are critical to driving that strategy.”
Phoenix and Denaes bring deep experience building and scaling technology for global customers, helping businesses adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations and increasingly complex data environments.
A new chapter
The appointments follow a comprehensive strategic review led by Wasti after she joined Thought Industries in October. Drawing on extensive customer conversations and market analysis, the company has sharpened its focus in three areas:
- Customer goals: Businesses want to get customers to realize value from their products, and customers want guidance to the right product value for them.
- Vision: To empower every business to grow through the success of its customers.
- Mission: To transform customer interactions into intelligence — and that intelligence into growth.
Building on its category-leading learning platform, Thought Industries plans to roll out new AI-driven capabilities, starting with its core learning experiences, analytics, and automation.
New Chief Product Officer
Sarah Phoenix joins Thought Industries as Chief Product Officer to lead the product vision and execution as the company advances its roadmap. She brings extensive experience building and scaling data-driven, customer-centric products for global audiences.
Most recently, Phoenix served as SVP of Product at BILL, where she led teams responsible for highly engaging user experiences serving nearly 500,000 customers. Prior to BILL, she held senior product leadership roles at companies including Twitter and GoDaddy, with a consistent focus on data, AI, and customer-centered design.
“Customer education is no longer just about courses and content,” said Phoenix. “Our opportunity is to connect learning signals, product usage, and customer behavior so our clients can see, measure, and shape the value their customers get from their products in real time. I’m excited to build on Thought Industries’ strong foundation and help define this next category of Customer Intelligence & Growth.”
New Chief Strategy Officer
Julien Denaes joins Thought Industries as Chief Strategy Officer to lead corporate strategy, long-range planning, and strategic initiatives, ensuring tight alignment between product investments, market opportunities, and customer needs.
Most recently, Denaes served as Senior Director of Product Management at BILL, after joining through the acquisition of Finmark, where he served as VP of Business Development, helping to scale financial planning and analytics solutions for high-growth businesses.
“Our customers are living in a fragmented world of tools and data, while their end users expect simple, powerful, intelligent experiences,” said Denaes. “Thought Industries is uniquely positioned to connect those dots — starting from learning and extending into customer intelligence and growth. I’m thrilled to join at this moment, with a clear North Star and a leadership team committed to moving with urgency and focus.”
About Thought Industries
Thought Industries is the Customer Knowledge AI Platform for customer and product leaders, delivering trusted and accurate product guidance across every customer and AI touchpoint. Follow us on X and LinkedIn.
Media contact: [email protected]
Read Irana Wasti’s letter on this new chapter: Learning & Intelligence: a new chapter for Thought Industries.
