Singapore – Kong Inc., a developer of cloud API and AI technologies, has expanded its leadership team in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) with the appointments of David Carless as vice president of APJ and Mark West as regional vice president for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).
The new executives will focus on strengthening Kong’s regional presence and supporting the adoption of APIs and AI across key markets.
David will oversee growth across the wider APJ region, while Mark will lead sales strategy and business development in ANZ.
“We’re in the middle of one of the biggest cycles in the industry, with AI and APIs reshaping how every company builds, scales, and services their customers,” David explained.
He further added, “I’m excited to build on the company’s strong foundation and momentum to help more customers accelerate growth, reduce complexity, and power the next generation of connected applications with Kong’s unified platform.”
Alongside David, Mark brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software sales and go-to-market leadership, having previously held senior positions at Apptio, UiPath, Cisco’s AppDynamics, SAP Concur, and NetSuite.
“As our CEO often says, there is no AI without APIs. This is true and today is a critical moment for organisations to leverage AI to modernise and scale,” Mark commented.
“I’m excited to help Kong expand its regional footprint, strengthen customer success, and empower businesses to harness APIs and AI for faster innovation.”
Kong stated that the leadership appointments form part of its global expansion strategy and are aimed at accelerating customer growth, reducing complexity, and enabling the development of connected applications with its unified API platform.
This announcement follows the company’s recent office expansion in Bengaluru, India, which has been established as a hub for research, development, and innovation. Kong also maintains offices in Singapore and Shanghai and has more than doubled its regional headcount over the past year.
Augusto Marietti, CEO and co-founder of Kong Inc., mentioned that David and Mark deliver more than 50 years of proven expertise in scaling teams and driving sales growth across the APJ region.
“Their leadership is a major milestone in our global expansion and will be instrumental in helping us meet the ambitious growth target we’ve set for the critical market,” Augusto said.
As part of its ongoing growth in APJ, Kong is actively recruiting across multiple departments, including sales, engineering, product, and customer experience.
Kong Inc. works with organisations worldwide, from startups to large enterprises, to support digital transformation through cloud API and AI technologies.
