• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 18, 2010

Online video platform Brightcove on Monday named Christopher Menard as its new chief financial officer. Menard comes to Brightcove after more than nine years at Phase Forward, a provider of enterprise software and services for clinical trials and drug safety. Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire on Monday said Menard would be "instrumental in helping ramp operations and leverage growth and expansion opportunities on a worldwide basis."

Menard will head up Brightcove's finance and accounting operations, reporting directly to Jeremy Allaire.

At Phase Forward since 2001 -- most recently as SVP and chief financial officer -- Menard is credited with overseeing six acquisitions, along with the company's IPO and secondary stock offering. He was also involved in Phase Forward's acquisition by Oracle earlier this year.

Menard also currently teaches mergers and acquisitions at Boston College in the Carroll School of Management.

Menard's experience, combined with a string of recent senior hires, fueled speculation on Monday that Brightcove is preparing for an initial public offering. Citing a single unnamed source, Reuters reports that Brightcove could file an IPO by mid-2010.

Neither Allaire or a Brightcove spokeswoman would comment on the IPO rumors on Monday.

At the beginning of the year, Brightcove named David Mendels as its new president and chief operating officer. Previously, Mendels served as EVP and general manager of Adobe's enterprise software and Business Productivity division. Mendels' first order of business was accelerating Brightcove's global expansion strategy and operations.

Founded in 2004, Brightcove turned a profit for the first time this year -- while this year and next, Allaire previously said Brightcove would post 50% better year-on-year revenue.

Driving growth during a difficult period for media companies, Allaire recently projected that business from non-media companies will make up 65% of Brightcove's revenue during the fourth quarter of the year.

As the adoption of video platforms proliferates beyond the realm of media and entertainment, Brightcove and rival Ooyala were recently cited by Forrester Research as the top vendors to beat.

Brightcove -- rumored to be a Google acquisition target -- separated itself from the pack with leading scores in distribution and integration, while Ooyala earned its highest marks in monetization and analytics. Each platform, however, is fully capable of serving all segments of the video market on a global basis, according to Forrester.

Today, 71% of the U.S. online audience watches video online, while Forrester expects the number of streams consumed to more than double by 2013. Driving this growth is an explosion of video content from users, professional studios, and marketers.

Prior to Phase Forward, Menard was director of finance and accounting at Clinsoft Corporation, which was acquired by Phase Forward in 2001.