Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS of 2021

A commonality found among high-performing executive teams is the presence of women in key roles. This year’s awardees have made a definitive and lasting impact on their organizations, from spearheading cloud adoption pushes to espousing diversity in the workplace to driving overall company growth. The COVID-19 era has compelled many businesses to accelerate their adoption and roll-out of cloud-based software solutions, and these women have enabled their companies to meet the challenge presented by this surge in demand.

Faiza Hughell, the Chief Customer Officer of RingCentral, has steadily built and scaled over nine years multiple teams across the sales organization, including sales development, BDR, and solutions engineering. Meanwhile, Kathleen Waid, Chief Revenue Officer of Prove, has been a huge factor in the recent, pandemic-driven resurgence of QR technology, uncovering a potent customer-onboarding tool with her company’s QR Pre-fill offering. On the corporate responsibility front, AppsFlyer’s Chief People Officer Lisa Zaythik has made major strides by establishing the company’s social impact center AppsFlyer Cares.

These women leaders were chosen based on their demonstrated leadership capabilities, career track record, and quantifiable contributions to the SaaS industry. Hundreds of nomination forms including substantive feedback from peers and colleagues were reviewed. This, combined with additional internal research, supported the selection process. Please join us in acknowledging the notable achievements of the Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS of 2021.

1. Katherine Kostereva, Creatio
Title: Chief Executive Officer

Katherine Kostereva is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Creatio, a global vendor of a singular platform that automates industry workflows and CRM with no-code and maximum degree of freedom. Creatio is recognized as a leader and strong performer in multiple Gartner and Forrester reports, and its products receive raving end-user reviews on peer-to-peer portals. Under Kostereva’s guidance, the company has united 700 employees around a single goal of creating a world where anyone can automate business ideas in mere minutes.

Kostereva’s remarkable leadership has made her a widely respected figure within the industry. Indeed, for three consecutive years, she’s been selected for SaaS CEO recognition lists, and she is continually celebrated as a pioneering woman leader in the sector. Kostereva completed an owner/president management executive education program at Harvard Business School.

2. Amanda Fennell, Relativity
Title: Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Officer

Amanda Fennell is Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Officer at Relativity. She joined the legal and compliance software company in 2018 as CSO; this year, her responsibilities expanded to include the role of CIO. In her dual role, Fennell is responsible for championing and directing security strategy in risk management and compliance practices, as well as building and supporting Relativity’s information technology. She also hosts Relativity’s Security Sandbox podcast, which explores the links between non-security topics and the security industry.

Fennell has established an impressive 15 years of deep experience in forensics and cybersecurity across various companies before Relativity, including Rutger Cyber Security, Symantec, and Booz Allen Hamilton. She was also an adjunct professor at Tulane University and Capitol Technology University. Fennell has a master’s degree in forensic science from George Washington University and studied anthropology, archaeology, osteology, and ceramics at Radford University.

3. Elizabeth Carducci, Medallia
Title: Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer

Elizabeth Carducci is recognized as a visionary leader in the customer and employee experience industry, and as a member of the founding team, she has helped build Medallia into the industry-leading customer and employee experience management company it is today. Now serving in a dual role as the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, Carducci brings over 20 years of deep domain expertise to her work with Medallia. She leads its global industry sales function in addition to directing the solutions consulting, solutions principals, product marketing, and market intelligence functions.

Before Medallia, Carducci led the global contact center organization for Starwood Hotels, with prior roles as a VP for ITT Sheraton and a senior consultant for both Deloitte and Touche Ross. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

4. Faiza Hughell, RingCentral
Title: Chief Customer Officer

As RingCentral’s Chief Customer Officer, Faiza Hughell concentrates on enabling success for the company’s customers across all markets and geographies through customer support, professional services, and implementation. RingCentral is a leading provider of cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions. Previously, Hughell held the title of senior VP of small business, where she was responsible for the expansion of RingCentral’s worldwide small business customer base. She joined RingCentral in 2010 with a charter to scale up inside sales, helping drive growth through the company’s IPO in 2013. During her nine years at RingCentral, she has built and scaled multiple teams across the sales organization, including sales development, BDR, and solutions engineering.

Prior to joining RingCentral, Hughell built and led small business and sales development teams at Cisco WebEx. As a segment leader, she was focused on small business growth as well as eCommerce. Hughell has received numerous awards, including a Tribute to Women of Silicon Valley Award for Female Empowerment in 2018 and a placement on The Modern Sale and Collective’s list of the Top 100 Global Sales Leaders of 2021.

5. Jennifer Ives, 3Pillar
Title: Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships

Jennifer Ives is the Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for 3Pillar Global. A seasoned business leader with more than 20 years of experience leading teams and crafting revenue-generating business strategies, she is responsible for sourcing, developing, and implementing innovative strategic partnerships to guide and accelerate the continued growth of 3Pillar. Prior to her current role, she led P&L and sales activities for 3Pillar’s diverse portfolio of clients in industries including security, media, information services, and data analytics.

Before joining 3Pillar Global, Ives was the SVP of North America at Top Employers Institute, a global data and analytics organization serving Fortune 500 clients. Prior to that, she led strategic growth at LiveSafe, an emerging-technology company that developed an enterprise-class safety and risk intelligence platform. She also spent more than 10 years as director of business investment for Arlington Economic Development, and served as an organizing board member for Startup Virginia, speaking at the White House on the topic of “Entrepreneurship and the Innovation Economy.” Ives attended the University of Virginia and George Mason University.

6. Inga Latham, SiteMinder
Title: Chief Product Officer

Inga Latham brings her wealth of digital business expertise to her role as Chief Product Officer of SiteMinder, where she leads a global team of more than 70 professionals across product and design. SiteMinder, an Australia-based company, provides cloud-based software to the travel and hospitality industry. Latham’s group creates unique experiences that surprise and delight users of SiteMinder’s platform, both directly and indirectly through SiteMinder’s integration partner ecosystem.

Latham has certainly built quite the digital business resume, being a veteran of boo.com, Yahoo!, online travel agencies lastminute.com and Travelocity, and Ticketmaster. Prior to linking up with SiteMinder, she joined the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where she went on to become the GM of digital experience and also served as GM of digital platforms. Latham began her career as a journalist before finding user experience and product management by fortuitous accident in the early years of the dotcom boom in London. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English, German, and politics from the University of Cape Town.

7. Anna Baird, Outreach
Title: Chief Revenue Officer

As Outreach’s Chief Revenue Officer, Anna Baird leads all sales and revenue operations for the company, which is considered the number-one engagement and intelligence platform on the market. The company has also been listed in the Forbes Cloud 100, G2’s Best Product for Sales, and GeekWire’s Next Tech Titan. With a wealth of experience in finance and executive leadership, Baird specializes in ambitiously accelerating growth and has guided multiple startups through significant fundraising events. In her duties as CRO of Outreach, she is responsible for sales development, customer success, professional services, member support, and revenue operations.

Prior to Outreach, she served as CFO of Livongo, senior VP at McAfee, and partner at KPMG. She was, in fact, the global lead partner of KPMG for several premier technology companies, including Google and Intuit. Baird is a CPA and is also Six Sigma Green Belt certified. She earned her Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of California, Fresno, and took executive courses at Harvard and Wharton.

8. Jane Kim, CircleCI
Title: Chief Revenue Officer

As Chief Revenue Officer at CircleCI, Jane Kim oversees the company’s global revenue to ensure that the company delivers on its mission: provide developers everywhere the power to build and deliver software at high levels of speed. CircleCI is a shared continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform and one of the most-used DevOps tools, processing more than a million builds per day. Kim is responsible for building and managing global sales and customer success for CircleCI across North America, APAC, and EMEA.

Prior to CircleCI, she was the VP of North America sales at Optimizely and global VP of Cloud Corporate Sales at SAP. Kim preceded those roles by working with SuccessFactors as a sales director and senior manager, and prior to that had been VP of Thoma Bravo for two years. She has a Master of Business Administration from Stanford Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Columbia University.

9. Namita Dhallan, Brightcove
Title: Chief Product Officer

Namita Dhallan is the Chief Product Officer of Brightcove, a Boston, Massachusetts–based software company that produces an online video platform. She leads the product management, engineering, and operations functions at Brightcove. Bringing deep engineering experience and market insight, Dhallan is responsible for driving Brightcove’s product innovation and delivering world-class video solutions to organizations around the world.

She is a proven leader in the high-tech world with an outstanding track record for leading product teams. Prior to her work with Brightcove, Dhallan was senior VP and CPO at Ellucian, where she headed engineering, product management, and cloud ops/dev ops. She was previously EVP of product strategy and engineering at Deltek. Preceding that, she held several positions in product management and product development at Blue Yonder. Dhallan earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Maryland College Park.

10. Dr. Denise Gosnell, DataStax
Title: Chief Data Officer

As the Chief Data Officer of Datastax, Dr. Denise Gosnell applies her extensive experience in the graph and machine learning industries to drive more informed decisions with data for the company, which provides an open, multi-cloud stack for modern data apps. She is also an integral member of its Strategy Team. Dr. Gosnell initially joined DataStax in 2017 to establish and lead its Global Graph Practice, a team that builds some of the largest distributed graph applications in the world.

Dr. Gosnell’s impressive resume includes serving as a senior technical evangelist and data scientist for PokitDok, where she developed software solutions for permissioned blockchains and applied machine learning to graph analytics and data science. She also published a book, The Practitioner’s Guide to Graph Data, which illustrates how to apply graph thinking to solve complex problems. Dr. Gosnell earned her PhD in computer science from the University of Tennessee as an NSF Fellow, and her groundbreaking research originated the concept of “social fingerprinting” by applying graph algorithms to predict user identity from social media interactions. Additionally, she holds a Master of Science from East Tennessee State University and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the College of Wooster.

11. Lucy Suros, Articulate
Title: Chief Executive Officer

As Chief Executive Officer of Articulate, Lucy Suros leads one of the first and largest fully remote SaaS companies in the U.S. More than 98,000 organizations use Articulate products like rise.com to train more than 104 million employees, and the platform has helped learners develop new skills in addition to providing career-boosting training. Since Suros joined Articulate, she has guided the company’s transformation from a perpetual software license business model to a SaaS recurring revenue model, established the company’s first marketing organization, and created an innovative customer success function. In 2019, Suros developed the company’s human-centered organization framework.

Before joining Articulate, Suros consulted with companies like Apple, American Express, and PayPal. She has also been a champion for diversity and inclusion throughout her career and writes articles about workplace culture, remote work, and social justice. Suros earned a Bachelor of Arts from Westmont College and a Master of Arts in ethics from the Pacific School of Religion.

12. Sharon Doherty, Finastra
Title: Chief People and Places Officer

Sharon Doherty is Finastra’s Chief People and Places Officer, empowering clients to achieve their goals and fostering a culture within her company that inspires productive disruption in the sector. Finastra is one of the world’s largest fintechs, working with over 9,000 customers—including 90 of the top 100 global banks. In her designation as CPPO, Doherty is committed to community empowerment, creating solutions that help bring unbanked populations into the financial ecosystem and promoting sustainable skills education through Finastra’s volunteer programs in local communities across the world. Additionally, she is a driving force in equality in the workplace and a stalwart supporter of the LGBTQ community.

Before joining Finastra in 2019, Doherty was instrumental to the award-winning diversity and digital work in Vodafone that transformed both its culture and revenue growth. Prior to this, her roles included CHRO at Laing O’Rourke and HRD during the build of Heathrow’s Terminal 5. Other activities include a position as non-executive director at Laing O’Rourke, trustee at Regents University, and membership with the CEB Talent Board and the Vodafone Foundation Board. Doherty studied social science and politics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

13. Jeni Brown, Teamwork
Title: Chief People Officer

Jeni currently holds the role of Chief People Officer at Teamwork with the remit of building a business-centric People & Talent function, enabling Teamwork to deliver its ambitious growth strategy on the back of a recent $70m investment by Bregal Milestone. Prior to Teamwork Jeni was VP, Strategic Organisational Enablement in Openet (an Amdocs company), with global responsibility for strategic organizational enablement, culture, and transformation to enable Openet shape the future of digital services. She also acted as Strategic Integration Lead, following the acquisition of Openet by Amdocs in 2020. Jeni has also held senior HR leadership roles with a broad range of companies spanning digital media, telecoms, and technology and is Director of Rubix3, a niche people solutions consultancy practice.

Jeni has a deep passion for the role of inclusive culture to drive impactful change.
A graduate of University College Dublin, Jeni holds a Master’s degree in European Studies, a B.A. is CIPD accredited and has an IITD Certificate in Training and Development and a Diploma in Employment Law. She is currently enrolled in the IMI Senior Executive Programme.

14. Tonya Chin, Nutanix
Title: Senior Vice President of Marketing and Chief Communications Officer

In her dual role as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Chief Communications Officer at Nutanix, Tonya Chin leads the company’s corporate communications, investor relations, and corporate marketing teams. Nutanix is an American cloud computing company that sells software, cloud services, and software-defined storage. Chin leverages over 20 years of experience in finance, investor relations, marketing, and communications roles at both public and private companies in guiding Nutanix to cloud mastery.

Prior to Nutanix, she was at Aruba Networks, where she held the position of VP of investor relations. Previously, Chin served as head of IR for companies including ShoreTel and Genesis Microchip, and also served as director of IR at Solectron and Exodus Communications. She started her career at Ernst and Young, where she was an audit manager. Chin holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Santa Clara University and is an active member of the Forbes Communication Council.

15. Laura Crumley, HID Global
Title: Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Laura Crumley is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions that provides millions of users convenient access to physical and digital places. In her almost 7-year history with HID Global, Crumley has spearheaded a large restructuring and supported merger and acquisition activities to accelerate growth and boost previously stagnant revenue. Her role evolved over time to include intellectual property as the company’s staff grew to over 180 people.

Crumley is a strategic leader boasting over 20 years of experience, with strong business and financial acumen that delivers financial success. In her previous roles, she held senior-level positions with Dell, AMD, and Intel, driving business growth, leading acquisition strategies, and delivering shareholder value. Crumley holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of La Verne and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

16. Kathy Wagner, Kaseya
Title: Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, Kathy Wagner leads all finance and legal activities across the full portfolio of Kaseya companies, which includes Unitrends, Spanning Cloud Apps, Rapidfire Tools, ID Agent, Graphus, RocketCyber, TruMethods, and IT Glue. Kaseya provides remote management software solutions for the IT and MSP industries. In her CFO role, Wagner has made it abundantly clear that she understands the impacts and benefits of managing investments and effectively conveying strategies to the executive team, board, investors, and other stakeholders.

Prior to joining Kaseya, Wagner held the role of VP of global finance and administration for Citrix, where she developed a long-range plan leveraging external market data to drive the transformation to a SaaS/subscription-based business model. Before that, as Citrix’s VP of sales, Wagner grew total bookings by 7% year-over-year while driving costs down by $70 million annually. She had also been the company’s controller and a key advisor to its strategic development team. Her work preceding Citrix includes being audit manager for Ernst & Young LLP/Arthur Andersen LLP. Wagner holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and is an active CPA in the state of Florida.

17. Linda Ho, Seismic
Title: Chief People Officer

Chief People Officer Linda Ho is designing the future of work at the intersection of employee experience and business strategy at Seismic. A global leader in AI-powered sales enablement, Seismic improves teams and collaboration efforts by driving productivity and buyer engagement. As the company’s CPO, Ho leads the firm’s talent programs, including culture, organization, and leadership development, talent acquisition, total rewards, facilities, and internal communications.

Prior to joining Seismic, Ho spent 14 years in various HR leadership roles at Autodesk Inc, most recently as a VP, and focused on creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment. Outside the office, she serves as a senior faculty member for the Josh Bersin Academy, a global professional development academy for HR practitioners. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine.

18. Allison Hoffman, Phreesia
Title: General Counsel

Since joining Phreesia in 2020 as its General Counsel, Allison Hoffman has overseen the company’s fast-growing legal, compliance, risk, privacy, and security teams. Phreesia is a SaaS provider that specializes in creating patient intake solutions for healthcare organizations. Hoffman, an accomplished leader with more than 25 years of legal and people-management experience, is committed to Phreesia’s mission of creating a better, more engaging healthcare experience. Her prowess for leading in-house legal departments for public companies is invaluable to the success of Phreesia.

Prior to joining Phreesia, Hoffman served as chief legal and administrative officer for Intersection, a digital technology company focused on improving life in cities and public spaces. She also oversaw the legal and human resources departments for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, culminating in oversight of the company’s sale. Hoffman holds a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Arts and Sciences and a Bachelor of Science from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and she received her Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School.

19. Elizabeth Combs, Frontline Education
Title: Managing Director

Elizabeth Combs is the Managing Director of the Frontline Research & Learning Institute, the data analytics and research arm of Frontline Education. She also leads Frontline’s organizational development and communications strategies. Frontline Education is a leading provider of school administration software, partnering with thousands of school districts across all 50 states. As a former educator with over two decades of experience developing professional learning solutions, Combs is passionate about leveraging technology and data to support educator growth.

Prior to joining Frontline, she held leadership positions as president and CSO for MyLearningPlan Inc. (acquired by Frontline in 2015). Combs earned an advanced certificate in education leadership from Hofstra University, a master’s degree in educational/institutional technology from the Teachers College of Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Education from State University of New York College at Geneseo.

20. Beth Gaines, Dennemeyer
Title: Head of IP Solutions for the Americas

Beth Gaines is the Head of IP Solutions for the Americas at the Dennemeyer Group, which offers state-of-the-art services for the global protection and management of intellectual property, including comprehensive IP management software, legal services, IP strategy consulting, and cutting-edge patent search and analysis tools. As a senior leader, Gaines brings more than 25 years of legal and intellectual property experience to the table for Dennemeyer. She shares her deep knowledge of IP operations with her team and guides them in designing, building, and executing customer-centric solutions to carefully manage her customers’ critical IP assets across 250 countries.

Gaines has been recognized for her contagious passion, absolute dedication, limitless energy, and a resolute focus on results–qualities that have surely boosted her career trajectory. Before Dennemeyer, she was a Regional Manager for CPA Global. Gaines holds a Master of Business Administration in international business and a Bachelor of Science in business management and is also a U.S. Navy veteran.

21. Lauren Langston, Mavenlink
Title: Chief Operating Officer

Lauren Langston is the Chief Operating Officer at Mavenlink, the leading provider of cloud-based software purpose-built for professional services organizations. She leads global business operations, overseeing strategy, analytics, and go-to-market operations. Langston joined the company in 2017 and has led the fundraising of nearly $100 million in equity and debt capital.

Prior to her appointment at Mavenlink, Langston was a venture and growth equity investor at Goldman Sachs. She was instrumental in Goldman Sachs’ early investment in Mavenlink. This earned her a position advising Mavenlink’s CEO as board observer which ultimately led to her appointment as VP of Business Operations. Langston was promoted to SVP of Business Operations and served as CFO before her appointment to COO. Langston earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

22. Susan Gershman, Prophix
Title: Chief Customer Innovation Officer

Susan Gershman is the Chief Customer Innovation Officer at Prophix, a global leader in corporate performance management (CPM) software. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing customer experience and relationships across all aspects of Prophix’s business and products. Gershman joined the Prophix Senior Leadership Team in October 2020 to provide a concentrated focus on customer experience and success. Her deep knowledge and understanding of customer-centric SaaS-based applications enable her to provide unique insight and perspective to support Prophix’s mission of empowering mid-market organizations to automate critical financial processes for improved profitability and to minimize risk. She has a passion for enabling customer success with a focus on business outcomes and value, and this is evident in Prophix’s industry-leading NPS score and over 100% customer retention rate.

Before joining the Prophix team, Gershman was president of 18 Cities, a software company that steers organizations to improve the success of their demos. She has also served in senior marketing and operations roles at organizations including Medworxx and Longview Solutions. Gershman earned a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting from the University of Manitoba.

23. Diane Haines, Mineral
Title: Chief Product and Marketing Officer

Diane Haines is the Chief Product and Marketing Officer for Mineral, an HR and compliance solutions provider catering to growing businesses. Haines guides product development and advertising strategies for the company, which has grown to become one of the largest and most wide-reaching HR communities in the U.S. She played a pivotal role in the launch of Mineral Intelligence, a first-of-its-kind HR and compliance engine that generates proactive recommendations for the company’s over 500,000 clients.

Prior to Mineral, Haines filled executive marketing positions for a variety of companies, including OpenSesame, Sage, OHSU, Agilent Technologies (Stratagene), BioCarta, and BD. Haines holds a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University, studied marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and earned a Master of Arts in management and economics from the University of Oklahoma.

24. Kathleen Waid, Prove
Title: Chief Revenue Officer

Kathleen Waid is the Chief Revenue Officer of Prove, a modern platform for phone-centric identity authentication which is responsible for powering over 1,000 enterprises, including 500 financial institutions and 9 of the top 10 U.S. banks. Waid has contributed to the recent comeback of QR technology by championing Prove’s QR Pre-fill offering, which gives chief marketing officers a powerful tool for onboarding new customers in a quick and easy manner. The tool empowers consumers to use existing QR codes to donate to charitable organizations or sign up for various financial services –including crypto and BNPL programs– without filling out countless forms on their mobile devices.

Before becoming a part of the Prove team, Waid was a member of Revenue Collective (now Pavilion) and served as GTM VP for both PointPredictive and Fiserv. She was also an adjunct marketing professor at Saint Joseph’s University, teaching courses in sales management for two years. Waid earned a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the Fox School of Business at Temple University, and a Bachelor of Science in marketing from the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

25. Barbara Nelson, InfluxData
Title: Vice President of Applications

Barbara Nelson is the Vice President of Applications at InfluxData, an open-source time-series database, and leads its application engineering teams. As VP and head of the applications team, she is responsible for the user interface and e-commerce platform for InfluxData’s cloud service. She and her team are tasked with the development of the Telegraf product and supporting its open source community. Nelson has vast experience leading globally distributed engineering teams that design, develop, deploy, and support cloud-based products and services.

She joined InfluxData in October 2019 and had previously headed engineering at several companies, including as a principal architect at eBay and CTO/VP of engineering for iPass and Cirrent. She is a current board member of the security startup BlastWave. Nelson received a Bachelor of Science in computer science from University College Dublin and pursued additional studies at New York University.

26. Anu Subramanian, CloudCheckr
Title: Chief Technology Officer

As CloudCheckr’s Chief Technology Officer, Anu Subramanian is responsible for leading the company’s product strategy and execution. CloudCheckr is a cloud management solution that helps businesses manage and automate cost and security for their public cloud environments. Subramanian’s wealth of experience in scaling SaaS teams and ensuring customer satisfaction aids her in driving new innovative capabilities for CloudCheckr and leading the company’s software engineering and product organizations.

Subramanian has spent more than 20 years building and leading world-class teams that have brought innovative software solutions to market. Most recently, she was VP of engineering at Veracode, an application security testing company. Previously, she headed engineering for cybersecurity startup Confer and held leadership roles at Carbonite and Cisco. Subramanian holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from College of Engineering Guindy, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of New Hampshire, and a Master of Business Administration from Babson College.

27. Elizabeth Brockey, Simpli.fi
Title: Chief Customer Officer

Elizabeth Brockey is Chief Customer Officer for Simpli.fi, a leading provider of workflow software and programmatic advertising solutions that serves over 1,400 agencies, advertisers, and media-buying organizations. An online marketing professional with experience in developing, implementing, and managing successful strategies based on client objectives, Brockey leads Simpli.fi’s Client Services team with a focus on driving client satisfaction and progress through campaign performance. She has spent her tenure with Simpli.fi executing strategic initiatives to drive company success and foster innovation.

Having worked on all sides of the digital marketing environment and with many start-ups, Brockey has a proven track record of creating, developing, and managing consistent and profitable growth within multiple organizations. Brockey holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Government/Pre-Law from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Master’s Degree in Digital Marketing from East Tennessee State University.

28. Claudia Arriaga, OpenGov
Title: Global Vice President of Customer Success and Business Development

Claudia Arriaga serves as Global Vice President of Customer Success and Business Development for OpenGov, a technology company that offers cloud-based software for public sector budgeting, accounting, citizen services, and financial management. In her wide-reaching role, Arriaga brings extensive experience in brokering partnerships domestic and international for revenue generation, services, and technology, having spent more than 20 plus years in sales and people management.

Previously, Arriaga worked as VP of public sector affairs for Experian, handling P&L and creating sales strategies for federal, state, and local markets. Prior to that, she ran the WebSphere Business Unit for IBM Federal. She also filled executive roles in client relations for IBM, facilitating the company’s relationship with Verizon. Presently, she sits on the board of advisors for HData, a big data analytics company. Arriaga earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Florida International University, and a Master of Business Administration in international business and marketing from The George Washington University. Additionally, she completed a one-year IBM-sponsored client executive business program at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.

29. Karen Bowman, ujet.cx
Title: Vice President of Channel Sales

Karen Bowman brings more than 20 years of channel and sales experience to UJET, which is an innovation leader in cloud-native contact center software. Its modernized customer support platform enhances customer communications at every touchpoint. In her role as Vice President of Global Channel Sales, Bowman has focused on scaling the channel partner ecosystems and cloud contact center solutions through new partnerships and strategic alliances. She has seen firsthand how growing the channel can have an overwhelming effect on not just business growth but ushering in market-wide transformation.

Bowman has earned a stellar reputation in the industry as a leader who can build, innovate, and exceed the needs of the channel. She’s been able to forge such incredible relationships for UJET in the marketplace. Her most recent channel sales experience prior to UJET includes working with Five9 for four years, Serenova for almost the same duration, and the BDNA Corporation for one year. Bowman studied physics and math at the University of California, Berkeley, and received an Associate of Arts in physics and electrical engineering from Diablo Valley College.

30. Cynthia Sener, Chatmeter
Title: Chief Revenue Officer

Cynthia Sener is the Chief Revenue Officer of Chatmeter, a local brand management application that offers review and local listings management, social media analytics, local search engine optimization rank tracking, media aggregation, and competitor monitoring services for North American clients. Sener’s customer-centric approach to driving business value, growth, and revenue supports Chatmeter’s ambitious expansion into new verticals. She brings nearly 25 years of experience to Chatmeter, with a background in local SEO, product development, strategic marketing, revenue generation, and sales.

Sener joined Chatmeter from a previous role as VP of operations and product at Rio SEO, and has held leadership roles at data-centric organizations such as Acxiom, Hanley Wood, and Constellation Software. She is also an active Forbes Council contributing author. In terms of education, Sener attended the University of California, San Diego, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in executive management from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.

31. Kim Theken, Tenstreet
Title: Director of Implementation & Account Management

Kimberly Theken is the Director of Account Management at Tenstreet, LLC, a leading provider of driver recruiting, safety, and workflow software for the transportation industry. Theken oversees a team of account managers who provide support, training, and customized automation solutions for the nation’s top carriers. Her team assists Tenstreet’s 3,700 fleet customers and is integral in connecting them to the company’s network of over 5 million drivers. Theken strongly believes in developing personal relationships with every client and exploring all facets of automation and customization to achieve the most robust solution and ROI.

Theken has more than 30 years of transportation experience in areas such as HR, recruiting, and retention. Prior to joining Tenstreet, she was the sales administrator for JanPak, and worked diligently in support of drivers in her previous role as a personnel manager for Arrow Trucking. Theken attended Northern Virginia Community College.

32. Kathy Stares, Provenir
Title: Executive Vice President of the Americas

Kathy Stares serves as Executive Vice President of the Americas at Provenir, a global leader in risk decisioning and data analytics software. As EVP, Stares leads sales, customer success, and pre-sales consulting teams across the Americas and oversees strategic partnerships. Collaborating with Provenir’s executive team, she has introduced creative account management approaches to support the company’s aggressive growth strategy. With more than 20 years of experience and accomplishments in financial services technology, Stares brings deep knowledge and curiosity about risk decisioning innovation.

Prior to joining Provenir, she was chief customer officer at enStream, Canada’s leading provider of mobile verification services. She also served as group executive of global sales at FICO and held numerous leadership positions at Fair Isaac and Transunion. Stares received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and attained the Women of Influence certificate.

33. Chrissie Coon, Mutualink
Title: Chief Customer Experience Officer

Chrissie Coon is the Chief Customer Experience Officer for Mutualink, Inc., the leading technology provider for public safety communications solutions and smart cities endeavors. In her CCEO role, Coon is driving innovation to meet customers’ growing needs and build long-term, trusted relationships in the industry. With over 20 years of public safety and technology industry experience, she is uniquely qualified to understand and communicate the voice of the customer.

Coon’s history of successful technology leadership in both the public and private sector, coupled with her experience as a 15-year veteran of the North Las Vegas Police Department, allows her to bridge the technology gap for public safety and support the development and implementation of innovative technology solutions supporting first responder missions. She previously served as President and Co-Chair of EDGE (formerly CES Government), and worked to elevate the prestigious event experience and develop relationships with leaders from all levels of government, industry, and academia to identify and incubate emerging technologies that support government missions. Coon holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

34. Gwen Sheridan, Highspot
Title: Vice President of Customer Services

Gwen Sheridan serves as Vice President of Services at Highspot, an AI-driven sales enablement platform that aids companies worldwide in improving the performance of their sales teams. Sheridan empowers customers to harness the power of sales enablement and achieve maximum returns. She is resolutely focused on scaling small to mid-sized companies by building their teams and enhancing their processes and metrics, thus accelerating their growth.

In her more than 15 years of experience as a customer success leader, she served as COO at New Alchemy and was also VP of customer service at both Ascentis and PayScale. Sheridan holds a Master of Business Administration in management and strategy from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, and a Bachelor of Arts in religion from Princeton University.

35. Melissa Swisher, Socrates.ai
Title: Chief Revenue Officer

Melissa Swisher co-founded and is Chief Revenue Officer of Socrates.ai, which functions as a singular gateway for enterprises’ HR and benefits programs. Swisher’s duties as CRO include overseeing her organization’s growth, go-to-market strategy, partnerships, customer retention, and more. She is an accomplished executive with two decades of groundbreaking results in the human resources and benefits technology space. Her expertise includes scaling startup organizations and delivering consistent years of triple-digit growth.

In addition to serving as global VP of sales and marketing for Aasonn, Swisher was VP of sales at both SuccessFactors and Castlight Health, helping drive these organizations towards IPO realization. Before SuccessFactors, she spent nearly a decade at ADP, filling multiple sales leadership roles that culminated in her being appointed major accounts sales executive. Swisher earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the James Madison University College of Business.

36. Lisa Zaythik, AppsFlyer
Title: Chief People Officer

Lisa Zaythik is Chief People Officer at AppsFlyer, a SaaS mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform, where she manages a people-devoted team responsible for building and maintaining AppsFlyer’s customer-obsessed culture. She joined the company in 2011 as a digital marketing advisor and has since played a pivotal role in shaping the company and its vision. She established AppsFlyer’s Academy, one of the company’s most important functions, in addition to the People Operations business unit and AppsFlyer Cares, the CSR arm of the company. Under Zaythik’s leadership, AppsFlyer has been recognized as one of the highest-rated cloud computing companies to work for during the COVID-19 crisis.

Previously, Zaythik was the senior account manager of display media and a campaign manager for Ybrant Digital, an affiliate manager and recruiter for Clickwise, and managed projects and accounts for commerce technology company Payonner. She speaks four languages and holds a Bachelor of Arts in marketing technology from Sapir College.

37. Shannon Shoemaker, Cisive
Title: Vice President of Marketing, Solution Management, and Partnerships

Shannon Shoemaker has served as Cisive’s Vice President of Solutions, Marketing, and Partnerships since 2018 and brings over a decade of experience in the background screening industry. Cisive is a top provider of compliance-driven human capital and risk management solutions, providing onboarding and pre-employment background screening solutions to address the complex needs of large enterprises. Shoemaker works closely with the Cisive family of companies to maximize each business unit’s opportunities in alignment with the company’s mission, and, thanks to her efforts, Cisive is widely recognized across the globe.

Before Cisive, she had been VP of operations for ScoutLogic Screening and also worked as a sales executive for First Advantage. Shoemaker had additional background check tech experience from working for OPENonline in sales and sales leadership roles. She was recognized in CIO Outlook’s Top 10 Most Influential Businesswomen for 2021 and Insights Success Magazine’s 20 Most Successful Businesswomen to Watch. In 2020, Shoemaker was named CEO Today magazine’s Business Women of the Year.

38. Doniel Sutton, Fastly
Title: Chief People Officer

Doniel Sutton has been Fastly’s Chief People Officer since September 2020, where she is responsible for all aspects of Human Resources and Workplaces, helping to scale the company’s workforce and its key growth processes. Fastly is a global edge-cloud platform provider that enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely, and reliably by processing, serving, and securing their customers’ applications. Sutton’s data-driven, collaborative product management approach, combined with a customer-first mindset, has enabled her to strategically scale HR functions while building innovative, value-added experiences.

Sutton brings more than 20 years of strategic and global human resource leadership experience at Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, including PayPal, Prudential, Bank of America, and Honeywell. She has led numerous initiatives transforming culture, building inclusive organizations and teams, while also increasing diversity representation throughout these organizations. Her crowning career achievements include recognition by Black Enterprise in 2017 as one of the 300 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America and being awarded the 2018 American Business Awards’ Bronze “Stevie” HR Executive of the Year. Sutton attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning a Bachelor of Science in finance and a Master of Business Administration in human resources.

39. Sandra Moran, WorkForce Software
Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Sandra Moran is the Chief Marketing Officer for WorkForce Software, a provider of cloud-based workforce management solutions that have achieved a global reach. In her position as CMO, Moran and her global team align with sales and business goals to provide value in marketing and contribute to the growing company. With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Moran’s strengths lie in leadership and brand growth, specifically in the global software and technology industry.

Moran has reshaped advertising for multiple companies, providing them with a streamlined, customer-centric identification that has strengthened each brand. This skill led to her successfully originating a unicorn SaaS company as global CMO amid the pandemic. She has also headed marketing efforts as an executive with SurgeonCheck and OpenText. Moran earned a bachelor’s degree in business analysis and research from Texas A&M University.

40. Johanna Rauhala, Smarp
Title: Vice President of Operations

Johanna Rauhala is the Vice President of Operations at Smarp, a mobile-first employee communications platform that helps companies build strong two-way relationships with their employees. She has been with Smarp since its early days in 2015, joining when the company had recently launched the first version of its SaaS platform. In the past seven years, she has played a pivotal role in growing the business into a global market leader and has served many roles throughout her time with the company, most recently managing the North American expansion and market for two years.

Smarp is currently undergoing a merger with a German-based social intranet provider COYO, and Rauhala will join the new C-level team as the Chief of Staff. She will thereby play an integral part in ensuring a successful integration of the two companies.  She earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in economics and business administration from Aalto University.

41. Sandra Denton, Pipefy
Title: Vice President of Channels and Partnerships

Sandra Denton is the Vice President of Channels and Partnerships at Pipefy, a cloud-based, low-code platform that empowers managers and citizen developers to design, build, and automate all processes and workflows. In her VP role, Denton leads the company’s channels and alliance partnership strategy and programs. She has secured significant additions to Pipefy’s partner ecosystem and provides successful partner journeys and sales plays that drive deeper engagement on joint solutions and go-to-market efforts.

Denton brings to Pipefy more than 20 years of senior leadership and partner management experience in the IT and telecom industry, with a strong record of building and driving business through and with partners. For four years, she has been featured in CRN’s “100 Women of the Channel.” Prior to Pipefy, she worked as a member of women leadership company Chief. Denton previously held other channel and alliance management positions at Nlyte Software, IBM/Softek Storage Solutions, EMC/SMARTS, and Accenture. She holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Lehigh University, a Master of Science in computer and information science from Pace University, and a Master of Business Administration in management and marketing from Columbia Business School in New York.

42. Marta DeBellis, HireVue
Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Marta DeBellis is the Chief Marketing Officer at HireVue, a company devoted to democratizing hiring processes and helping enterprises hire in faster, fairer, and friendlier ways. In her CMO role, she is responsible for HireVue’s brand, communications, product marketing, demand generation, digital, inbound, and international marketing. DeBellis is integral to HireVue’s international growth strategy, having had great success in managing extensive global marketing programs during her career.

Before joining HireVue, DeBellis was a global CMO for infrastructure in the ed-tech and HR tech industries. She has established a 25-year career in the high-tech space, with previous leadership roles at Adobe, MRM/McCann, and Intel Corporation. She has developed a specialty in SaaS performance marketing and GTM, as well as in international growth, having held in-region roles in both APAC and EMEA. DeBellis is also an active board member of Civis Analytics, in addition to filling board positions for several other for-profit and nonprofit organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

43. Michelle Gerson, FloQast
Title: Vice President of Marketing

Michelle Gerson is the Vice President of Marketing at FloQast, a provider of accounting workflow automation that is designed by accountants for accountants. As marketing VP, she is responsible for driving high-impact business-to-business marketing programs with a larger goal of increasing overall ARR for the organization. Gerson has a proven track record in driving revenue and organizational growth by introducing programs that both generate leads and close deals in domestic and global markets.

Prior to joining FloQast, Gerson served as director of demand generation for proximity search optimizer MomentFeed, proceeding her role as founder of marketing agency and internal marketing manager of Mak & Ger. She also worked as an account executive for OgilvyOne, Pardon My French, and The Vidal Partnership. Gerson holds two Bachelors of Arts, one in communications and the other in Spanish, from the University of Southern California. She also attended New York University, earning a Master of Science in integrated marketing.

44. Erin Reeves, Airship
Title: Vice President of Human Resources

Erin Reeves is the Vice President of Human Resources at Airship. Founded in 2009 as a pioneer in mobile app push notifications, Airship now enables brands to spark exceptional experiences with their customers through highly contextual interactions across any channel. With over 24 years of experience leading HR across a variety of industries, Reeves has been a vital member of the Executive team at Airship for over seven years, playing a key role in the company’s commitment to values and diversity. Most recently, she has been the executive sponsor for a cross-functional “Culture of Collaboration” team and also guided Airship’s digital-first approach to COVID-era workplace policies.

Prior to Airship, Reeves spent three years working in benefits and compensation for New Seasons Market, and served in HR roles for Ensequence, VTech, and Household International. She holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a concentration in HR management from Portland State University.

45. Sharifa Parker, Moogsoft
Title: Vice President of People

Sharifa Parker is the Vice President of People at Moogsoft, the observability solution of choice for DevOps practitioners and SRE teams which delivers immediate value with a comprehensive set of AI and observability features. Joining Moogsoft at the very beginning, in 2012, Parker has spent the last nine years driving people and culture initiatives. She has been instrumental in helping Moogsoft recruit and grow their employee population in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Parker works closely with Moogsoft’s founders and executives to drive engagement to align with Moogsoft’s overall mission and objectives.

Parker previously worked as HR operations manager for Betfair, an online betting company, where she discovered a passion for technology. Parker started her career at Citigroup, learning all aspects of the HR industry. She has a Master of Business Administration from Kingston University, a Bachelor of Arts in social science from Southampton Institute, and earned her CIPD from Thames Valley University.

46. Nicole Smith, Tackle
Title: Vice President of Marketing

Nicole Wojno Smith is the Vice President of Marketing of Tackle, a platform that helps software providers build a cloud-based GTM (go-to-market) strategy that leverages AWS, Microsoft, and GCP Marketplaces. Tackle assists hundreds of companies ranging from startups to some of the largest software organizations in the world initiate, commencing sales, and scaling their cloud marketplace business. Smith joined Tackle as the first marketer in early 2020, and has driven annual recurring revenue growth by 5x through building the company’s brand and partnering with sales leaders. Known for developing GTM programs that align marketing and sales, Smith oversees strategy and execution across brand, demand generation, content, product, customer, and partner marketing.

Prior to Tackle, Smith built and scaled marketing teams from the ground up at two other SaaS companies, Dodge Communications (now MERGE Atlanta) and UserIQ. When she is not working alongside her fellow Tacklers, she’s passionate about supporting other GTM leaders as they navigate their career paths. Smith founded and leads the Atlanta chapter of Pavilion (formerly Revenue Collective), and also helps advise early-stage SaaS companies as they build marketing teams and strategies. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in public relations from the University of Georgia and a Master of Business Administration from the Mercer University Stetson School of Business and Economics.

47. Leila Iranmanesh, Wire
Title: Director of Marketing

Leila Iranmanesh is the Director of Enterprise Marketing for Wire, the most secure collaboration platform that has transformed the way security-first businesses and governments work.

Leila has been instrumental in Wire’s in establishing Wire as an Enterprise – establishing the brand as a leader in secure communications in the market – developing PR programs that reach more than 500m readers along with positioning the product with key analysts like Gartner and Forrester as well as building up a demand generation engine to reap the benefits and underpin Wire’s triple-digit year over year growth.

Preceding her Wire role, Iranmanesh worked as a marketing lead for Loom Systems, helping to establish the company as a forerunner in the AIOps space. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing and management from Hult International Business School.

48. Jackie Carlson, RippleMatch
Title: Director of People

Jackie Carlson is the Director of People for RippleMatch, an early-career recruiting platform that combines automation and data insights to aid employers in talent hiring efforts. Carlson is a bonafide HR master with a passion for cultivating ​​a “people-first” ​​culture​ for RippleMatch. She’s made a lasting impact as a collaborative business partner, building and championing long-term talent strategies for RippleMatch and other organizations over an eventful decade of experience in people management.

Before joining RippleMatch, Carlson worked her human resources magic at OppLoans, building, training, and supervising a top-notch HR team during her three years as a people team manager; she was first hired as the company’s HR and recruiting manager. Preceding that, she spent time at Global Employment Solutions as its senior recruiter, eventually becoming a recruiting manager. Carlson received a bachelor’s degree in communications arts and sciences from Michigan State University.

49. Carine Roman, Mailchimp
Title: Chief Customer Officer

As a marketing automation platform and email marketing service Mailchimp’s Chief Customer Officer, Carine Roman leads the company’s customer care team, VIP services, customer success, inbound sales, and service partner program. She is tasked with ensuring that all of the company’s customers have an outstanding experience with its all-in-one marketing platform. Roman is a truly customer-centric executive with over 20 years of experience in the advertising, SaaS, operations, finance, and product development industries. Through it all, her dedication to her employees and customers has helped her drive several organizations to business success.

Prior to Mailchimp, Roman spent seven years with Linkedin Talent Solutions, starting as head of global advertising operations strategy and development before working her way up to become global head of customer success. She filled VP positions for 33Across and Ziff Davis Enterprise, the latter being a follow-up to a research and market intelligence internship. As department executive director of Europe for Publicis, she generated $11.2 million in annual revenue and increased sales by more than 30% year-over-year. Roman earned a Baccalaureat in science from Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and took classes préparatoires in math and business at Lycée Chaptal. She also earned a master’s degree in management from Toulouse Business School, in addition to a Master of Business Administration in media management and finance from Columbia Business School.

50. Carole McCluskey, Tealium
Title: Chief Customer Officer

Carole McCluskey is the Chief Customer Officer at Tealium, which powers real-time customer insights for organizations with an easy-to-use CDP solution. In her role, she has the unique perspective of both buying and selling technology, with first-hand awareness of the challenges related to taking a significant technology investment and creating meaningful value. McCluskey has guided customers in discovering the opportunities afforded by Tealium’s CDP mastery, contributing to the company’s adoption and growth in recent times.

Her 35-year career is unique in that she worked for more than 20 years in customer success and professional services, and then sandwiched a 12-year stint in corporate technology leadership between her return to the industry. McCluskey certainly has a full schedule currently; in addition to her Tealium duties, she juggles being chief executive and experience officer for Epic 4 Life, strategic and technical advisor for Cadi, and a member of the board of directors for Myndshft. Before joining Tealium, she held the title of chief information and technology officer for Outerwall, MOD Pizza, and TrueBlue. McCluskey took her studies at California State University, Fresno, and earned a Bachelor of Science in industrial technology for digital systems.

– The Software Report