Virtual Collaborate 2020

Andrew founded Wrike in 2006 after realizing the challenges organizations faced in scaling due to the limitations of collaborating through email and spreadsheets. He had a vision to provide modern work teams with collaboration tools that make them more productive than they thought possible. Andrew has led Wrike from budding startup to one of the fastest-growing providers of collaboration and project management solutions. Wrike has been consistently recognized for its excellent product, tremendous growth, and top-rated work environment. In 2017, Wrike was named one of the fastest-growing tech companies in North America by Deloitte for the third consecutive year and was also designated a top workplace by the Bay Area News Group for the third consecutive year. In 2016, Wrike was named a leader in Enterprise Collaborative Work Management by Forrester Research.

As a business leader, Andrew's insights on entrepreneurship, productivity, and the future of work have been featured in leading business publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, and The New York Times. He is also an accomplished speaker, having led talks at numerous business and tech conferences including the Project Management Institute Global Conference, Web Summit, CeBIT, and Montgomery Summit.

Alexey Korotich heads Wrike's product organization. Alexey has more than 15 years of experience in enterprise software design, security, product development and management. His ability to define the long-term vision and management requirements for new, category-defining enterprise solutions has led to numerous successful go-to-market plans and launches.

Michael started with Thomson Reuters immediately after high school in their manufacturing department producing law books. Over 16 years, he has held many positions with the company. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a design degree, he made the transition to the website division with FindLaw and has been a Business Process Analyst for 5 years now.
He leads a team of Wrike admins serving 600+ users of Wrike with 4,000 active projects and counting! He is very passionate about empowering Wrike users. Michael currently leads a local group of Wrike power users where 30 companies collaborate constantly to better serve our customers and business partners.

Archie Sharma is the Vice President of Strategic Programs at Wrike. Prior to Wrike, Archie headed corporate strategy and development at OpenX, where he led strategy, go-to-market, and M&A. He joined OpenX from Ingram Micro, where he led business transformation initiatives. Prior to Ingram Micro, Archie headed the strategy consulting practice at Bainbridge and provided fact-based, actionable recommendations to C-level executives in F500 companies. Previously, he held management and engineering roles at Western Digital, Johnson & Johnson, Akzonobel, and Siemens.
Archie holds a Master of Business Administration from The Anderson School of Management at UCLA, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, and a Bachelor of Engineering from University of Pune, India.

Abhay Rajaram is Wrike's Chief Customer Officer. Abhay has a passion for building great businesses and delivering memorable customer outcomes. Prior to Wrike, he headed up all post-sales services at Hearsay, a SaaS digital marketing platform for global financial services organizations. Previously, Abhay built the customer success organization at YouSendIt / Hightail from the ground up. He also managed product operations, strategy, pricing, and training for Cisco's security business, and held product, marketing, and engineering management positions at IronPort Systems, 3Com Corporation, and and Wipro Technologies. Abhay holds an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology, India.

Jeff is the Director of Production & Project Management, Pacific Rim for Nickelodeon Experience Design. In his role, Jeff manages all aspects from concept to opening of large-scale themed attractions and exhibits ensuring that the Nickelodeon brand and IP are brought to life with the greatest value possible.

Jeff’s early theater design training and extensive production experience have allowed him to develop a broad understanding of how systems and teams work together. As the Nickelodeon creative operations team began transitioning from a traditional model to a more Agile environment, they implemented Wrike as the backbone for collaboration. Jeff works with the creative and project management team, helping them be more efficient and conversant in Wrike.

Jeff spent his early career in performing arts production and all aspects of design for the performing arts (IATSE & USA scenic design affiliated) and migrated to a producer/director role in themed experiences and attractions worldwide. Having a broad experience in how complicated projects are mounted from conception to opening, Jeff has always been looking to refine processes and procedures to better manage projects and make the overall experience more enjoyable for everyone.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Arts from Whitman College and Masters in Design for the Performing Arts from California Institute of the Arts.

Shaun Carlson is the Director of R&D and Continuous Innovation for Arvig. He has been with Arvig since 2011 and in the Telecommunications industry for almost 20 years. On the side, he is a Major in the North Dakota Air National Guard, which he's been a member of for 23 years. Over the years he has served his communities as a Church Youth Leader, Church Music Leader, Volunteer Firefighter, Emergency Medical Technician, and a board member for the Midwest Internet Cooperative Exchange in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Mary and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from North Dakota State University.

Wrike and Agile marketing is, in a way, a matter of life and death to Justin Zimmerman. As a kid, Justin watched his father struggle as a small business owner. With his father's life in chaos, Justin grew up in a less than stable home. Determined to not let history repeat itself, Justin became "fanatical" about creating frameworks to guide his teams (and family) toward meaningful and fulfilling goals.
Without a compelling vision of the future, Justin sees how people suffer, underachieve, and how both companies and families fall apart. This is why Justin believes every leader, manager, owner, mother, and father's true job is to empower their teams (or families) with skills, tools, and systems to visualize a path forward together.
Justin says, "Purpose must be channeled. It must be cultivated. It must be operationalized to serve others. We crave direction and progress toward meaningful common goals. Without them, we get lost. I saw it as a kid and see it in companies today. Too many good people, good teams, and good companies fall apart as they chase numbers rather than invest in people and accountability.”
When asked, "What's the purpose of Wrike and Agile?"
Justin's response is, "To give teams the safety and autonomy they need to grow their skills and test new ideas that help customers get more value from a company's products... which helps companies to continue to give people a stable, meaningful place to work."
Agility and accountability can also be found in Justin's personal life. His philosophy of "consistency over intensity" has powered every step of his 691-day "5K-a-day" running streak. Running every day has taught him that success comes from taking life and business (literally) one step at a time.

Frank Tramble is a marketing and communications expert with 13 years of experience in higher education. He serves as the Senior Director of Strategic Communications & Operations for the office of advancement — a $200+ million dollar a year fundraising department — and oversees a communications team of 26 individuals whose expertise spans across designers, writers, digital channel strategists, multimedia, user experience, and project management experts. This high-performing team executes nearly 500 projects each fiscal year using the Wrike platform.
Frank holds a BA in advertising from Michigan State University, a Master's in Integrated Marketing Communications from Georgetown University, and an Executive Leadership in Business Certificate from Georgetown University. He has three years of Wrike experience and is known around the department for causing co-workers to preface all project questions with "Don't worry. I'll put it in Wrike" prior to asking their questions. Frank is also an avid runner and created a fitness organization in Washington D.C., called DC Run Crew that has engaged more than 3,000 runners and partners with brands such as Nike, New Balance, Potomac River Running, and many more — and, yes, he uses Wrike to manage all projects there as well. Frank attended Wrike Collaborate 2019 in Nashville and enjoys championing many other institutions to join the Wrike family and experience the great efficiencies it offers.

Mitchell Bausch serves as the Project Manager for the Enrollment Marketing team at the university with the largest enrollment in the nation. A graduate of Texas A&M’s Business School, Mitchell came into this role as the university was shifting to support the enrollment management model. Having gotten familiar with Wrike while working at a marketing agency in Fort Worth, Mitchell was able to help his team maximize efficiency and output. A self-proclaimed Wrike nerd, you can usually find workflows mapped out on giant sticky notes in his office. For the second time since starting his role, his team has had to transition to a remote work environment and doesn’t miss a beat.

George Evano is the Director of Alumni and Development Communications for the University of Oregon. He oversees a team of writer-producers who create content that inspires donations, strengthens relationships among alumni, celebrates university patrons, and advances the University of Oregon’s teaching mission. He’s a member of the cross-campus team that designs and deploys a Wrike installation that serves 300 licensed users and 700 collaborators within and outside of the university. George has won numerous industry awards, and sharpens his creative edge by playing tenor sax at Eugene-area jazz clubs.

Amir Younes is Vice President, Client Success and leads Wrike’s North America client-facing organization, which helps our customers become raving Wrike fans by driving accelerated adoption and positive outcomes.
Amir understands that people are our most critical asset in business and by driving operational excellence, we can help companies grow without growing and give our people the freedom to choose how they invest their time. By reducing the friction of business, processes, communication, and channels, we enable people to be more productive and spend time on the activities fueled by their passions and help organizations to do more with who and what they have.

Amir has helped global organizations and clients across corporate (tech, CPG, retail, auto, and financial services), government, non-profit, and academic sectors unlock their potential and identify and achieve the strategic goals to fuel their growth.

Amir holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Go, Blue!).

Cory "Bubba" Cunningham is a seasoned business architect and implementation professional. By seasoned we mean "marinated in BBQ brisket" as well as "process methodology" and "work management best practices." By combining his visual communication skills with his talents as a certified PMI Project Manager, PMI Agile Practitioner, and Scrum Master, he's able to provide creative solutions to the most challenging problems. Bubba has implemented project management and work management systems for over 20 years across multiple industries, including marketing, software development, healthcare, professional services, manufacturing, and construction – just to name a few. He holds a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Dallas, Texas; a Master of Professional Communication from Weber State University, Utah; and a Perfect Pint Certificate from the Guinness Academy.

Amory Borromeo has nearly 2 decades' worth of experience working with start-ups and global corporations. She has spent most of her career leading others in operations and product management inside of tech companies, while taking every opportunity to speak at events and share her passion for growth, diversity and inclusion, and operational excellence.
Amory is currently the Head of Technology Operations at Carvana, an online car buying platform. In her current role, she is responsible for defining the operational approach that Carvana’s technology teams use to reach all new levels of excellence. While she encourages the use of tooling and processes, her approach is people-centric and her mission is to empower everyone to be the best, most efficient versions of themselves.
Prior to joining Carvana 2 years ago, Amory ran her own consulting company and worked for a digital transformation agency, which helped her develop a design eye and fall in love with product management. She is passionate about learning and has an insatiable curiosity. Amory uses her free time to read and write as much as possible when she isn’t running around after her toddler or enjoying music with her husband.

Jessica Wooding’s career as an Entrepreneur, Creative, and most recently as a Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) Manager has been built upon the philosophy that change is the only constant. During college at SDSU, Jessica co-founded and served as the Creative Director of the SaaS startup company Jobioz for two years. Jessica took the lessons she learned into her next role in the CPG startup company Chosen Foods as their 8th employee, and grew the creative and brand through a 3-year period of 5,146.8% growth from 2013-2015. Jessica then spent the next 18 months in Amsterdam to establish Chosen Foods’ European branch Agregare. During this time, she also led the creative development for the CPG Brand ElectroLife under Chosen Foods’ new sister company, Kuantum Brands.
In 2017, Jessica returned to Chosen Foods’ headquarters in San Diego and rebuilt the creative department’s processes and systems. She implemented Wrike along with a new digital asset management system for the Creative team and was able to produce a 30% increase in output within the first 4 months despite personnel reductions and create a scalable system for the department still in use today.
After the success with the Creative team’s processes matured over the next year, Jessica transitioned into the Ops Department. She has been busy through 2020 assessing, improving, and now implementing the company’s new product development process into Wrike and training the cross-functional teams on both Wrike and the newly improved process. Jessica’s career has taught her that trust, humility, positivity, collaboration, and transparency are the foundations for operational agility, and when combined with the right processes, tools, and of course the right people, that unimaginable growth is within reach.

Taylor Cotter is the Strategic Initiatives Manager for the Customer Experience (CX) Department at Datto, Inc. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut with over 20 locations worldwide, Datto empowers the world’s small and medium businesses to thrive by offering unified continuity, networking, and business management solutions delivered through managed service providers (MSPs).
As a Strategic Initiatives Manager, Taylor collaborates with the CX Leadership team to develop and execute projects supporting improvement to the partner experience. She helps drive strategic initiatives by creating tactical paths of execution, including project plan outlines and milestone development, along with task and risk management. In addition, Taylor helps manage, plan, and execute strategic leadership offsite meetings and team building sessions.
Some of Taylor’s most notable initiatives include Datto’s launch of the Net Promoter Score (NPS), refining the onboarding process for new buying partners, and launching a new Datto Certification Program and learning management system for partners.
Taylor graduated with her Masters in Public Policy and Administration (MPA) from California State University, Long Beach. Prior to this, she received her Bachelor of Arts as a dual major in Political Science and Communication Studies from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Outside of her profession, Taylor enjoys running with her Golden Retriever and spending time on Loon Lake in Wayland, New York, where her parents reside.

As a Regional Head of Customer Success at Wrike, Renee leads a global team of talented CSMs. Renee has a passion for helping both employees and customers unlock their potential through personal and organizational development. She brings expertise in change management, global team leadership, marketing operations, and project management automation. Renee's experiences as a retail operations manager, head of business development, and now a manager of a CS team help her partner with clients to implement solutions and achieve their organizational goals of increasing efficiency, visibility, and collaboration.

Renat Gersch is the Director of Product Marketing at Wrike. Prior to Wrike, Renat held product marketing and marketing positions at technology startups such as [24]7.ai, contact center AI, Zoomdata, big data analytics, and global enterprise vendor – SAP. She implemented marketing strategies, executed marketing campaigns, developed partner programs, defined go-to-market, and launched cutting-edge technology, driving product adoption and revenue growth. Renat holds a Bachelor of Science from Technion – Technology Institute of Israel and a Master of Business Administration from Swinburne University of Technology.

Saranya Babu is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Wrike. Babu oversees all aspects of marketing, including demand generation strategy, product marketing, and communications. She has held various leadership roles in marketing at several technology companies. This experience has provided her with the opportunity to hone her diverse skills in enterprise go-to-market strategy development, demand generation, marketing operations, field marketing, and more. Before joining Wrike, Babu was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Instapage where she grew revenue and valuation by 4X, customer base by 3X, and annual contract value by 30X. She previously held roles at ChargePoint, Inc., BDNA (acquired by Flexera), Dell, and NetApp. Babu earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, a Masters in Computer Science from the University of New York at Buffalo, and a Bachelor in Engineering from the College of Engineering in Guindy, India.

Mary Ellen Grom leads AFL’s internal and external strategic marketing communications efforts. She is responsible for defining and implementing a strategic marketing vision across AFL’s core markets,geographies, and business units to drive awareness, relationships, and reputation. Prior to AFL, she spent 25 years in distribution/channel marketing at SYNNEX Corporation, ScanSource, Inc., and a division of Arrow Electronics. She is an active diabetes advocate for the Carolinas chapter of JDRF and currently serves on the Women in Manufacturing Education Foundation board of directors.

Kate Collins is the Digital Project Manager at Postali, leading the planning efforts for all new client projects. In addition to day-to-day team and resource management, she focuses on improving internal project organization and efficiencies.
Kate has a background in communications, with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Journalism at Kent State University. With experience in leading projects of all sizes and industries, she combines her Type A organization with her Type B ideation to help guide client goals to completion.
Kate joined Postali in May 2019 after several years of account and project management at a boutique public relations and marketing firm in Columbus. As a self-proclaimed extrovert, she is excited to be at an actionable and strategic company, performing a role where she can focus on supporting the Postali team.

Miron Mizrahi is a seasoned technologist with 20+ years in the software industry, specializing in consulting, strategic presales, product/solution marketing, and portfolio management. He has had a successful track record in helping customers solve complex problems through technology and is now a Solutions Architect with Wrike, focusing on complex deployments and integrations.

Selah Stivers is the North American Marketing Director of TerraCycle, a social enterprise on a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. She manages a high-performing team of marketing and creative professionals focused on developing and executing engaging digital campaigns to promote TerraCycle and its brand partners, which include Procter & Gamble, Bausch + Lomb, L'Oréal, and Colgate-Palmolive. While serving as part of the global marketing team, Selah has focused on streamlining cross-departmental communications and providing analytics to support her team's creative work. Selah started her career as a data analyst and event coordinator for a small nonprofit organization focused on child safety policy and continues to pursue her commitment to mental health awareness through her volunteer work with Crisis Text Line.

Ryan Nelson is the Controller for Entrust Disability Services, providing personalized care and support to individuals with developmental disabilities in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. When Ryan started with Entrust 15 years ago, it was a small company providing one service to 9 clients with a team of 27 staff; today, Entrust provides four services to 159 clients and boasts a team of over 550 members. During his time at Entrust, Ryan has helped families in need during crisis, supported clients in learning new skills, and assisted clients in becoming accepted in the community. Now, Ryan uses his understanding of processes and systems to support Entrust team members on the front lines to become more effective and efficient in what they do.
For the past nine years as Controller, Ryan has created and maintained controls that helped Entrust grow. He quickly saw the benefits of Wrike and used it first within his own team to collaborate and increase efficiency. By identifying pain points in each department and building processes within Wrike to address those issues, Ryan led the company-wide implementation of Wrike. Today, Wrike is woven into every department at Entrust with a user rate of 93% – meaning that 93% of Entrust’s growing team has a meaningful interaction in Wrike each week.
Outside of work and Wrike, Ryan and his wife, Jamie, are raising four boys. Ryan enjoys sharing his love of basketball with his sons by coaching up to four teams each season. By teaching the fundamentals of the game, his boys learn teamwork, discipline, and the ability to react quickly and thoughtfully in all situations.

Stephanie Wilson is the Project Manager, Collections & Interpretation at Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Stephanie engages Curatorial, Education and Interpretation, Research Collections and Services, and Historic Properties to ensure division and department projects are successful. She oversees exhibition installations, graphic material production, contractors, and project budgets. Stephanie also assesses team capacity and efficiency, and manages cross-departmental communications and grant administration. Stephanie has managed projects for Georgia O'Keeffe Museum since 2016. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and a Master of Business Administration in International Management from the University of New Mexico. She is passionate about project management and using tools that work smarter, not harder.

Marcus Manderson is the Supervisor of Audiovisual Operations for the National Geographic Society. Before assuming that role in 2016, Marcus was an Audiovisual Technician for National Geographic. He has been responsible for assisting in the maintenance and operation of the audio recording facilities, conference rooms, presentation software, and formal presentation spaces, including a 400-seat auditorium, executive suites, and board room spaces.
Marcus plays a key role in providing training materials such as knowledge articles, in-person (or virtual) classes, and online videos that assist with onboarding staff to various technology platforms. He also continues to develop and maintain strategic relationships with partners, clients, vendors, and others, ensuring the ability to quickly adapt to the increasing technological needs of an international non-profit organization.
Marcus earned a Master of Science in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University, where he was the Valedictorian, and a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in Keyboards and Music Industry, Cum Laude. He also has earned an ITIL Foundations certification and an AVIXA CTS certification.

Srividya Balaji has worked in high tech, IT, and financial services (nonprofit) for over 20 years, starting off as a software developer at Hewlett-Packard focused on network security and moving on to solution design, architecture, consulting, and lead engineering organizations in software development and DevOps. In her last role Sri was Vice President of Software Services for Patelco Credit Union, leading their initiatives in financial service applications and innovation. Since joining Wrike, she has built our North American Solution Architecture team and worked with various strategic customers, focusing on integration, data migration, and overall architecture best practices.

Shane has been working in the IT Industry for 15 years, starting as a Java Software Developer for a couple of Small Companies before moving into the Architecture and Consulting Space. With a PRINCE 2 and a TOGAF certification, Shane worked as a Senior Consultant for KPMG and an Integration Architect for IBM's consulting department, gaining experience across a variety of different industries. Since he joined Wrike he has worked with a number of different strategic clients focusing on Integration, Analytics, and Hierarchical Reporting needs.

Mark Tapia is a Professional Services Consultant who works with organizations large and small to innovate the way they visualize their data. Mark knows that teams need simple ways to measure their work in order to give reliable, actionable insights to leadership.

Briana Sever is a project management professional with seven years of project management experience in the Advertising, Marketing, and Real Estate industries. Briana is currently a Project Manager for the B2B Marketing Team at Brookfield Properties, one of the largest retail real estate companies in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Briana is responsible for the planning and execution of nearly all B2B marketing projects, serving as the main liaison to all stakeholder groups.
As an avid Wrike user, Briana has earned a reputation as the dynamic Wrike leader for the Brookfield Properties Marketing Department, championing the implementation of Wrike to a group of 70+ people, establishing organizational and change management processes, and forming a Wrike Power User Group. Briana has led departments to achieve optimal efficiency in their daily work, ultimately increasing department productivity and encouraging team collaboration. Driven, analytical, and process-oriented in nature, Briana is continuously working with her colleagues to find efficiencies with Wrike to improve their daily lives in the workplace.
Briana attended Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Electronic Journalism (Television Broadcasting), Digital Media Production, Public Relations, and Spanish while being involved in a variety of leadership roles in campus and Greek organizations. She earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute in February 2020.

Matt Williams is a leader of customer success organizations and has over 10 years of experience working at and with SasS companies across the world. With a focus on customer-centricity and delivering operational excellence, Matt has lead operationally transformative projects with multiple fortune 500 companies, including Airbnb, Western Union, iHeartMedia, and more. Matt currently leads Wrike's customer success team and is here to share some of the incredible learnings Wrike has learned from its over 20,000 customers!

Join us for our first virtual Collaborate event!

About Collaborate

Speakers

Agenda for the U.S.

Tuesday, October 20

Wednesday, October 21

The Best News?

Our 2019 Sponsors

FAQ

Andrew Filev

Alexey Korotich

Michael Michalak

Archie Sharma

Abhay Rajaram

Jeff Hartlieb

Shaun Carlson

Justin Zimmerman

Frank Tramble

Mitchell Bausch

George Evano

Amir Younes

Cory "Bubba" Cunningham

Amory Borromeo

Jessica Wooding

Taylor Cotter

Renee Thomas

Renat Gersch

Saranya Babu

Mary Ellen Grom

Kate Collins

Miron Mizrahi

Selah Stivers

Ryan Nelson

Stephanie Wilson

Marcus Manderson

Srividya Balaji

Shane Tallon

Mark Tapia

Briana Sever

Matt Williams

Tuesday, October 20

Wednesday, October 21

Apply to be a sponsor

Thank you!

Monday, October 19

Pre-conference training