Dec 2023 – Present · 2 yrs 5 mos · San Francisco Bay Area · Remote

• Volunteering to bring great teachers into the Denman School in San Francisco.

Mar 2021 – May 2023 · 2 yrs 2 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Leading strategy and execution of products that use machine learning techniques, with a focus on Generative AI, to increase operational efficiency and customer delight in the contact center. The product suite that I oversee spans automation (Virtual Agent, Agent Assist, AI Trainer, Quality Management Automation), CX analytics (Speech Analytics, Text Analytics, Customer Feedback Management), knowledge management (Guide), workforce engagement (Workforce Management, Performance Management, Quality Management), security+compliance (Guardian), voice biometrics (Identity), and Product Led Growth (PLG). Managing team of 250+ engineers, data scientists, designers, and product leaders. We are currently getting deep into the application of Generative AI techniques to deliver customer value. Core member of the cross-functional team that presents product to analysts, leading to 3 years as a "Leader" in the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Mar 2020 – Mar 2021 · 1 yr · San Francisco Bay Area

• Leading strategy and execution for products that use machine learning techniques to increase operational efficiency and customer delight in the contact center. The AI product suite spans automation (Virtual Agent, Agent Assist, AI Training Studio), analytics (Speech Analytics), knowledge management (Guide), and security (Guardian). Team of 100+ engineers, data scientists, and product leaders.
• Talkdesk is one of the fastest growing companies in the world. A leader in both the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service and the 2020 Forrester Wave™: Contact-Center-As-A-Service (CCaaS) Providers, Talkdesk is rapidly disrupting the $90B+ contact center software market. We have 1,800+ customers, representing all industries, who are offering superior customer experiences to their customers leveraging innovative technology from Talkdesk.

Jan 2018 – Jun 2019 · 1 yr 5 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Led Directly's AI practice. Built product and machine learning pipeline to automate customer service for Microsoft, Airbnb, Samsung, Nextdoor, Epic Games, Rockstar Games, Xbox, 2k, Riot Games and more.
• Established and led vision for achieving 85% automation with AI-powered virtual agents
• Enabled transformation of product and positioning from human-powered to AI-powered
• Improved automation rate by 10x
• Enabled sales team via competitive positioning, collateral prep, and pitch support
• Member of Leadership team
• Led initiatives to professionalize machine learning pipeline
• Moved model building and testing processes from laptops to cloud (databricks/delta; primarily NLP, clustering, and classification services)
• Reduced model building time from 1mo to 1day
• Reduced model retraining times from 3weeks to 3hours
• Reduced skill level needed to retrain models from data scientist to entry level operations
• Automated machine learning pipelines (from ETL to model retraining)
• Reduced development time and cost by replacing custom with commodity machine learning services (Dialogflow, Luis, & Einstein)
• Kicked off modernization of ETL and analytics architecture
• Kicked off Robotic Process Automation effort
• Led AI product initiatives
• Built data labeling, retraining, and operational tools that enabled massive efficiency and efficacy improvements
• Built AI-powered "Surge Catcher" feature, which automated up to 65% of questions for clients during outages & spikes
• Leading role in GDPR, privacy, security and compliance overhaul
• During my tenure, Directly won the following accolades
• CIOReview 20 Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Solution Providers
• AI Time Journal released their list of Top 25 Artificial Intelligence companies
• Datamation named Directly as one of their Top 25 AI Startups: “considered one of the best AI-driven customer support tools out there,”
• Stevie Award for best AL/ML solution
• 2018 AI Tech Trailblazers award

Jun 2011 – Dec 2017 · 6 yrs 6 mos · San Francisco

• Built, operated, and sold a machine learning company. Acquired by Directly in 2018.
• Led team of 20 data scientists, engineers, product managers, and marketers. Delivered SaaS product to clients including Barclays, HSBC, Avon, Retail Week, Ring.
• Sparked's product "Retention Radar" was a machine-learning powered retention engine. It ingested payments + usage data streams in near real-time and then predicted churn risk along with Lifetime Value (LTV), and intrepretable factors correlated with retention. These values were fed back into a company's CRM for use by customer success and marketing teams to retain and upsell their customers. Sparked counted some of the world's top companies as clients including HSBC, Barclays, Ring, Avon, IXL, and Retail Week. Funded by True Ventures, Kapor Capital, and Alvarez & Marsal.

Dec 2008 – May 2011 · 2 yrs 5 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Built a mobile app micro-volunteering marketplace where nonprofits posted "challenges" to a network of corporate volunteers, using an AI "matching engine." Micro-volunteering is little snippets of work that you can do from your phone, while waiting at the bus stop (for example).
• Delivered marketplace product using SaaS model to clients including Kraft Foods, United Health Group, Genentech, Deloitte, Telstra, Microsoft, the CDC, and the U.S. State Department.
• Led Agile software development team, roadmap, and platform architecture efforts (web + iOS app).
• Delivered AI features to support smart match-making.
• Supported growth to 250,000+ volunteers and 7,500+ charities.
• Gave a TEDxNasa talk!
• "For anyone with a jammed schedule, a new group called the Extraordinaries offers ways to devote even just a few minutes of free time to something worthwhile. Micro-volunteering opportunities abound on BeExtra.org.”
• Time Magazine, September 10, 2009
• "The Extraordinaries, is a platform that enables citizens to perform "micro-volunteer" tasks on their phones when they find themselves with small amounts of time, such as waiting at a bus stop or in line at the bank."
• Huffington Post, June 4, 2009
• "The Extraordinaries will let multilingual users watch short clips of a documentary and translate subtitles while riding a bus."
• Washington Post, April 22, 2009
• "The Crowdsourcing-for-good revolution is on, with new applications rising out of San Francisco's petri dish of open-source activism. Waiting for the bus or the doctor? Bored in a staff meeting? [Use] an app created by The Extraordinaries."
• San Francisco Magazine, June, 2009
• “The next time you say you want to help make the world a better place, try putting your mobile where your mouth is...The Extraordinaries is an attractive app that mobilizes our desire to do social good, while leveraging a Twitter-like interface to potentially make it trendy and fun.”
• CNN, October, 2009

Jun 2004 – Jul 2007 · 3 yrs 1 mo · San Francisco

• Sold and oversaw delivery of web and mobile software solutions.
• 415.com was a digital agency that designed, built, and maintained web sites, games, and apps for clients including Sony Playstation, San Francisco Symphony, and BART.
• Successfully delivered and maintained consumer-facing web sites and web games.
• Managed team of engineers and designers.
• Sold deals, managed contracts, and oversaw operations.

Feb 2001 – Apr 2003 · 2 yrs 2 mos

• Delivered white-label gaming product to IBM, Old Navy, Hyundai, Scion, Sam Adams, and more.
• DFILM sold game-based marketing software to major brands. As CTO, I designed, architected, and delivered these games in the pre-cloud era, supporting 2m users / month at the peak. One was web-based and the other a mobile app running on the iMode network.

Jan 1997 – Feb 2001 · 4 yrs 1 mo · San Francisco

• Responsible for technical planning, delivery, and maintenance of web software to major brands, including The North Face's consumer facing web site, Sony's top performing game for The Replacement Killers movie, and many Flash games.
• Akimbo Design developed and managed the consumer-facing Web sites for The North Face, Beringer Vineyards, California Pizza Kitchen and completed award-winning projects for Nokia, Sony Pictures, MGM, Calvin Klein, and Macromedia. The company produced three Web design books, won dozens of awards, and had work featured in major media publications such as Newsweek, the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today.

Jun 1995 – Feb 1997 · 1 yr 8 mos

• Responsible for software engineering of core platform and applications.
• TMQ launched one of the first online communities for college students. The Main Quad was acquired by Student Advantage in 1997