The Team
Rob Barreca
Director of Development
Rob is responsible for software development, coordinating the development process, and managing releases of the Sprout Builder and Mixer products. Prior to Sprout, Rob was Founder and CEO of Electronic Insight Corporation where he designed and developed numerous web applications. He received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science - Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego and now works from Sprout's beautiful Honolulu office.
Kaz Brecher
Director, Interactive Strategy and Production
Kaz is responsible for driving strategic application of Sprout's products as well as shaping interactive agency services and production processes. Prior to joining Sprout, Kaz was a Program Manager at Schematic, a senior force behind strategic and creative thinking, managing complex, multi-platform projects and leading cross-discipline teams for clients such as Target, Microsoft, Dell, Logitech and The Walt Disney Company. Her interactive media experience began while serving as the Creative Director of Broadband Channels for Fantastic Entertainment, the media arm of a leading Swiss technology company where she oversaw international teams of designers and engineers in developing content for IP multi-casting distribution for companies such as the NFL, AccuWeather, and MTV. Kaz has also worked extensively in film production, development, marketing and distribution, as well as print and branding services. She is a self-published author, filmmaker, and sustainable product and tourism evangelist. Kaz holds BA in Psychology, with a focus on Social and Abnormal Psychology, from Stanford University.
Paul DeGrote
Creative Director
Paul leads creative strategy and approach for clients at Sprout. He works with brands to help them realize their business objectives across the web and social networks with personally relevant interactive experiences that engage customers. He came to us from Saatchi & Saatchi S, where he developed grassroots sustainability initiatives for brands including Walmart and NBC Universal. Paul has a Masters in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin and was a member of the Texas Creative Program. He can make the Kessel Run in less than ten parsecs.
Jordan Enright-Schulz
Business Development Associate
Jordan is on the Business Development team at Sprout, helping to broker strategic partnerships and make sure Sprout is well-positioned to usher in the next generation of display advertising. Prior to Sprout, she worked as a Digital Producer at a small interactive agency and before that, she held an odd assortment of jobs including AdWords Coordinator at Google (brief), waitress at an Italian restaurant in North Beach (fun), and teacher in East Oakland (draining). She graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in English and Spanish Literature. When she's not at Sprout, she's probably at a show or reading a book.
Chris Fortier
Graphics & User Experience Designer
Chris is a Graphics & User Experience designer at Sprout, where he is responsible for interaction design, creating assets and building cool sprouts! He has over twenty years of hands-on design, creative direction and strategic communications experience in interactive based media. His strengths in graphic design, usability, technology and user experience design have led to work with clients such as Sun Microsystems, Best Buy and Air Canada, and his work has been featured in print, television, the Nasdaq video screen and of course the Internet.
Keith Grennan
Software Engineer
Keith is a member of the Sprout development team, applying his diverse skills to the unique challenges of Sprout. Prior to Sprout, Keith was lead developer at Sxip Identity, where he co-authored the Sxipper identity management system, and at ActiveState/Sophos where he helped PureMessage become an industry-leading anti-spam solution. Keith's other interests include meditation, permaculture, green building, sustainable energy, and intentional communities. Keith has a Bachelor of Computer Engineering degree from the University of Victoria.
Vanessa Hoy
Senior Digital Producer
Vanessa has over five years of experience overseeing day-to-day production cycles for various digital projects ranging from simple mobile sites and online media campaigns to HTML site redesigns and Microsoft Surface(R) interaction designs. Acting as the primary production liaison for her clients, she manages large-scale projects from inception to launch, supervises multidisciplinary project teams, develops and tracks project plans and budgets, and coordinates with partner agencies on multi-channel campaign initiatives. Prior to joining Sprout, she led design and development teams for Schematic working with some of their largest clients like CLEAR, Logitech, Microsoft and Target. Vanessa's experience in interactive and digital began in marketing for software company activePDF and continued with mobile site development and blockbuster entertainment marketing at Waat Media and Trigger respectively. Vanessa holds a BA in Economics and has studied in the United States and France.
Kevin Hughes
Co-founder & CTO
Kevin is an internationally-recognized pioneer in Web design and software, having developed "imagemap" (which allowed images on the Web to have multiple clickable regions), the Web's first shopping site (the Internet Shopping Network), and Hawaii's first Web site, as well as contributions to the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard. One of only six members of the World Wide Web Hall of Fame, in 1994 Kevin was given the award by Tim-Berners Lee (the recognized inventor of the Web) at the First International World Wide Web Conference in Geneva. Until 2002 Kevin was a Senior Software Engineer and Creative Director at Commerce One, where he helped develop the core software architecture for their platform and helped oversee the company's branding and marketing efforts. In 2005 Kevin co-founded ChipIn with Carnet Williams, which eventually evolved into Sprout. In his 15 years of experience in the software industry he's managed to survive four acquisitions and two IPOs.
Dustin Kanske
Systems Engineer
Dustin is responsible for building and maintaining the underlying systems that support the Sprout projects. Prior to working at Sprout, he worked in the Internet Service Provider and hosting businesses at several companies in Washington State. Dustin likes to play music in his free time.
Andrew Lee
Senior Software Engineer
Andrew Lee is a key member of Sprout's development team with expertise in Drupal and Flex, among other coding disciplines. Andrew was co-owner and CTO of intraMedia, inc where he designed an application framework used in the insurance industry. He received a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. When he's not fixing code, he can be found walking his dog or wandering on the beach in a warm tropical place.
Trudy Marquardt
Client Services and Training Manager
Trudy manages client services, supervises customer support, designs training programs, and develops documentation. Trudy taught Animation and Graphic Design in Northern California and Creative Writing and Teacher Training at Stanford and the College of Notre Dame. She received her bachelor and master degrees from the University of Michigan. Prior to Sprout, Trudy worked for Electronic Insight Corporation on training and administering educational content management systems.
Matthew McNeely
VP of Engineering
Matthew has been writing software in one form or another since the Reagan era. At Sprout his focus has been on Sprout's internal architecture and its interaction with various ad networks, interaction tracking services, and distribution networks. Prior to co-authoring the original Sprout platform, Matthew was the principal of Boston Bit--a software consulting company that specialized in internet-based development. He was also a Software Engineer at ON Technology, Recital Corporation and Unisys. When he's not laying down Actionscript code, you might find Matthew getting his hands dirty in his garden, riding or occasionally racing his bike, or playing the three chords he knows really well on his guitar. Matthew studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northeastern University.
Joey Mucha
Platform Evangelist
Joey is the community manager and brand evangelist for Sprout. He is constantly finding ways to get people talking about Sprout and ultimately using Sprout's products. You can find Joey tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, creating partnerships, giving presentations and more on behalf of Sprout. Before Sprout, Joey was a student brand evangelist for Microsoft and prior to that he worked at Toyota's corporate headquarters in Southern California. When he's not at work, you can find Joey perfecting his nationally-ranked competitive skeeball game, creating short web videos and traveling as much as possible.
Austin N.
Quality Control Engineering Manager / Software Engineer
Austin does everything he can to find bugs in our code and break what our engineers build, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and works as intended.
Brian Neisler
Software Engineer
Brian leads the development of the java backend, media components, and PayPal integration for Sprout. He has a diverse set of skills ranging from software development to business and entrepreneurship. Before Sprout he was lead developer of ParentsClick Network's social networking features which helped bring the company to acquisition by Lifetime Digital(™). Earlier, he founded two small companies where he cultivated a love for entrepreneurship. When not sharing in the endeavors of Sprout, you'll find him reading, hanging out with his girlfriend, enjoying the outdoors, or conversing with a member of the Innovative Entrepreneurs of Arlington, a group which he helped found.
Roland Smart
Senior Director, Marketing
I'm a marketer on a mission to evolve marketing away from the mess that traditional marketers have made. It's time to stop broadcasting messages with megaphones and to start engaging the communities that form around brands. While companies understand what it takes to build products and services, it's the community that understands how they actually work in the wild. Following this, I embrace the mission of Marketing 2.0, which recognizes that brands are built by communities, not just be companies. My work focuses on leveraging the fact that communities want to grow the brands that improve their lives. Thus, I'm interested in new social media tools, like Sprout, that empower communities to spread the word about the products and services they love. You can learn more about me and how I approach marketing on my blog at www.rolandsmart.com
Stan Szeto
Sales Engineer
Stan is responsible for helping customers understand the full power of Sprout's product offerings and ensuring that customers are building engaging Sprout applications and campaigns that meet their business and technical requirements. He acts as a liaison between customers and internal teams and is responsible for gathering customer feedback and understanding customer needs to ensure that the Sprout's product offerings are evolving in the right direction as dictated by our customers and the market. Our customers always come first! Prior to joining Sprout, Stan worked as a Technical Sales Manager at Clearspring, supporting both sales and business development efforts on the West Coast. He graduated with a MS degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. In his spare time, he enjoys playing outdoor sports, such as basketball and tennis, and traveling around the globe to see and experience as many different cultures as possible. He is also an avid Texas hold'em poker player and hopes to at the final table of a WSOP event in Las Vegas someday.
Adam Taisch
VP Business Development
As VP of Business Development Adam heads up the sales and business development activities for the company. He served a quick stint at Xerox before becoming the 198th employee at Yahoo! in 1997. In 7 years at Yahoo! Adam was in Operations, Sales, Business Development, Sales (again) and Product. Most recently Adam worked for Webloyalty where he helped acquire then run business development for Lift Media. With three kids under 5 years of age Adam has no free time but if he did he would rock climb, practice photography and be a part time sushi critic.
Danielle Wegenstein
Partner Program Manager
Danielle Wegenstein helps manage strategic partnership deals with the Business Development team, especially those that include services work. She is the liaison between the Business Development and Services teams, helping to make sure all projects are streamlined and launched. Prior to joining Sprout, Danielle worked for imeem as an Account Manager supporting the East Coast Sales Team, and previous to imeem, Danielle worked at RBF Consulting as an Assistant Planner. She graduated with a BA degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. When Danielle isn't coordinating the different teams both internally and externally, you can find her looking for an adventure either out running and hiking in the summer or skiing in the winter.
Carnet Williams
Co-founder & CEO
Prior to Sprout, Carnet built and sold several Facebook applications, founded ChipIn (a widget-based fundraising service), was a professional snowboarder, and ran International Trade Policy for The Nature Conservancy. Carnet has over a decade of experience in the high-tech and Internet industries, having been the Director of Business Development at TurboLinux, a Linux OS and enterprise solutions startup, and the co-founder of NetCorps, a nonprofit technology assistance organization in Oregon. Carnet graduated from the University of Berkeley and has a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.
Board of Directors
Mike Hirshland
General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners
Before becoming a technology investor, Mike served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where, among other things, he led the Senate's Microsoft hearings and supervised the Senate's hearings on "Competition, Innovation and Public Policy in the Digital Age." Previously, Mike practiced with the law firm Williams & Connolly, and clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy at the U.S. Supreme Court and The Hon. J. Michael Luttig on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to his legal career, Mike was a strategy consultant with Bain & Company.
Kevin Hughes
Co-founder & CTO
Kevin is an internationally-recognized pioneer in Web design and software, having developed "imagemap" (which allowed images on the Web to have multiple clickable regions), the Web's first shopping site (the Internet Shopping Network), and Hawaii's first Web site, as well as contributions to the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard. One of only six members of the World Wide Web Hall of Fame, in 1994 Kevin was given the award by Tim-Berners Lee (the recognized inventor of the Web) at the First International World Wide Web Conference in Geneva. Until 2002 Kevin was a Senior Software Engineer and Creative Director at Commerce One, where he helped develop the core software architecture for their platform and helped oversee the company's branding and marketing efforts. In 2005 Kevin co-founded ChipIn with Carnet Williams, which eventually evolved into Sprout. In his 15 years of experience in the software industry he's managed to survive four acquisitions and two IPOs.
Michael Korver
Managing Partner, Global Venture Capital
Michael was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan and has over 25 years of experience in international business. Since 1993 he has worked as an international business consultant, corporate lawyer, venture capitalist and entrepreneur in Tokyo. In 1996, he co-founded Global Venture Capital, an independent venture capital fund management company. Michael is also a professor of entrepreneurial management and venture capital in the MBA program in international business at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. He received his B.A., M.A. in Economics, and a professional law degree all from the University of California at Berkeley.
Neal Mohan
Vice President, Product Management Google
Neal is vice president of product management, responsible for Google's portfolio of AdSense for Content and DoubleClick platform products. This includes our innovation efforts in display advertising, emerging ad formats, and social media monetization. Prior to Google, he was senior vice president of strategy and product development at DoubleClick, building the company's strategic plan, leading the product management team in its execution, and growing the business rapidly. Previously, Neal held various leadership positions at DoubleClick and NetGravity in technology development, business operations, and client services. In this process he played a key role in pioneering and growing the digital marketing industry. He has also served in strategy and consulting roles at Microsoft and Accenture. Neal has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also has a B.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Carnet Williams
Co-founder & CEO
Prior to Sprout, Carnet built and sold several Facebook applications, founded ChipIn (a widget-based fundraising service), was a professional snowboarder, and ran International Trade Policy for The Nature Conservancy. Carnet has over a decade of experience in the high-tech and Internet industries, having been the Director of Business Development at TurboLinux, a Linux OS and enterprise solutions startup, and the co-founder of NetCorps, a nonprofit technology assistance organization in Oregon. Carnet graduated from the University of Berkeley and has a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.
Advisory Board
Tom Thimot
Tom was named president and CEO of CaseCentral in January 2008. He brings a wealth of business experience and an incredible portfolio of success at both public and private companies to CaseCentral. Tom joined CaseCentral directly from Kazeon Systems, where he was responsible for greater than 300 percent annual revenue growth. Prior to Kazeon, he served as president and CEO at GoRemote Internet Communications, Inc., a NASDAQ company that was acquired by iPass. Prior to GoRemote, he was executive vice president of worldwide sales, services and customer support for Netegrity, Inc. Tom oversaw the creation of double digit growth engines that significantly increased the public valuations of each company. Tom also served as the vice president of central U.S. sales at Oracle, where his team grew license revenues from $50 million to more than $250 million in a two-year period. He was also a key leader in the worldwide Oracle applications vertical organization that grew revenues by more than $100 million. Earlier in his career, Tom held management and consulting positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Accenture. His education includes a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Marquette University, where he also studied business administration.
