Seema Kumar’s Post

Love that I get to work with these two amazing ladies every day!

I knew I was joining a very special organization when I made the decision to join Expel as Chief Marketing Officer. I knew that our CRO, Jennifer Lawrence, was going to be a badass partner in crime. I knew Amy Rossi, our Chief People Officer, was one of the most unique thinkers in the people and culture business. I knew that Dave Merkel, aka 'Merk', was a CEO who valued Marketing and would allow me the space to do my thing. What I did not expect was having an amazing partner in Cat Starkey, our CTO. As a new executive at Expel, every time I've asked Cat for advice on 'how we do things here' or to ask her to be a sounding board, she makes herself available to me within 2-3 hours. She embodies what our culture here at Expel is. My favorite lines from the article: Instead of just focusing on mentoring women, Starkey looks for ways to help the men in her organization be part of this change by raising awareness for those who have been in privileged positions. Last year, the engineering team flipped to have more women leaders than men - something Starkey has never experienced before. “Women want to work here, and they feel safe and comfortable working here.”

I started a new role a month ago and the cold outreach from BDRs, AEs, and CSMs trying to get my attention has been...relentless. It's been interesting to see how many assumptions these folks make about me when reaching out. Nearly 100% of them have assumed that I am a college sports fan and referenced my undergraduate alma mater in an upcoming sports game in an attempt to connect with me. Ok, so they get a tiny bit of credit for scrolling to the bottom of my LinkedIn profile to see where I went to school. But, they lose a LOT of credit for ASSUMING I care about college sports or any sports for that matter. If they had bothered to spend a few more minutes learning more about me through my LinkedIn posts, articles I'd written, or podcasts I'd been on, they'd have noticed I have never ever ever mentioned sports. In fact, I even joke about not being a "sports ball person". Trying to connect with me about college sports is the best way to never connect with me. I'm curious how many people will read this post and stop trying to connect with me through sports. Anyone want to place a bet?

I'm thrilled to announce I've joined Expel as Chief Marketing Officer. When I first met Dave Merkel, aka 'Merk', I was blown away by what an impressive leader he was. Merk believes in building deep customer trust through creating the best product, running a company with operational rigor, and perhaps most importantly, treating people like people. As I got to know the rest of his leadership team, Amy Rossi, Cat Starkey, Greg Notch, Jennifer Lawrence, Justin Bajko, Peter Katz Rick Hasselman, Yanek Korff, Yonni Shelmerdine, I realized this was quite possibly the most talented and grounded group of executives I'd ever met. Add to this the opportunity to work closely with and learn from the one and only Johanna Flower, and joining Expel was the easiest decision I've ever made. And thank you to Lauren Illovsky for doing what you do better than anyone, connecting brilliant people.

I'm thrilled to announce that I've joined the board of Dispatch, the modern field service experience platform. Dispatch was built to solve the communication gap between enterprise brands who care about delivering great customer experiences, 3rd party contractors, and the consumer. Dispatch also includes Youreka, which enables organizations to elevate the capabilities of their mobile workers and field service technicians, built on the Salesforce Platform. Together, Dispatch and Youreka's customers include companies like Humana, Shell, P&G, and Johnson Controls. I'm looking forward to working with Patrick Burns, James Winn, Daniel Bergner, David Morland, Joshua Gray, Rene Stewart, Mark Wenden, Tim Wright, and Bill Karpovich to help Dispatch through the next chapture. https://lnkd.in/gyNHkvPx

Congratulations Benjamin Ling and Kyle Lui! Sutha Kamal and I are honored to be part of the Bling family!