It’s back-to-school season, and that often means new students and new schools – lots of transition in the late summer air. Here at Kaon, we’re in the swing of the season with the incredible growth of our team; since April, we have welcomed 10 new “Kaonites” across several departments!

In the spirit of going around the room and introducing yourself, let’s get to know our newest team members, as well as the one thing they love most about working at Kaon.

Pia Achterberg, Project Manager

Pia joined Kaon’s project management team in early September with over 10 years of experience in the retail, IT, marketing, and real estate industries. She has held varying roles with increasing responsibility in consulting, analytics, finance and account management. Most recently, Pia worked at TJX in IT Analysis, focusing on supporting global initiatives and cost optimization programs impacting 4,000+ locations worldwide. Currently living in Marlborough, MA, Pia holds a Master of Business Administration in international business from Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Boston College.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“I love the company culture at Kaon the most. The company fosters a supportive and dynamic collaborative environment that allows the team to deliver the best products to our clients.”

Tina Elevado, Project Manager

Tina joined the project management team at Kaon Interactive with six years of experience in project management, implementation and training. Prior to Kaon, Tina worked at Senior Systems, managing database implementations and customer training. She completed more than 25 school implementations during her time there. Tina was the lead for her team and mentored new project managers in addition to providing support as a subject matter expert. Previously, she worked as a software developer for Kearfott Guidance, Raytheon Company and Interactive Video Systems.

Tina has a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Polytechnic University (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering). She enjoys traveling and discovering new places. When she’s not on a plane, Tina is living in Worcester, MA; drinking strong coffee; finding new restaurants; and catching the latest movies.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“I love the spirit of collaboration and teamwork that imbues every aspect of the work.”

Mark Heffernan, Art Director

Having previously worked with our design team on a contract basis, Mark officially came aboard this summer as a seasoned designer with 15+ years of experience in both print and interactive media. His work spans UX/UI responsive design for mobile platforms and web sites, corporate identity, and branding and other promotional materials. Mark’s experience comes from working in a broad range of industries at various companies including 3Com, HP, Agilent Technologies, Bedford Books, Bridgeline Software, Exit 33, Genzyme, Oridion Medical, Pearson Education, Philips, Teratech Corporation, nSight and The Learning Center. Mark is a self-starter with excellent cross-functional collaboration skills and a demonstrated ability to think strategically, while achieving business goals on schedule and on budget.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“The people, a great bunch of folks!”

Jim Martinelli, Senior Director, Strategic Accounts

Jim works within Kaon’s Sales organization. After graduating from James Madison University in Virginia, he began his career with the consulting firm Booz, Allen and Hamilton in Washington, D.C. He then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he still resides today, to begin a successful 20-year career in high tech and enterprise software sales in positions ranging from Sales Director to Vice President of Sales. Jim received the opportunity to work at a wide array of companies from pre-IPO startups to major established software enterprises, including Teradata, Actuate Corporation, Knova Software, Kickfire and HP/Vertica. In his career, he has sold over $25m in software and hardware solutions to many companies including a long list of Fortune 500 businesses.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“The one thing I love most about working at Kaon is the culture. It truly has a work environment that embodies the team and family spirit that fosters company success and personal fulfillment.”

Peter McGurrin, Senior Director, Strategic Accounts

Joining the Kaon sales organization, Peter is focused on new-named accounts and based in Atlanta, GA. Previously, he was a top producer on a quarterly and yearly basis in various roles – usually with the focus of acquiring net-new logos with some account management roles intertwined – at agile SaaS and PaaS solutions companies. Peter has found blazing new trails into new markets with new product launches where the proof of concept wasn’t initially established the most rewarding aspect of his career.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“I like being in the realm of Kaon, working with my fellow Kaonites!”

Orit Rozenblum, Senior Director, Strategic Accounts

Orit grew up in Israel where she served as a welfare officer in the Israeli Air Force. After completing her engineering degree, she worked at a telecommunications company and, then, as director of sales operations for Comverse (the company that invented voicemail). During her career at Comverse, Orit relocated to Boston 15 years ago and, soon after, completed her Executive Master of Business Administration at MIT Sloan School of Management. It was there that she developed the bug for sales and technology innovation, spurring her to work at a wide variety of companies from early-stage startups to established companies, leading sales in both direct and channel across domains and markets.

Orit lives in Boston, MA, with her husband and three energetic, young children. She enjoys reading, hiking and Yoga; in the past, she has scaled Mount Kenya (the second highest mountain in Africa), and her husband proposed to her underwater while they were scuba diving!

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“My passion is for consultative sales, and one of the key things that I like about Kaon is the fact that we help marketing and sales teams make a digital transformation. As a salesperson, I can paint a vision for our clients that is based on my own experience.”

Kyle Savell, Application Software Developer

Kyle lives in Hudson, MA,  and is working with Kaon’s application development team, programming amazing applications to our customers’ specifications. Before joining Kaon, Kyle worked as a front-end developer after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He always strives to be dedicated and reliable in his work.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“The thing I love most about working at Kaon is the collaborative environment.”

Mary Sullivan, Senior Director, Strategic Accounts

As a member of our sales team, Mary engages a portfolio of enterprise accounts to improve their B2B marketing and sales effectiveness with Kaon’s High Velocity Marketing Platform^Ò. She came to Kaon with over 20 years of experience offering value-based solutions to both business and information technology executives, helping them accelerate revenue, reduce cost, and effectively differentiate their unique competitive advantage.

Prior to Kaon, Mary was a BIOVIA Senior Account Executive at Dassault Systemes and Director of Sales at QUMAS, and she held several B2B, VP-level sales positions in the early stages of her career. Throughout her career, Mary has demonstrated a unique skill of winning highly competitive deals with early-stage technology and products, prior to the first client deployment, while assisting executive and product management in developing go-to-market strategies. She holds a Master of Business Administration in operations research from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Muhlenberg College. Mary lives in Rockport, MA.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“I enjoy working with a team of highly creative and experienced professionals who successfully assist clients in simplifying their complex products and solution stories, while providing a turnkey SaaS solution that is highly engaging.”

Cathy Vrountas, Director of Finance

Cathy joined Kaon in 2019 to lead the company’s finance department. For over two decades, she has worked closely with entrepreneurs and management teams of growth-stage companies to ensure the availability of financial resources to support both operations and opportunities. Her industry experience is wide, including software and hardware development, manufacturing, and biotechnology/pharmaceutical. Cathy has arranged both government-backed and privately funded financing – ranging from the earliest stage asset-based and private equity funding, to large, multi-bank agented credit lines.

Cathy holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University. She lives in Andover, MA.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“The culture here is really something special. It is a unique culture of trust and collaboration, in which everyone supports each other to deliver the best for our customers.”

Yrenia Yang, Application Software Developer

Yrenia joining our applications development group at the same time as Kyle, bringing with her three years of programming-related experience. Previously, she worked as a web designer for Blytheco, a marketing and design coordinator at Link4 Corporation, and a web producer intern at Rocket Software.

Yrenia is a member of the “short commute club” at Kaon comprised of employees who both live and work in Maynard, MA! Her hobbies include drawing, painting and swimming. She has won several awards at local- and regional-level fine arts competitions. She holds a Master of Science in interactive media and game development from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in studio art from Smith College.

What do you love most about working at Kaon?

“My favorite thing about working at Kaon is how open and friendly everyone is.”