With gratitude and optimism: joining as Testlio’s new CEO

, CEO, Testlio

I’m honored to introduce myself today as the new CEO of Testlio.

To begin, I’d like to say thank you to the amazing clients who have placed their trust in Testlio. Your faith and confidence in us mean a great deal to me— and to our entire company. We hope to exceed your expectations in the weeks, months, and years to come.

While I’m new to the CEO role, I’ve been involved with Testlio behind the scenes since the early days. I first met our cofounders Kristel & Marko in 2013 at the Techstars Austin accelerator. In 2014, I started advising Testlio. In 2015, I invested in Testlio’s seed round.

I’ve been a believer in Testlio’s testing-as-a-service model, platform, and team since the beginning. I’m proud of—and grateful to—our nearly 60, amazing full-time Testlio employees. And I’m constantly impressed by our 12K+ expert tester community, with brilliant QA pros working for Testlio in 45 countries around the world.

Today, Testlio is strong, healthy, and growing. I believe we have the perfect trifecta: great people, a great platform, and great clients.

Two months ago, Testlio’s founding CEO, Kristel, shared that she wanted to focus more on her deep love of QA. This led us to numerous conversations. Kristel has done an excellent job as Testlio’s CEO. I’ve been an advocate of hers since the beginning. She is the most passionate testing professional I’ve ever seen—by far.

Once Kristel convinced our board, our leadership team, and me that she really wanted a more focused role, we began to work on a new structure. The idea of a Chief Testing Officer position emerged and gained momentum. Kristel talks about her journey towards her new role here.

When the Testlio board offered me the CEO position in October, I gratefully—and immediately—accepted. Thank you to Testlio’s board: Anthony Lee of Altos Ventures, In Sik Rhee of Vertex Ventures, Kristel and Marko. You’ve shepherded the company brilliantly and I’m fired up to work more closely with each of you.

As I join the leadership team, it is critical to me that we continue to foster diversity at Testlio, along multiple dimensions. Testlio must continue to nurture strong women leaders. I’m proud to report that even with me joining our leadership team is still a majority (56%) women. Our company as a whole is ~40% women. Kristel’s voice is still strong and clear, both in the company and on our board.

We’re doing pretty well on gender diversity. But we can do more along a robust set of diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives. My goal is that we continue to build Testlio as a company where people feel a sense of welcome, belonging, and empowerment.

With gratitude for all that Testlio is today, I also bring significant optimism for the Testlio of tomorrow. A sense of the amazing possibilities in front of us as we work with incredible clients, investors, advisors, and partners. An appreciation for the critical importance of our work for our clients’ end users. A belief that we can become even better at serving the massive app testing market. A perspective that we can lead with great value, great people, and a great culture.

I’m excited to bring two decades of experiences to Testlio. I’ve worked on executive teams at market-leading technology companies serving the world’s largest digital (iChat), communication (Motive), media (Pluck), and brand (Demand Media) clients. Together, we built and managed technologies and services that powered billions of dollars of positive economic impact for our clients and delivered more than $2 billion in initial returns to our investors. I’ve also served as a president of a world-class management consulting firm (SYPartners) and founded an investment and advisory entity (Alder Growth Partners).

At the end of the day, I love working with people. Clients and partners. Employees and leaders. Analysts and investors. Helping them with challenges and opportunities. Business journeys, personal growth, and the full spectrum of life.

I’m also a proud father of three sons. I’m hugely fortunate to have been with my wonderful wife Jodi for more than 20 years. I’ve called Austin home for much of my professional life. I’ve also lived in New York City, San Francisco, London, and Barcelona. After a graduate program at Duke, I became a passionate Blue Devils fan.

If you’d like to learn more about me, LinkedIn is a pretty good place. I also blog and contribute articles on topics like leadership, strategy, workplace well-being, and growth.

To our Testlio clients: my hope is that we have the chance to meet soon. As I assume the CEO role, I believe you’ll find that Kristel can be even more available for you in areas where she is incredibly gifted and passionate (e.g. testing strategy). Michelle, Marko and the rest of Testlio will continue to be there for you. Think of me fundamentally as an addition to the already solid Testlio team.

Thank you again to everyone involved in Testlio to date. I’m truly excited for our journey ahead, together.