Get to Know Leap

My career started in corporate law, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and complex financial transactions. After a few years of that, I entered the sports industry and began serving as general counsel of the Chicago White Sox. Then, I made the move to Charlotte to work for NASCAR, eventually taking over as Vice President of Digital Media to lead NASCAR’s efforts across the entire digital media spectrum. That experience led me to serve as Chief Operating Officer of Learfield Communications, where I was responsible for the Marketing Solutions, Brand Solutions, and Venue Solutions business units.

My executive experience in the live events industry made me the perfect fit to lead the Leap Event Technology team, and the opportunity was too exciting to pass up! In my career, I always strive to create mutually beneficial partnerships with our clients and then work to over-deliver. I’ve brought that philosophy with me to Leap and continue to share it with my fellow event enthusiasts.

Outside of work, I love spending time with my wife, daughters, and dog. I’m into mountain biking, hiking, and gardening.

And when it comes to live events, my favorite memory was seeing Ziggy Marley open for INXS back in the late 80’s!

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, I was an officer in the U.S. Army, leading over 100 soldiers through a successful combat tour as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. I was later recognized as a “Top 40 Under 40 Military/Veteran” and received the George C. Marshall Foundation Leadership Award. Upon earning an MBA at Harvard Business School, I started my journey into the tech industry, working in various senior roles across the digital media, gaming, and sports industries.

Most notably, I served as SVP & GM at Care.com where I oversaw global operations, consumer payments, and all domestic and international B2B products and services. I later pivoted to become the COO at Managed by Q, where I was responsible for rapidly scaling revenue growth and delivering operational excellence to 1,500 of the world’s best companies. After a few years, I decided to use my experience for scaling technology companies’ profitably and managing highly technical and global operations teams for a new venture: Leap Event Technology.

Outside of work, I spend most of my time with family: playing sports, coaching sports, and chauffeuring our kids to and from sports. When we aren’t committed to our kids’ athletics schedules, we love to travel as a family. Ski trips out West, summers at Cape Cod, and weekend excursions to Notre Dame football games to name a few.

My favorite live event memory is when Notre Dame won “The Game of the Century” (#1 Florida State vs. #2 Notre Dame). Notre Dame batted down the last minute hail mary from Florida State’s Heisman Trophy winner, Charlie Ward, and we stormed the field!

My professional career was shaped by my love of sports. In college, I worked as the Duke Sports Photography Editor for the student newspaper. After graduation, I worked as the Advertising Manager for the Chicago White Sox, and later moved to Charlotte to work in Media at NASCAR. There, I grew my role to lead NASCAR’s Strategy, Technology, and Innovation departments for nearly a decade. While I was having a blast working at teams and leagues, the opportunity to travel the world while leading corporate development, M&A, and strategic growth for Leap was an adventure I couldn’t pass up.

In my career, I’ve had so many amazing experiences that fuel my excitement for technology and events. I drove a moon rover at Johnson Space Center with an astronaut during a partnership with NASA. I got tackled by Philip Rivers at a Duke vs. NC State football game because my depth perception with a 300mm camera lens didn’t warn me to move! I was awarded the Brand Innovator 40 Under 40 award for my work building a younger and more diverse fanbase at NASCAR. And I’m on the Board of Directors for Project Scientist and committed to empowering girls in STEM.

Outside of work, I love introducing my kids to some of my favorite adventures. We play soccer, ride roller coasters, bike, rock climb, golf, hike, ski, and, of course, attend live events. I’m also crazy competitive on my Peloton, but it’s hard to keep up with the Leap team!

My favorite event memory? Too many to count! I’ve been fortunate to attend many Super Bowls, Daytona 500s, World Series Games, and All-Star Games. I love the big energy of live entertainment and also love local trips to Wise Acres Farms for Strawberry and Pumpkin Season.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, I began my career at Arthur Andersen and then Ernst & Young, where I served clients in the media, restaurant, sports, and manufacturing industries for a combined six years. I then left the public accounting world to explore the financial and operational sides of a variety of different industries, holding accounting and finance leadership roles in commercial real estate, medical equipment, and restaurant businesses. After that, I served as SVP of Finance at Learfield Communications, a media and technology enterprise focused primarily on college sports. There, I was responsible for enterprise-level corporate finance functions, including financial planning and analysis, treasury/cash management, and investor/lender relations.

Eventually, my love for and interest in the live events industry led me to Leap. I gained some experience in the ticketing and digital fan engagement spaces by working with Paciolan and SIDEARM, both subsidiaries of Learfield that were acquired during my tenure there. That background gives me a unique insight into Leap’s operating environment, and helps me lead the finance function to support the company’s performance and growth.

Outside of work, I love spending time with my wife, Kate, of 20 years, and our two teenage children. We spend most of our time keeping up with our kids and their activities, which include marching band, concert band, indoor rock climbing, art classes, and golf. When not “in the grind,” we love to travel as a family. Most recently, we went to several western National Parks including Utah’s “Mighty Five,” Glacier, and Yellowstone. We also love to spend time in my childhood hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

My favorite live event memory is taking my daughter to her first concert to see Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” Tour at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

After graduating from Wake Forest University and earning a Master’s Degree from Brandeis University, I started my career in book publishing. I gradually made the transition to the tech industry, serving as Chief Operating Officer for Render Media, a digital media company in Los Angeles where I was responsible for Operations, Product, Video Production, Project Management, IT, HR, Marketing, PR, and Design. I built our branded content studio and helped expand the company from 5 to 50 employees, earning them recognition as the 2nd fastest growing digital media company of the year from Inc. 5000. Then, when the opportunity came for me to combine my love of live events with my career at Leap, I knew it was the perfect fit for me.

I’ve had so many rewarding experiences that ignite my passion for what I do. I love helping people grow in their careers and drive their professional development. As a member of The Women’s Leadership Council in Los Angeles, I get to empower and support other women. At Leap, I helped create our peer-to-peer training program, Leap University, where team members from across the company come together and share their knowledge.

Outside of work, my husband Paul and I can often be found traveling and visiting our families and friends. We love to play tennis, hike, and go to as many concerts as we can. I’m also obsessed with Pilates and enjoy cooking, reading, swimming, meditating, watching baseball, and playing Nintendo.

My favorite live event memory is a tie between two: taking the train with my friends on my birthday to see Tom Petty at Boston Garden, and seeing Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker for the first time…I still remember that feeling of anticipation and the thrill of the curtain going up.

I’ve worked in the live entertainment technology space for most of my career, starting with over 10 years at Ticketmaster on the Client Services, Retail Partnerships, and Marketing teams. I then worked as the Director of Marketing at Tickets.com, where I helped launch the brand and then mainly focused on marketing initiatives for MLB teams. After that, I brought my talents serving in senior roles to other top companies in the industry, including Paciolan, AudienceView, Mobiqa, Enta, Omni Ticket Network, and Ticketfly. Eventually, I found my home as the SVP of Sales for ShowClix, transitioning to be SVP of Revenue after we became part of the Leap family.

My career has been full of great moments that reaffirm my enthusiasm for this crazy industry. From small startups, to the largest providers in the industry, I’ve been involved in the evolution of live events in some capacity for 30 years. For example, I was part of Ticketmaster the very first day their online sales went live! And I was an early pioneer of the mobile technology space, driving the adoption of mobile tickets for ticketing providers and airlines.

Outside of work, I can usually be found spending time with my wife of almost 30 years. We love traveling and finding adventure with our two grown kids whenever possible (who both live too far away). If this can involve a beach, a baseball game, or a theme park, all the better!

Being in the live entertainment industry for so long, I’ve been fortunate to be at countless events. Most recently, my favorite live event memory happened at Disney’s D23 Expo, when Dwayne the Rock Johnson surprised fans by riding in on a full-sized Jungle Cruise boat!

Music and live events have been a lifelong passion of mine. I grew up as a classical pianist and the many weekends of recitals and competitions eventually culminated in a solo performance at Carnegie Hall. During my college years at Stanford University, I moonlit as a concert promoter with the Stanford Concert Network. We hosted everything from weekly shows at the on-campus coffee house to Phil Lesh at the Frost Amphitheater. Eventually, I started a career in consulting. After receiving my MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, I realized that I could apply my passion to the technology industry in product management and strategy roles.

I joined Microsoft, where I had the opportunity to work on Mobile in the early days before everyone had a smartphone. From there I was drawn to eCommerce and Marketplace businesses, which led me to StubHub and Care.com. At StubHub, I launched the company’s expansion to the UK, implemented a new payments system, and partnered on mobile ticket integrations. At Care.com, I drove double-digit growth of their mobile apps and launched a new product line for the B2B Care@Work business.

Over my career, I’ve worked on almost every product area – from front-end to back-end, desktop to mobile apps, buyer to seller, and event discovery to trust and safety. I took that expertise and built a consulting practice to share what I’ve learned as an interim product executive, advisor, and speaker. After advising Leap on several projects, I couldn’t say no when the opportunity came to officially join the team.

Outside of work, I am active throughout the Bay Area product and startup community, and I like to spend time with my family and friends. You can often find me cheering at my son’s basketball game, enjoying the sun at the pool with my daughter, or hanging out with friends at a Stanford Football game.

It’s tough to pick a single favorite live event, but one that stands out was the 2011 Orange Bowl. Not only did I get to see Stanford defeat Virginia Tech, but I was also lucky enough to see Bon Jovi perform from five feet away at a random tailgate party that my friends and I stumbled upon. It was a perfect afternoon full of friends, sports, and music!

I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with many excellent technology companies over my career, spanning diverse industries and multiple leadership roles. I led the software development and technical operations teams for business intelligence and financial reporting SaaS products focused on the CPG vertical. During this time, I held leadership roles in software development, implementation, product management, and operations.

When the opportunity to work in the live events space presented itself, I jumped at the chance and eventually became the CTO of FISH Technologies, which was later acquired by Leap Event Technology. Coming from a background of working with financial data, the opportunity to build and deploy unique technology solutions in such a different and interesting space was extremely exciting to me. Plus, having a true passion for live events and a real understanding of how important the user experience is is what separates the good leaders from the great in this industry, and I definitely have that passion.

Outside of work, I try to carve out as much family time as possible. To me, there’s no better time spent than with family and friends. I also try to get outdoors any chance I get, whether it be to walk, bike, or hike (even in the sweltering summer heat of Texas).

My favorite live event memory is watching how excited fans were at the Super Bowl 48 experience as they lined up for a picture with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.