Took some time out to brush up on my data engineering skills while earning an IBM Professional Data Engineering Certificate. In addition, I invested some time in bringing my Certified Scrum Product Owner certification up to date. These two 'responsible' efforts were a thin veil for a pseudo staycation gorging on local surf and record setting snow levels in the Sierra Nevada :)

With the completion of Sonic Boom's acquisition by Premise Health my day-to-day focus turned to technical integration and team growth. I was responsible for a variety of backend software and systems integration projects. This included a healthy mix of hands-on development and leading a team of engineers and analysts. I'm immensely proud of the grit my teammates exhibited to deliver the acquisition-mandated tasks in the 18 months we were given.In parallel to our integration work, we met our hiring goals, doubling our team's size in 18 months.

Sonic Boom Wellness provided me with the unique opportunity to define my own role while learning the ins-and-outs of incentivizing and gamifying employee wellness. I was keenly interested in their experience in this space as I wanted to see if it could be effective where I had come from in corporate travel.After signing on as consultant, I found the team to be invigorating. The co-founders were dynamic and decisive. The staff was hungry, eager to help our members live their best lives. After six months, I was an easy sell to join the team full time.Being a small, early-stage company, I wore many hats. I coded, a lot. I recruited, trained and mentored engineers and analysts. I researched and defined initiatives, reviewed code and conducted 1-on-1's. I worked hand-in-hand with our project, then product manager as she learned, and then owned, the role. I learned about the wellness space from our coaches and account managers. I dug into the immense data we collected and productized it to make us better consultants and partners.Most importantly, I enjoyed learning from my teammates and sharing my experience. Sonic Boom was a place that was easy to take time out to assist a colleague with a tough task or learning a new skill. The founders encouraged it and I embraced it.

At Sabre, I had the opportunity to grow from a scrappy technologist with a love for helping people to a proper leader well versed in the multifaceted challenges of operating within a large organization. As a newly anointed corporate Director of Product Development, the COO of Sabre Hospitality Solutions took me under his wing and showed me what it took to effectively and compassionately lead a team while exceeding our customer’s expectations for value and service. Though I doubt he’d describe himself as my mentor, his bottom up management style and willingness to engage at all levels of the business continue to inspire me.We accomplished many things at Sabre, a couple that I'm particularly proud of are: ◆ Delivered a segment-first lead engine for qualified hotel partners to engage with our buy-side clients during the rate negotiation process driving down client hotel spend ◆ Won a Business Traveler Innovation Award in the travel management category ◆ Increased monthly recurring revenue by 500% during my tenure ◆ Grew our team’s size 4X in my 4+ years with no turnover

My partner and I set out to bring RFP automation to the masses. With his experience in the corporate hotel RFP space and my undying desire to make tech less painful, we built a customer-driven, hotel RFP platform that challenged the stodgy incumbents to innovate or lose market share.We quickly earned marquee customers with hotel travel spend in the tens of millions annually and programs with tens of thousands of hotels. With the growing demands of servicing customers including Walmart, Google, Nike and Accenture I was charged with building out our tech team and scaling out infrastructure. I played recruiter, dev lead, system administrator and data wrangler.As an up-and-coming player in the hospitality industry, Sabre Travel Network took notice. Mutual clients spoke highly of our easy-to-use tool and top-notch customer service. What would start as a data sharing partnership turned into an offer, and ultimately, an acquisition.