Calibre One is proud to announce the 2024 list of “Top 25 Women Leaders in US PE-Backed Software”. The list includes top Chief Executive Officers leading fast growing software businesses that are backed by prominent private equity firms. They are recognized as some of the highest caliber leaders in the industry.
The 2024 awardees were selected from nominations made by Calibre One’s extensive network of executives, board members and private equity partners. The list highlights the accomplishments of these successful executives with a demonstrated track record of growth and value creation. We are excited to honor these outstanding executives and their achievements. Their unwavering dedication and proven track records are an inspiration to us all. Congratulations to each of the honorees.
Ashley Andersen Zantop
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman – Cambium Learning Group
Ashley Anderson Zantop is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at Cambium Learning Group. Cambium Learning Group, Inc. provides digital education solutions to school districts, educators, students and parents. The company’s solutions target preK-12 literacy, science, math and intervention and serve approximately 75% of US school districts in all 50 states and customers in over 170 countries. Veritas Capital took the company private for $900 million in 2018. Ashley joined Cambium in 2020 as Chief Operating Officer overseeing the Lexia and Cambium Assessment business units, operational enablement teams, ESG and M&A, and rose the Chief Executive Officer role in 2022.
Before that, Ashley served in C-suite executive leadership roles at GreaterGood, Capstone and Trudy Corporation (later Palm Publishing). Ashley began her career as an elementary school classroom teacher and collegiate coach. She serves on the government affairs council of the SIIA and before that as chair of the Board of Directors and executive committee member for the SIIA’s Education Division and co-chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Ashley holds an AB in Education and in English Literature from the University of Michigan and teaching certifications K- 5 and 6-8. She also holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University.
Ashley Glover
Chief Executive Officer – WebPT
Ashley Glover is Chief Executive Officer of WebPT. WebPT is the physical therapy industry’s premier SaaS solution for patient assessment and care and physical therapy practice management. WebPT received investment from Warburg Pincus in 2019. Ashley took on the top role in November 2021, and in January 2022 closed on WebPT’s fourth acquisition, Clinicient.
Ashley is the former President of RealPage (formerly Nasdaq:RP), a global provider of software and data analytics services to the real estate industry. In this role, she oversaw the multifamily product, global services and operations, sales, customer success, and marketing teams. Prior to this, Ashley served in a number of roles at RealPage, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, EVP of Sales and Marketing, and EVP of Multifamily Solutions. During her time with RealPage, she helped take the company public on the Nasdaq in 2010, in addition to leading several major mergers and acquisitions. Ashley serves on board of the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance, which supports debate programming and competition for students across the Dallas Independent School District’s elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as on the board of Leadventure, a SaaS provider of digital retailing and marketing solutions for dealerships. She earned a BS in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University with magna cum laude honors and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Cassidy Smirnow
Chief Executive Officer – Apryse (Formerly PDFTron)
Cassidy Smirnow is Chief Executive Officer of Apryse, which she joined in 2022 with the mandate to integrate Apryse’s prior acquisitions. Apryse is a premier, global provider of high-performance document processing technology serving OEM and enterprise customers across a broad spectrum of industries. Thoma Bravo invested in PDTron in 2021, alongside existing investor Silversmith Capital Partners. The company rebranded to Apryse in early 2023 under Cassidy’s leadership.
Cassidy was previously Chief Customer Officer and Chief Revenue Officer at Vertafore. Vertafore was acquired by Roper Technologies from Bain Capital and Vista Equity Partners for $5.3 billion during her tenure. Prior to joining Vertafore, she spent almost six years at Four Winds Interactive as VP and Senior VP of Operations and Chief Customer Officer. Previously, she served 10 years at ACS, a Xerox Company, as VP of Business Development, IT and Finance. She earned a BS in Geology from James Madison University.
Christa Quarles
Chief Executive Officer and Board Director – Alludo (Formerly Corel)
Christa Quarles has served as Alludo’s Chief Executive Officer since 2020 and sits on the company’s Board of Directors. Alludo provides professional-caliber graphics, virtualization and productivity solutions, and serves more than 2.5 million paying customers in more than 130 countries. KKR purchased the company, formerly known as Corel Corporation, from Vector Capital in 2019. Christa led the rebrand in 2022.
Prior to joining Alludo, Christa served as an Operating Partner at Advent International. Prior to that, Christa was the Chief Executive Officer of OpenTable, where she led a period of transformational change, successfully navigating the company’s transition to cloud-based, small business solutions, and drove meaningful bottom- and top-line growth across its global operations. Prior to joining OpenTable, she served as Chief Business Officer of Nextdoor, a marketplace connecting local communities to small businesses. Earlier in her career, she served as Senior Vice President, Interactive Games at The Walt Disney Company, where she led Disney Interactive to profitability. Christa also served as Chief Financial Officer of Playdom, which was later acquired by Disney. Prior to that, she held the role of Partner in Equity Research covering the internet sector at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC (now Stifel Financial). Christa currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Affirm and Kimberly-Clark. She received a BS in Economics and German from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Christina Kosmowski
Chief Executive Officer – LogicMonitor
Christina Kosmowski is Chief Executive Officer of LogicMonitor. LogicMonitor is a leading SaaS-based unified observability platform for enterprises and managed service providers (MSPs). The company has been backed by Vista Equity Partners since 2018 and PSG since 2016. In her role, Christina is responsible for accelerating the company’s hypergrowth and delivering on its brand promise of helping C-level executives and their teams thrive through transformation. Prior to assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2022, Christina served as LogicMonitor’s President, leading go-to-market strategy, R&D, customer success and operations.
Christina came to LogicMonitor from Slack, where she spent four years building and leading Customer Success and Enterprise GTM teams. Christina also spent 15 years at Salesforce, where she oversaw functions including renewals, consulting, support and customer success. In both of these roles, she helped guide her respective organizations through pivots, disruptions and rapid periods of growth, while also being a pioneer of the Customer Success practice. Christina serves on the Board of Rapid7 (NASDAQ: RPD) and is a founding partner of Operator Collective, an organization that brings together tech’s most sought-after operators, investors and founders from diverse backgrounds to invest in and accelerate the next generation of B2B tech. Christina holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University and currently sits on the McCormick School of Engineering Advisory Board.
Dana Jones
Chief Executive Officer and President, Board Director – RealPage
Dana Jones is Chief Executive Officer, President and Board Director of RealPage. RealPage provides a technology platform that enables real estate owners and managers to change how people experience and use rental space. RealPage currently serves over 19 million units worldwide from offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Dana has been a member of RealPage’s Board of Directors since 2019 and was tapped as Chief Executive Officer in 2021, after Thoma Bravo took the company private earlier that year. The transaction valued RealPage at approximately $10.2 billion, including net debt.
Prior to RealPage, Dana served as Chief Executive Officer of Sparta Systems, a leading provider of enterprise quality management software (QMS), where she led the company’s transition to the cloud, accelerated growth, reinvigorated product innovation and drove a renewed focus on customer success. Sparta Systems was backed by New Mountain Capital and acquired by Honeywell for $1.3 billion. Prior to Sparta Systems, she was Chief Executive Officer of ACTIVE Network and successfully led the strategic sale of the Sports and Communities divisions to Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) for $1.2 billion. She previously held multiple leadership positions at Sabre Airline Solutions. Ms. Jones currently serves on the Board of Directors of Agilysys and Zapata Computing. Dana graduated summa cum laude and holds a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Dru Armstrong
Chief Executive Officer – AffiniPay
Dru Armstrong is the Chief Executive Officer of AffiniPay, which she joined in 2021. AffiniPay, backed by TA Associates, is the market leader in professional services payments serving over 74,100 law firms, 10,000 accounting firms as well as architectural, engineering and construction firms. In 2022, Dru led the acquisition of legal practice management software company, MyCase, which along with LawPay, which created one of the fastest-growing integrated legal practice management software and payments companies with over $200 million in revenue at the time.
Prior to AffiniPay, Dru was Chief Executive Officer of real estate performance management solution innovator, Grace Hill, where she more than doubled the business to serve over 30% of all property management companies and professionals. She has a strong product management background, originally joining Grace Hill as the Chief Product Officer. During her tenure, Grace Hill evolved from delivering a single product to being a full platform company through a combination of organic growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. She also took the firm through an exit from The Riverside Company to Stone Point, with a second exit to Aurora Capital. Dru previously founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Lily Pod, a consumer tech company, was Vice President of investment firm Gores Group and a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group. She holds a BA from Columbia University, an MBA from The University of Chicago, as well as a JD from The University of Chicago.
Dr. Elizabeth Cholawsky
Chief Executive Officer – HG Insights
Dr. Elizabeth Cholawsky is Chief Executive Officer of HG Insights, a global leader in technology intelligence for IT vendors. HG Insights provides account-level IT intelligence to size global markets, support territory planning and target segments with the greatest propensity to buy. Elizabeth led the company to an investment by Riverwood Capital in 2021.
Prior to joining HG Insights, Elizabeth was the Chief Executive Officer of Support.com (SPRT), where she transformed the business from relying solely on outsourced services revenue to selling its own SaaS product that efficiently ran large contact centers. Elizabeth has also held executive positions at Citrix (CTXS), Valueclick, and other innovative technology companies, in leadership roles spanning general management, marketing, product management, global client services, and contact centers. Elizabeth sits on the Boards of GSI Technology, American Riviera Bank, and the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance. She holds a BA in Government from Franklin & Marshall College, a PhD in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and attended Stanford Law School.
Erin Mulligan Helgren
Chief Executive Officer – OfficeSpace
Erin Mulligan Helgren is Chief Executive Officer of OfficeSpace. OfficeSpace is the workplace management platform enabling the future of work, with software that helps teams plan, connect, and perform in the hybrid workplace, and serves 1,000 of the world’s top organizations. Vista Equity Partners invested in the business in 2022 and brought in Erin mid-2023.
Most recently, Erin served as Chief Executive Officer of Bonterra, a public benefit corporation that became the second largest and fastest-growing social good software platform. The company was created by Apax Partners through the merger of EveryAction, CyberGrants, Social Solutions and Network for Good in 2022. Prior, Erin was Chief Executive Officer of Social Solutions, a leading cloud software platform for nonprofit and public sector social service organizations. Earlier in her career, Erin was the global Chief Marketing Officer for Dell, where she led its $13.5 billion eCommerce, corporate social responsibility, and global marketing divisions. She currently serves as an Independent Director and member of the Audit Committee for Skyline Champion (NYSE:SKY), and as an Advisor to the Dean’s Council at her alma mater, The University of Texas McCombs School of Business. Erin has a Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business and Marketing.
Erin Shy
Chief Executive Officer – Watermark
Erin Shy serves as Watermark’s Chief Executive Officer. Watermark provides higher education institutions the tools they need to easily track, manage, and examine their data, including tools to complete assessment and accreditation requirements, capture and analyze student feedback, showcase faculty accomplishments, and improve student engagement. Watermark serves over 1,700 colleges and universities. TCV acquired a controlling interest in the company from Quad Partners in 2018 and brought Erin in 2020 to oversee the company.
Erin joined Watermark from Community Brands, where she served as the managing director of their largest business unit, focused on providing cloud-enabled solutions to non-profit organizations. Prior to this role, Erin was Executive Vice President — leading sales, marketing, product marketing, product management, research and development, service delivery, and customer support teams. Before joining Community Brands, Erin held leadership roles at Abila, Sage, and Accenture. Erin earned her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the College of William & Mary.
Heather Brunner
Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer – WP Engine
Heather Brunner is Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of WP Engine. WP Engine provides a comprehensive suite of software, infrastructure, analytics, security, and support solutions needed to create websites and applications on WordPress, the leading open source software for website building. Heather has led the expansion of WP Engine from an Austin start-up to a global brand with 1200+ team members around the world with hubs in Austin, Brisbane, Limerick, London, Omaha and Krakow, now serving millions of customers in more than 150 countries. Under Heather’s leadership, the company raised $250 million from Silver Lake in 2018.
Prior to WP Engine, Heather served as COO of Bazaarvoice, during a period of rapid global growth through IPO, two acquisition integrations and growing the number of global brands to over 850 across 36 countries including Best Buy, Blue Shield of California, Costco and Macy’s among others. She was also previously Chief Operating Officer at B-Side Entertainment, Inc., Vice President-Client Delivery & Operations at Trilogy Enterprises, Inc. and President & Chief Executive Officer of NUVO Network Management, Inc. (a subsidiary of Trilogy Enterprises, Inc.), Practice Director at Oracle Corp., Vice President-Client Services at Coremetrics, Inc., VP-Central & Eastern US Client Services at Concero Technology and Senior Manager at Accenture LLC. Heather serves on the Board of Directors for Camden Property Trust (NYSE: CPT), an S&P 500 company. She holds a BA in International Economics from Trinity University.
Jamie Candee
President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director – Edmentum
Jamie Candee is President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of Edmentum. She re-joined the company in 2017 and leads Edmentum’s strategic vision and long-term growth. Edmentum is a leading provider of K-12 digital curriculum, assessments, and services to more than 43,000 schools, 420,000 educators, and 5.2 million students in all 50 states and 100+ countries worldwide. Under Jamie’s leadership, The Vistria Group made a majority investment in Edmentum in 2020, and Edmentum acquired Apex Learning, a Seattle-based industry leader in K–12 digital curriculum.
Prior to her current role, Jamie was Chief Executive Officer of Questar Assessment, which was acquired by ETS. She also previously held multiple roles at Edmentum, including Chief Revenue Officer, and VP of Product, with an early career as a teacher. She sits on the Board of Directors for Project Success America Succeeds, EES and Learning Tree International. Jamie holds an MBA from Bethel University and a BS in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin.
Janine Seebeck
Chief Executive Officer & Board Director – BeyondTrust
Janine Seebeck is Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of BeyondTrust, the worldwide leader in intelligent identity and access security, empowering organizations to protect identities, stop threats, and deliver dynamic access to empower and secure a work-from-anywhere world. The company serves 20,000 customers, including 75 of the Fortune 100, and a global partner network and has over 1,000 employees. Francisco Partners invested in the company in 2018, followed by Clearlake Capital Group in 2021. Janine joined the company in 2016 as Chief Financial Officer and expanded her role in 2020 to Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining BeyondTrust, Janine was Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Agilysys Inc., a hospitality software leader. She previously held the positions of Vice President, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer at Agilysys. Prior to Agilysys, she served as Vice President of Finance, Asia Pacific and Vice President, Corporate Controller for PGi, a global leader in virtual meetings. Janine is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a BSBA in Accounting from John Carroll University.
Jennifer Sun
Chief Executive Officer – StarCompliance
Jennifer Star is the Chief Executive Officer of StarCompliance, an industry leader in employee compliance and conflict of interest solutions to the financial services industry and is trusted in 114 countries. Jennifer joined in 2018 after Luminate Capital invested in the business in 2017. In 2020, Jennifer took the business through a sale to its current backer, Marlin Equity.
Prior, Jennifer served as Executive Vice President of Commercial Execution at Ipreo, a global provider of workflow solutions and market intelligence to financial services. She was a key contributor to the executive management team at Ipreo, a portfolio company of Blackstone and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking, which was acquired by IHS Markit in August 2018. Over Jennifer’s 17-year career at Ipreo, she held several leadership roles across their Global Markets Group where she built Ipreo’s equities business from the ground up into the dominant provider in equity new issue workflow systems. Previously, Jennifer went on to help launch Epoch Partners, a technology-enabled investment bank backed by Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital and Charles Schwab. Epoch was successfully sold to Goldman Sachs. Jennifer holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University and a BA from University of California, Berkeley.
JoAnn Kintzel
Chief Executive Officer – Procare Solutions
JoAnn Kintzel is President and Chief Executive Officer of Procare, the leading provider of childcare management software, parent engagement, integrated payment processing, technology and services. The company supports nearly 37,000 childcare centers, preschools, daycares, afterschool programs, camps and related facilities. JoAnn joined Procare in 2016, following an acquisition by TA Associates and subsequently managed Procare through the acquisition of multiple childcare management SaaS and network software providers such as ChildPlus, Kinderlime, KidReports, SchoolLeader and Cirrus Group. JoAnn’s stewardship led Warburg Pincus to purchase a majority stake in Procare in 2018.
Previously, JoAnn served as President of tax software company TaxAct for 10 years which was backed by TA Associates for much of her tenure, before the company was sold to InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP) in 2012. Before her tenure at TaxAct, JoAnn served at AEGON USA Investment Management, a global life insurance and investment provider, as vice president/senior accounting manager/assistant controller. JoAnn earned a BS with a double major in Accounting & Business Administration from Mount Mercy University.
Kate Bolseth
Chief Executive Officer – Fortra (Formerly HelpSystems)
Kate Bolseth is Chief Executive Officer at Fortra, backed by HGGC, TA Associates, Charlesbank and Harvest Partners. The company focuses on cybersecurity and automation, building a best-in-class portfolio with key capabilities in data security, infrastructure protection and managed security services. Fortra has grown to more than 3,000 employees with offices in 18 countries and over 30,000 global customers. Kate has overseen multiple acquisitions since she took on the Chief Executive Officer role in 2019, including four acquisitions in 2022. She also oversaw the rebranding from HelpSystems to Fortra in November of 2022 to reflect this evolution. Kate joined Fortra in October 2015 as the General Manager and also held the role of Chief Operating Officer before becoming Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to joining Fortra, Kate held numerous c-level and executive roles at companies including Jingit, Amcom Software (now Spok), and HighJump, respectively. She holds a BS in Quantitative Methods and Computer Science from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN and is an active mentor in the Twin Cities community.
Kate Eberle Walker
Chief Executive Officer – Presence
Kate Eberle Walker is Chief Executive Officer of Presence, a provider of teletherapy and software intended for special education and mental health providers in K-12 schools. Kate joined in 2019 and led the company to a majority investment by Spectrum Equity and TPG’s The RiseFund in 2022. Presence also acquired Global Teletherapy, the leading teletherapy service provider to virtual K-12 schools in 2022, and in 2023 acquired RemoteHQ’s proprietary software platform.
Prior to joining Presence, Kate was Chief Executive Officer of The Princeton Review and Tutor.com, and she led corporate strategy and investments for Kaplan, Inc. She began her career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. She serves on several education-focused boards, including Babbel, Barnes and Noble Education, Prospect Schools, and Testing Mom. Kate is the author of the book, The Good Boss: Nine Ways Every Manager Can Support Women at Work. Kate holds a BS in Finance from Georgetown University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Kendall Pretzer
Chief Executive Officer – Grace Hill
Kendall Pretzer is Chief Executive Officer at Grace Hill. Grace Hill is a leading SaaS solution that helps owners and operators increase property performance, reduce operating risk and grow top talent. Kendall joined the team in 2018 after Grace Hill purchased her company, The Strategic Solution, and served as Chief Operating Officer overseeing Account Management, Customer Success, and People Success. Kendall was appointed Chief Executive Officer in May 2021, after Aurora Capital acquired Grace Hill from Stone Point Capital.
With over 30 years of multifamily and commercial real estate experience, she was previously with Trammell Crow Residential, Gables Residential, R&B Commercial Management and Security Capital/Archstone companies serving in many roles: Vice President of Training and Marketing, Senior Regional Manager, Financial Analyst, Project Manager and Assistant Director of Business Development. She holds a BBA in Finance from Texas Tech University and is a 2015 NAA Lyceum graduate.
Kendra Tucker
Chief Executive Officer – Truckstop
Kendra Tucker is Chief Executive Officer of Truckstop. Truckstop brings market-leading technology — leveraged by more than half of the Fortune 100 — to the freight industry to increase security and safety while delivering a low-friction experience that enables commerce in vital industries. She previously held multiple roles at Truckstop, including Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Operating Officer, until she took the top spot in 2022. In 2019, ICONIQ Capital made a strategic growth investment in the company.
For more than ten years, Kendra has grown and led teams across a variety of business models and industries. In her role as Director of Vista Consulting Group’s go-to-market, she worked closely with portfolio companies to implement more effective and sustainable growth strategies and specialized in pushing customer teams to over 90% net-retention through superior support and contracts that incentivized long-term partnerships. She was also Chief Revenue Officer for Vista Equity-backed Upserve. Kendra spent her early career at Gallup and CEB (now Gartner), working in research and moving up to product marketing and sales leadership, scaling teams and closing deals with companies like BMW and Chanel. Kendra also served as SVP of Audience and Platforms at Axios, a political news organization. Kendra graduated with a BA in International Studies from the University of Chicago and earned an MBA from Georgetown’s School of Business.
Keri Gohman
Chief Executive Officer and Board Director – CARET (Formerly AbacusNext)
Keri Gohman is Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of CARET. CARET is a leading software and integrated payments solutions provider, delivering cloud applications to over 10,000 legal and accounting firms. Keri was brought in by Thomas H. Lee in 2022 after they acquired a majority stake in the company, which was known as AbacusNext, from PSG in 2021. Keri led a rebrand of the company in 2023.
Keri was previously a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, where she focused on the firm’s fintech and B2B SaaS software portfolios with companies such as Homebase, Pleo and Passport. She previously led Passport as Interim President and currently sits on the boards of Passport, Relay Financial and Pleo. Prior to BCV, Keri was Chief Platform Business officer at Xero and Executive Vice President and General Manager of Capital One’s small business bank. She started at GE Financial Assurance and Intuit. Presently on the national Board of Make-A-Wish Foundation, she is also involved with nonprofits such as Endeavor, Kiva and Grameen America. Keri earned an MBA from the University of Lynchburg.
Laura Ipsen
President and Chief Executive Officer – Ellucian
Laura Ipsen is President and Chief Executive Officer of Ellucian. Ellucian is the technology solutions provider for higher education institutions, serving more than 26 million students at 2,900+ institutions in over 50 countries. As Chief Executive Officer, Laura has led an industry-leading cloud transformation to increase security, stability and productivity for higher education institutions, enabling over 1,200 customers with their cloud product. In 2021, Laura led Ellucian, formerly backed by TPG and Leonard Green & Partners, to a successful exit to Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners. In 2022, Laura led Ellucian’s acquisition of CampusLogic, which develops tools and resources used by college officials to help students manage scholarships, loans and other supports. In 2023, Ellucian acquired Tribal Group, a UK-based ERP and CRM software and services provider to the education sector.
Laura joined Ellucian from Oracle Corporation, where she most recently served as GM and SVP for Oracle Marketing Cloud. Previously, she served as Corporate VP of Microsoft’s worldwide public sector organization, where she led a team of more than 2,000 sales and marketing professionals. Laura’s experience also includes more than a decade at Cisco Systems and leadership roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Acer America and Hitachi Data Systems. Laura serves on the Supervisory Board of Daimler Truck Holding AG, the Board of the Business-Higher Ed Forum (BHEF), and a member of the Fast Company Impact Council, Fortune CEO Initiative and Women Corporate Directors (WCD). In addition, Laura is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley Chapter, and is an associate member of the Board of Trustees of Lafayette College. Laura holds a BA in International Relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, and she studied Arabic at Yarmouk University in Jordan.
Pamela Joseph
Chief Executive Officer – Xplor
Pamela Joseph is the Chief Executive Officer of Xplor. Xplor offers software solutions across verticals, including Childcare & Education, Fitness & Wellbeing, Field Services and Personal Services – and a global, cloud-based payments processing platform. Xplor Technologies serves over 78,000 customers that processed over $36 billion in payments, operating across 20 markets in 2022. Xplor was created in 2021, when Advent International combined their portfolio companies Clearent and Transaction Services Group. Pam was previously the Executive Chairperson of Xplor and an Operating Partner at Advent. She took over as the Chief Executive Officer of Xplor in 2022, and continues to also act as an Operating Partner for Advent International.
Pam was previously one of Elavon’s earliest employees, and she helped to oversee the company from a start-up through its many stages of growth, including its IPO and its eventual acquisition by U.S. Bancorp, where she remained as Vice Chair over the entire payments division. In addition to her role at Xplor, Pam sits on the Board of Directors of Paychex, a payroll provider; TransUnion, an information technology company; and Adyen, a Netherlands-based payment processor. Pam holds a BBA from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Sharon Love
Chief Executive Officer – Cordance
Sharon Love is the Chief Executive Officer of Cordance, a software company that acquires and accelerates the growth of vertically-focused B2B SaaS companies. Aquiline Capital Partners brought in Sharon in early 2023 to execute their acquisition strategy. Since then, Cordance has completed numerous acquisitions, including BuildCentrix, Aldrich Web Solutions, WebPresented, Rubber Tree Systems, Neatoscan, Inc, and Hapara.
Prior to Cordance, Sharon was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Community Brands, an Insight-Partners backed company. Community Brands is a cloud-based event and payment software provider for associations, nonprofits, faith-based groups, and K-12 schools. Previously, Sharon served in leadership roles for several Vista Equity-backed companies including as Senior Vice President of Operations for Social Solutions and Vice President of Professional Services for Superion (now CentralSquare). Earlier in her career, she founded her own company, and held executive roles at Dell, FedEx, and Lenovo where she led strategic programs to deliver new growth and profitability. Sharon has a BA in Organizational Communication and an MA in Systems Analysis and Design, both from George Mason University.
Sheryl Hoskins
Chief Executive Officer – Litera
Sheryl Hoskins joined Litera as Chief Executive Officer in 2022. Litera is an end-to-end provider of document lifecycle and transaction management solutions, backed by Hg. As Chief Executive Officer, Sheryl is responsible for leading Litera and its 850+ employees as it scales its enterprise software businesses, delivering the best legal technology ecosystem, and revolutionizing how legal teams and law firms use technology to drive digital transformation.
Prior to joining Litera, Sheryl served as Chief Executive Officer of Upserve, a Vista Equity portfolio company, which was acquired by Lightspeed. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Communities at ACTIVE Network and then served as Chief Revenue & Product Officer, ACTIVE Network at Global Payments after their acquisition of ACTIVE. Prior to joining ACTIVE Network, she held senior-level positions at both McKesson Corporation and General Electric, holding domestic and international leadership roles. Sheryl sits on the Board of Workwave, backed by EQT, Hg and TA Associates. Sheryl received a BS in Electrical Engineering, an MBA in Marketing, and is a US Army veteran.
Soumya Nettimi
Chief Executive Officer – Paradigm
Soumya Nettimi is the Chief Executive Officer of Paradigm. Paradigm offers a suite of legal software solutions to help lawyers manage, automate and grow their firms. Paradigm was created from the roll-up of four world-class legal practice management solutions — PracticePanther, MerusCase, LollyLaw, and Bill4Time, and two payment and accounting platforms, Headnote and TrustBooks. Soumya held the position of Chief Executive Officer at PracticePanther before Paradigm was formed. In 2021, she led the business to a sale from Alpine Investors to Francisco Partners.
She was previously an Operating Executive at Alpine Investors and worked in product roles at Amazon Web Services. Additionally, she served as a Director at Protea and Serena & Lily. Soumya’s early career involved working as an Investor at The Blackstone Group. Soumya received an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and AB in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard University.
Lastly, we applaud the honorees on last year’s list who have gone on to exciting new chapters over the past year. We send our congratulations to Pam Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of Imperva, who led Thoma Bravo-backed Imperva to an exit to Thales Group, and to Jessie Woolley-Wilson, who led DreamBox Learning, backed by Evergreen Coast Capital, to an acquisition by Clearklake Capital Group-backed Discovery Education. We also congratulate Teresa Mackintosh, who after overseeing multiple exits, transitioned from Chief Executive Officer of Trintech, to a Partner at growth equity firm Blue Star Innovation Partners, and Susan Arthur, who continues to inspire in her new role as President and Board Director at Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group. We also extend our congratulations to Marne Martin for joining Emburse as Chief Executive Officer last week. With $1 billion in revenue and 7,000 employees, Emburse is the world’s largest global independent provider of travel, expense, and payment solutions, and is backed by K1 Investment Management. We look forward to their continued success in their next chapter.