What experience do you bring to Meisterplan?
Karoline: Brian, thanks for giving me the opportunity to get to know you a little better. Can you tell me a bit more about the experience that you bring to Meisterplan?
Brian: My background is in technology. At university, I studied Management Information Systems, which is a combination of a General Business and a Computer Science degree. I felt well prepared for the business curriculum, but was thirsty to study as many programming languages as I could. I think that technical knowledge has always helped me understand the art of what’s possible with software, which is particularly important when it comes to my experience in technology partnerships. My roles have ranged from software development to sales to marketing, business development, strategy, and alliances. This has helped me get a true 360 degree view of how great companies are built, scaled, and managed. I have been fortunate to join some exceptional companies, including Amazon Web Services, DocuSign, and Smartsheet, while they were relatively young and just starting their exponential growth periods. This has given me the opportunity to see some unique business challenges firsthand and learn to adapt and solve problems quickly. In many circumstances I have also been deeply humbled by these unique challenges and I hope to put that learning to good use here at Meisterplan. And while I am proud of my work in building businesses around strategic partnerships, which is where I have spent much of my time in the past 10 years, I am more proud of the relationships I have built with exceptional people. To have the opportunity to learn firsthand from world-class leaders while also having the opportunity to mentor some very talented people has been incredibly humbling and rewarding.