Our Board of Directors
Below are trusted advisors helping us shape the future of work
Thomas Layton
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
Thomas has a long history of successful web business leadership, having served as CEO at both OpenTable and Metaweb (acquired by Google in 2010) and having co-founded CitySearch, Inc. He is currently a board member for OpenTable and Doxo. A Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Thomas holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a BS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Stephane Kasriel
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
As CEO of Upwork, Stephane is driving the company’s vision of connecting businesses with talent faster than ever. He is an expert on working with professionals around the world, having also managed the company’s global tech team of 300+ product managers, designers and engineers. Stephane has 16 years of leadership experience. Previously, he was Global Head of PayPal Consumer Products, Global Head of PayPal Mobile Business Development and Managing Director of PayPal France, held leadership roles at pioneering companies including Fireclick, Work4, and Zong, and was a founder of Fireclick and iFeelGoods. Stephane is also the author of “Hire Fast & Build Things,” an ebook on how to manage geographically distributed teams. Find more of his perspective in a CareerDean Q&A; here. Stephane holds an MBA from INSEAD, Master’s from Stanford in Computer Science and a BS from Ecole Polytechnique in France.
Betsey Nelson
BOARD MEMBER
Betsey is an experienced public company CFO and board member with a passion for helping entrepreneurs scale their operations and build great companies. She currently serves on the boards of Nokia and Zendesk; she was also a former board member for Pandora Media and helped Ancestry.com and SuccessFactors go public. Betsey spent ten years at Macromedia where she was responsible for leading the finance and ops teams as EVP and CFO, and began her career at Hewlett Packard. Betsey earned her M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and her BS magna cum laude from Georgetown University.
Greg Gretsch
JACKSON SQUARE VENTURES
Greg is a founding partner and managing director of Jackson Square Ventures. He was a serial 3X founder prior to becoming a professional investor. His most successful startup was Connectify, which was acquired by Kana, a leading customer support software company. He has been fortunate enough to lead early rounds in two companies that have reached the hallowed billion-dollar mark. His focus is on potential category-leading companies, including sales and marketing software, storage, and marketplaces.
Kevin Harvey
BENCHMARK CAPITAL
Kevin is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of successful venture investing. After starting two successful software companies, Kevin co-founded Benchmark Capital in 1994. Since then he has invested in many startups in the software, infrastructure, mobile and consumer segments. Seven of these startups, such as RedHat and Proofpoint, have gone on to be publicly traded companies while dozens have reached successful M&A; exits. Kevin’s interests span all aspects of mobile computing, the consumer Internet and computing infrastructure. He holds a BSEE degree from Rice University.
Dan Marriott
STRIPES GROUP
Dan brings years of operating and strategic investment experience to teams and is currently Managing Partner of Stripes Group, a growth stage private equity firm. Prior to Stripes Group, Dan spent 11 years at IAC/InterActiveCorp, where he played a variety of executive roles including: head of strategy and corporate development of IAC, founding CEO of Pronto, Inc., President of Citysearch, and head of corporate strategy and development at Ticketmaster. Before this Dan spend six years with PepsiCo`s Frito-Lay Division, where he spent time in Brand Management, New Product Development and Operations. Dan earned both his B.S. (1990) and M.B.A. (1991) from the University of Illinois, where he was a Bronze Tablet Scholar.
Gary Steele
BOARD MEMBER
Gary Steele is CEO and chairman of the board for Proofpoint, Inc., a leading cybersecurity and compliance company, where he directs a global workforce of over 2,000 employees to protect people, data, and brands from advanced threats and compliance risks. He brings more than 30 years of technology industry experience to the Upwork board of directors. Prior to Proofpoint, Steele held the position of CEO of Portera and leadership roles with Sybase, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard. He holds a B.S. degree in computer science from Washington State University.
Leela Srinivasan
BOARD MEMBER
Leela joined the Upwork Board of Directors in July 2019. She has served as Chief Marketing Officer of SurveyMonkey since April 2018 and leads all marketing functions including brand strategy, growth marketing, product marketing, demand generation, and communications. Previously, she served as Chief Marketing Officer at Lever where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing. Prior to that, Leela served in marketing leadership roles at OpenTable and at LinkedIn within the Talent Solutions business, where she co-founded the Talent Connect conference. She also spent three years in management consulting at Bain & Company, and five years in sales. Leela earned her MBA in general management from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and her MA in history and English literature from the University of Edinburgh in her native Scotland.
