project44 Announces Four Additions to Leadership Team

Logistics technology company bolsters leadership during a period of rapid growth

project44 (p44) announced today the appointment of four crucial hires that will take on prominent roles for the transportation and logistics technology provider, bringing with them more than 90 years of combined enterprise SaaS experience. Andrew Grygiel, chief marketing officer, Vernon O’Donnell, chief customer officer, Jeanette Johnson, vice president of people, and Mateen Khadir, vice president of product, join one of Chicago’s fastest-growing technology companies as they seek to build a world-class organization aimed at delivering business value to the transportation and logistics industry.

project44 announces the appointment of four vital hires that will take on prominent roles for the transportation and logistics technology provider.

Andrew Grygiel, Chief Marketing Officer, will be leading the company’s global integrated marketing, demand generation, product marketing, brand strategy, and corporate communications efforts. Andrew has decades of experience in enterprise software with deep expertise in SaaS, cloud, data integration, and data management. Andrew was formerly the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Uptake, a leader in industrial IoT and analytics, where he successfully led the company’s global marketing strategies. Previously Andrew was the Chief Strategist at Informatica, led Global Marketing for one of Oracle’s top Global Business Units, and held senior marketing and product strategy roles at EMC and Hewlett Packard.

Read More: Insurtech: the new AI disruption is hitting insurance

Vernon O’Donnell, Chief Customer Officer, has vast leadership experience working in customer-centric roles within growing technology companies, assisting them in effectively maturing their customer success strategies. He has a background in lifecycle management and operations, working most recently as Chief Customer Officer for STATS, a global leader in sports intelligence. Vernon will focus on scaling project44’s vitally important customer success function—developing and implementing cutting-edge approaches to customer interaction with the goal of empowering p44 users to be more productive and successful. Vernon is also a veteran of the United States Army, where he lead a public affairs team serving in Iraq, Germany, and El Salvador.

Read More: Interview with Akemi Tsunagawa, Founder and CEO, Bespoke Inc

Jeanette Johnson, VP of People, brings with her two decades of human resources experience. She will lead efforts to promote wellness and values within project44, as well as spearhead the company’s recruiting strategy as they seek to hire an additional 200 team members. Her areas of expertise are in building scalable HR infrastructures with a focus on culture and organizational growth, and she has built and developed the HR function for multiple high-growth companies. Jeanette also serves as Marketing Director for the Society for Human Resource Management’s Chicago Chapter. Previously Jeanette was VP, People at SPINS, a company that uses data to provide insights into natural, organic, and specialty brands.

Mateen Khadir, VP of Product, has held product leadership roles at Relativity, Oracle-Textura and Accenture for the past 15+ years. At project44, Mateen will oversee the maturation of project44’s existing product portfolio, while helping the company expand into new geographies and capabilities. He specializes in developing go-to-market strategies, and brings with him extensive experience in B2B SaaS product leadership, organizational structure, and scalability. Mateen’s experience with scaling organizations and product roadmaps will be extremely valuable as the company looks to double the size of its local product and engineering teams.

“Bringing the brightest minds to our executive team is crucial at this stage in our growth,” said project44 Founder and CEO, Jett McCandless, “Andrew, Vernon, Jeanette, and Mateen all come to us from data-centric organizations, bringing invaluable experience that will help project44 revolutionize the transportation and logistics industry. Their collective knowledge will be extremely valuable as we transform the art of the possible with supply chain data and analytics.”