Praxent Attracts Talent from Prominent Austin Tech Firms & Expands Executive Team
January, 2019 – Austin, Texas We’ve grown our executive team by five, attracting talent from well-known local tech firms Trendkite, Modernize, Mutual Mobile, and Blackboard.
Praxent Executive Team left to right: Managing Partner – Kevin Hurwitz, Director of Operations – Chris Walker, Director of Engineering – Ryan Ostrom, Operations Manager – Mollie Alred, Director of Product Design – Ryan Spanswick, Director of PMO – Jamie Gelo, Principal, Product Strategy – Deanna Dial, Director of Marketing – David Moore, Founder & CEO – Tim Hamilton
In 2018, we formalized our product strategy division. Foundational to this development, Deanna Dial joined the executive team as Director of Product Strategy & Design and now Principle of Product Strategy in May, 2017. User research, user testing and concierge-style coaching have long been standard services at Praxent, but this new division offers clients options for more intense coaching on decisions about brand and product value.
“Praxent is a different kind of consultancy. Our founders truly care about client success. We live up to the highest standard of being a true business partner, not just a vendor,” Dial said about what drew her to the company after stints as VP of Product at Modernize, a well-known Austin tech startup, and Director of Product at Handsome, a human-centered design agency also in Austin.
Ryan Spanswick joined Praxent in August, 2018 after serving as Senior Manager of Product Design at Blackboard in Austin. Prior to Blackboard, Ryan was Senior UX Designer at Starbucks corporate offices in Seattle. Ryan was welcomed onto our executive team to reinforce design excellence as the new Director of Product Design.
“The passion and authenticity I felt from Tim Hamilton and everyone I met during my interview process really stood out to me. I was so impressed by the process and by the people that I was confident, more so than at any other point in my career, that I had chosen the right company to work for,” said Spanswick about his transition to Praxent.
After three years in leadership at Mutual Mobile and four at Austin startup uShip, Jamie Gelo also joined Praxent as Director of Project Management in October. Her move was complemented by David Moore’s shift to Praxent as Marketing Director after three years in leadership at Trendkite, an Austin-based digital PR software company that made a name for itself measuring the effects of media coverage.
Moore was drawn to our executive team and general work environment. “Everyone here really loves what they do, and the leadership team genuinely cares about the human side of the company.”
Promoted after three years of ground-breaking work on some of our key clients, Ryan Ostrom rounds out the leadership team as Director of Engineering.
Dial, Spanswick, Moore, Gelo and Ostrom join an already stellar core of executives at Praxent, cementing the company as a fully grown force to be reckoned with in Austin’s tech scene.