The CrowdFlower Team
Our Management Team
Lukas Biewald
Chief Executive Officer
Prior to co-founding CrowdFlower, Lukas was a Senior Scientist and Manager within the Ranking and Management Team at Powerset, Inc., a natural language search technology company later acquired by Microsoft. Lukas has also led the Search Relevance Team for Yahoo! Japan. He graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science. Lukas is also an expert-level Go player.
Richard Arnold
Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining CrowdFlower, Richard served from 2006 to March 2010 as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Phoenix Technologies Ltd., (NASDAQ: PTEC), the world’s leading provider of core system software to the computer industry. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Intellisync Corporation (NADSAQ: SYNC) from 2004 to 2006 and as a member of the board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Saint Bernard Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBSW) from 2006 to 2007.
Chris Van Pelt
Founder and CTO
Studio artist, computer scientist, Web engineer, and CrowdFlower co-founder, Chris pours his diverse background into his role as Chief Technology Officer (though he prefers Chief Awesome Officer). Of Chris's work, one former colleague said, "Chris combines deep design insight with crisp, minimalist coding abilities that enables him to produce anything — soup-to-nuts applications — sometimes within minutes. And of course the impossible takes a little longer." As Chris puts it, "Every project presents an opportunity for innovation."
Arvel Hernandez
Head of Services
Arvel's experience at CrowdFlower runs the gamut. In his two years here, he's shepherded myriad projects from conception to completion for Fortune 500 companies and SMBs alike — always with an eye on how best to meet the customer's needs. His innovation, intelligence, and customer dedication earned him CrowdFlower's President's Award 2012. He holds a BA in Cognitive Science and an MA in Psychology from Stanford. On the side, he runs a record label and plays in a band.
Zack Kass
Head of Sales
Zack has helped grow CrowdFlower from a nine-person startup to a multi-million dollar annual sales organization. Rising from the role of assistant product manager to his current position as Head of Sales and Customer Satisfaction, he has fostered enduring business relationships with most of CrowdFlower's largest clients, from Fortune 100 software companies to universities to blue-chip investment firms. A California native, Zack graduated with an Honors in History from the University of California at Berkeley where he was a decorated member of the men's volleyball team.
Board of Directors
Lukas Biewald
Chief Executive Officer
Prior to co-founding CrowdFlower, Lukas was a Senior Scientist and Manager within the Ranking and Management Team at Powerset, Inc., a natural language search technology company later acquired by Microsoft. Lukas has also led the Search Relevance Team for Yahoo! Japan. He graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science. Lukas is also an expert-level Go player.
Ajay Chopra
Trinity Ventures
Since joining Trinity Ventures in 2006, Ajay has developed a reputation as an entrepreneur's coach. His passion is helping entrepreneurs execute their Big Idea. He has over 20 years of operating experience at the senior management and board level with start‐ups, private companies and public companies. Prior to joining Trinity Ventures, Ajay co-founded Pinnacle Systems, a seminal media technology company that pioneered consumer-generated media creation. During his tenure at Pinnacle, the company grew from start‐up stage to a global $350M public company.
Ethan Kurzweil
Bessemer Venture Partners
Ethan Kurzweil joined Bessemer in 2008, where he focuses on consumer-Internet, Internet-services, mobile and Web-technology investments. Prior to joining Bessemer, Ethan worked on customer acquisition and user retention at Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life. Previously, he held a series of positions at Dow Jones & Co., culminating in his work for the CEO identifying and launching new business ventures. He also managed the turnaround of the international editions of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones' acquisition of full ownership in Factiva.
Gary Kremen
Founder and CEO Sociogramics
As an entrepreneur, inventor, executive and investor, Gary Kremen has over 25 years' experience with emerging growth companies and developing information technology. He is a founder of several companies, including Match.com and his latest endeavor Clean Power Finance. Kremen is a well-known angel investor in companies and investment funds and sits on the board of numerous companies.
Jim Fowler
CEO & Founder at InfoArmy
Jim Fowler is Founder and CEO of InfoArmy, a start-up that is currently in stealth mode. Prior to InfoArmy, Jim founded Jigsaw in2003 and was CEO until it was acquired by Salesforce in May 2010 for $175M. Jigsaw is best known for pioneering Crowdsourcing in the BtoB information industry and for creating the business category of Data-as-a-Service(DaaS). Prior to Jigsaw, Jim served as Vice President of Sales at Digital Impact (DIGI), Paramark, and TightLink.
Greg Eaton
Board Observer, Harmony Partners
Gregory Eaton has spent the last 20 years as an entrepreneur and investor in the formation of numerous companies. He co-founded Alter Ego Networks (acquired by Macromedia), and five years later co-founded MetaLincs (acquired by Seagate). Greg’s broad investing experience spans the technology, healthcare, clean tech, and retail industries.
