Introducing Mark Orttung: Projectworks' new CEO

We're delighted to share that Mark Orttung is joining Projectworks as our new CEO, taking the reigns from our now President and Chief Product Officer Matt Hayter. Read on to learn more about Mark and his background, and if you missed the memo, here's Matt's blog which explains more about these recent and exciting changes in our leadership team.

Welcome to the team, Mark! It's awesome to have you onboard. 
Thank you. It really is a privilege and now that the news is out I'm really excited to be able to join the team and continue to build the platform and product to help our clients achieve their missions more successfully. Consulting firms are such great businesses! I especially enjoy working with smaller mission-driven consultancies as they are really accelerating progress across a variety of industries through their unique view-points and experience.

You've spent a lot of your career in consulting firms – can you tell us some more about your background?
Sure thing. I started right out of college with Andersen Consulting (which became Accenture). I started out as a programmer on a tool that helped implement Andersen's methodology, so I learned a lot about creating a scalable, repeatable process for a global consulting firm. I then had a lot of unusual roles, including two years in a program studying AI at Northwestern and working on how to apply it to Andersen's business, working with clients like Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Microsoft on how to apply their latest technology to the enterprise, and later on I wrote a business plan with a colleague that led to an Andersen-funded startup. It was a software-as-a-service company for employee services, however at the time (this was 1995) the concept of SaaS didn't even exist yet – fair to say we were ahead of the market! 

I then held a variety of roles across a combination of SaaS and Consulting businesses which led to becoming Chief Operating Officer and President of Bill.com. From there, I had the privilege of leading and rapidly growing a US-based software consulting business called Nexient as CEO for over 7 years. 

More recently I've held a variety of governance and advisory positions, which is how I got to know the Projectworks team and business as an Independent Director. 

Why join as CEO of Projectworks at this stage?
I'm fortunate to get to meet a lot of early stage companies. From the first time I met the team at Projectworks, the company stood out to me as one that had the right combination of ability to help a large market, a great culture, and a fantastic product. I know how hard it is to take a product from a blank sheet of paper to the stage that Projectworks is in. Matt, Doug, Julian and Madeline have done some fantastic work to create the product and, build the team and grow the business to this point.

On top of the great team and momentum, I enjoy building platforms that have the potential to dramatically change an industry for the better. I developed a passion for working with small and medium businesses while I was at Bill.com. While I was at Nexient, I developed a passion for helping small services firms stand out and scale rapidly. The platform Projectworks has built brings both of these together into a single opportunity.

What are you most excited about as you get going as Projectworks CEO?
A few areas stand out here:

1. Spending time with prospective and current customers and partners. Our Head of Marketing, Jacob, recently shared a series of stories from customer interviews with our board, and they resonated with me deeply. I'm looking forward to getting involved there and connecting with the ultimate users of our technology to understand their priorities – and to let those drive our company's priorities. 
2. The great work that our Head of Partnerships Angela and CRO Madeline have done working with partners is another area I'll dive into. I have a lot of experience building a frictionless partner platform and I'm looking forward to spending time with partners and making it easier for them to use Projectworks as a key part of their businesses.
3. I've seen the passion that Zabe and his Customer Success team have for helping our customers and want to help them with tools that can scale the great work they're doing. 
4. Another key area for me is the product itself. Defining and scaling products and platforms has been a key part of my career and is something that I truly enjoy.

It's great to have you and your experience on the team, Mark. How can our customers or partners reach you best?
Thanks, it really is wonderful to be here. I would greatly appreciate any customers or partners reaching out. Send me an email at mark@projectworks.io, and please go ahead and connect with me on Linkedin.