oDesk is the world's largest online workplace, where savvy businesses hire, manage, and pay an on-demand workforce of talented professionals.
By using technology to remove the barriers of traditional hiring, oDesk’s platform aligns businesses’ talent needs with freelancers’ desire to work when and where they want, on projects of their choosing. More than 35M hours were worked on oDesk in 2012.
Gary Swart, Chief Executive Officer
Gary Swart is the CEO of oDesk, the world’s largest online workplace—on which more than 35 million hours were worked in 2012 alone. Gary is a thought leader in entrepreneurship; how best to hire and manage teams; and the future of work, including online work. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive, fueled by his extensive experience working with startups and small businesses that use oDesk, as well as by mentoring entrepreneurs and business school students. Previously, he led SMB Sales for the Americas at IBM’s Rational Software Product Group, and prior to that served as VP of Worldwide Sales at Intellibank, where he was responsible for leading the sales organization. His commentary has appeared in Forbes, TechCrunch, BBC, National Public Radio, CNBC and Bloomberg TV.
Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.
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 co-founding of CitySearch, Inc.
His ongoing industry involvement extends to both entrepreneurial and venture capital firms, and he is currently a board member for a number of up-and-coming and established web companies including OpenTable and Ancestry.com. Thomas’s executive leadership experience includes positions with Score Learning Corporation and MicroFinancial Corporation, and as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.
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.
Odysseas Tsatalos, Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
Odysseas has more than a decade of experience in designing and managing research and development operations for Internet-based applications. He co-founded Intacct Corporation and, as CTO, oversaw the development of all phases of the Intacct web-based enterprise accounting system. He was also CTO and co-founder of BroadQuest Inc., where he led the transformation from an enterprise software contractor into a B2B infrastructure enabler. Previously, Odysseas was a research staff member at the IBM Almaden Research Center.
Odysseas received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a diploma in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the National Technical University in Athens, Greece.
Stratis Karamanlakis, Vice President of Development, Co-Founder
With more than a decade of experience in software engineering, Stratis currently leads a global team of oDesk software engineers spread across Europe, Asia, and North America.
Before joining oDesk, Stratis also served as VP of Engineering at Postscriptum Communication Informatics, directing development of the multimedia content management system that was deployed on the Athens 2004 Olympics Youth website. He has also worked at L-Cube Information Systems, where he supervised R&D in IT projects for the European Union.
Stratis holds a diploma in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.
Jaleh Bisharat, Vice President of Marketing
Jaleh is a seasoned marketing executive with experience growing companies from inception into vibrant brands that inspire passion in their customers. Previously, Jaleh was the vice president of marketing at several innovative companies including OpenTable, Jawbone and Amazon.com. She has also served on the Board of Directors at OpenTable and Homestead Technologies.
Jaleh received Advertising Age's Marketing 100 Award and was also named one of Ad Age's "Power 50". Jaleh holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Harvard-Radcliffe and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Michael Levinson, Vice President of Product
Michael joined oDesk in 2006 and played an instrumental role in developing oDesk’s global billing and payment platform. He served as Vice President of Product from 2010-2012 before shifting focus to marketplace strategy and new opportunities. Prior to oDesk, Michael was a management consultant in technology and healthcare starting at R.B. Webber & Company.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Yale University.
Matt Cooper, Vice President of International and Enterprise
Matt brings to oDesk over a decade of executive operating experience in both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Previously, as a member of the executive team at Accolo, Inc., a recruiting services and technology firm, he grew the business from one employee into one of the top 50 companies on the Inc 500 list. He also co-founded a boutique strategic consulting firm for ramping early-stage companies, and started his career in investment banking at JPMorgan Securities. Matt puts his finance, operations and strategy expertise to work in driving oDesk’s International and Enterprise market growth.
Matt holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He also graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.
Stephane Kasriel, Vice President of Product
Stephane has more than 12 years of high-tech product and general management experience, including leadership roles at pioneering companies such as Fireclick, Zong, Work4Labs, and PayPal. Defining and leading PayPal’s consumer strategy, Kasriel achieved unprecedented growth for the company. He also helped guide Zong in their ascent and rapid acquisition by PayPal, and most recently worked as the COO of the social media recruiting platform Work4Labs.
Stephane holds a Master’s from Stanford in Computer Science and an MBA from INSEAD.
Elena Krasnoperova, Vice President of Operations and Business Development
Elena uses her business operations expertise to improve the people-centric processes that enable oDesk’s online workplace to thrive. She oversees customer support, trust and safety, enterprise services, sales, and business development. Elena brings to oDesk over 18 years of relevant experience and an impressive leadership background at companies including eBay, Zong, PayPal and the Boston Consulting Group. At Zong, Elena was the Vice President of Fraud Management and Business Analytics. She helped scale the company and prepare it for a successful acquisition by PayPal. She went on to run analytics and business operations at PayPal for its mobile and digital goods division, and then for all of PayPal products globally, before joining oDesk.
Elena has a PhD in Psychology from Stanford University and a BA in Psychology from Wellesley College.
Greg Stanger, Chief Financial Officer
Greg Stanger brings to oDesk a broad range of financial leadership experience with high-growth Internet companies. He previously served as CFO for both Chegg and Expedia, has been a venture partner at Technology Crossover Ventures and was formerly a corporate development executive at Microsoft. Greg has also served on the boards of directors of many successful companies, including Netflix, drugstore.com, NexTag, and Expedia. He is currently a board member of Kayak and a trustee of the Yosemite Conservancy.
Greg holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science degree from Williams College.
