Leadership Bios

Janine Popick

President and CEO - Founder

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Janine Popick is the CEO and Founder of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service email marketing, social media, online event marketing, online surveys and direct mail solutions empowering small businesses to create, manage and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns.

She is a columnist for Inc.com, the Huffington Post and American Express OPEN Forum, and has been featured in USA Today, TIME, TechCrunch, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Social Media Today, FOX Business and the San Francisco Business Times, among others. She was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist from 2006 to 2009, and won the top Stevie Award for Entrepreneur of the Year from 2008 to 2011 as well as Executive of the Year in 2012. Janine also won the U.S. Small Business Administration award for Small Business Person of the Year in San Francisco.

Janine brings more than 20 years of experience leading direct and online marketing programs for some of the biggest brands in technology and entertainment. Prior to founding VerticalResponse, she oversaw direct and online marketing for brands including NBC Internet; XOOM.com; Claris Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc.; and Symantec Corporation.

In her spare time, Janine is VerticalResponse's CEB (Chief Executive Blogger) for the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog for Small Businesses. Janine holds a bachelor's degree from Hofstra University in communications and English. She has been a private investor and serves as an adviser and board member for various companies.

When Janine's not in the office, she's likely hanging out in Tahoe along with her husband and their puppy, Dwight. She's won the award at VerticalResponse headquarters for getting the most packages delivered in a one-week period from daily deal sites.

David Shiba

Chief Operating Officer

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As Chief Operating Officer, Dave is responsible for the daily operations of VerticalResponse, including sales, support, operations, business development, finance and human resources. Dave focuses on delivering profitable growth through improved business processes, stronger data analytics and team development. Dave brings more than 20 years of high technology experience to the company.

He began his career providing assurance and business advisory services to both private and public companies, primarily while with Arthur Andersen in San Francisco. Dave has held senior leadership roles at SGI, Travelocity and most recently Informative Inc., a venture-backed provider of interactive online tools, where he served as the chief financial officer. Dave holds a Bachelor of Arts in business/economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and is a Certified Public Accountant, inactive, and Certified Valuation Analyst.

Dave is a proud father and once dressed his infant as a piece of sushi for Halloween. He has an impressive penny collection and a pretty decent football card collection – including O.J. Simpson's rookie card (for better or worse).

Joshua Feinberg

Vice President, Platform Management

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As Vice President of Platform Management, Josh is responsible for driving innovation and development across the VerticalResponse platform. Josh has the proud distinction of being VerticalResponse's first employee (circa 2001), and his passion for helping small businesses grow and succeed continues to burn strong. During his tenure at VerticalResponse, Josh has built and managed high-functioning teams across the product management, customer support, and email delivery and compliance departments.

Prior to VerticalResponse, Josh worked at NBC Internet within the direct marketing group (NBCi Direct). In addition to supporting an online directory of more than 300,000 small businesses, he also played a pivotal role in the production and deployment of targeted email marketing campaigns. During his time at NBCi, Josh contributed to the rapid growth of NBC Internet's small business customer base. Josh holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and English from the University of Vermont.

Josh has a fraternal twin, started his post-college career as a ski bum on the slopes of Colorado, and absolutely hates it when people cut their fingernails while riding public transportation – you just never know where those mortar rounds are going to land.

Lisa Carnochan

Vice President, Product Management

In her role as Vice President of Product Management, Lisa directs strategy and spearheads all initiatives for the company's products and services. She comes to VerticalResponse as a seasoned, collaborative and creative leader with nearly 30 years of experience in product management, business strategy, marketing and sales. Most recently, she was vice president of augmentation services at Augmentum Inc., an international software services company. During her tenure, she directly managed requirements gathering for various software development projects, servicing clients ranging from the New York Stock Exchange to high-profile Silicon Valley startups.

Before Augmentum, Lisa was vice president of product at enterprise software company Vitria Inc., and e-commerce and services provider Epylon.com. She also spent several years with Sun Microsystems, working in marketing and product management. Lisa has an MBA in industrial marketing from Columbia University and an AB with high honors in comparative literature from Princeton University.

In 1982, Lisa spent three months alone in India, writing an article on Bollywood before it was Bollywood.

Kristen Hayer

Vice President, Sales & Support

As Vice President of Sales and Support, Kristen leads the account management, inside sales and customer support teams at VerticalResponse. Kristen brings almost 20 years of sales and technology management experience to this role, and specializes in leading high-performing teams through periods of growth and change. She is charged with promoting an exceptional customer experience, as well as expanding VerticalResponse touch points across the customer base to build revenue and retain customers.

Prior to joining VerticalResponse, Kristen served as the director of sales and marketing for Ascentis Corporation, a human resources software firm where she was responsible for building and maintaining brand awareness in addition to growing the customer base through both direct and partner sales. Her experience also includes serving as director of business development at Millennium Resources, an executive training firm, where she increased the customer base by more than 50 percent, and Northwest regional sales manager for First Communications (now BrassRing), where she grew her team to become the top producing region in the United States. Kristen received her MBA from the University of Washington and her bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Seattle Pacific University.

Kristen spent most of middle school and high school living in Papua New Guinea, surrounded by crystal clear water and incredible coral and fish. Looking back, she wished she spent less time sulking and more time snorkeling.

Hal Spitz

Vice President of Engineering

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As Vice President of Engineering, Hal oversees the company’s engineering and technology teams and is responsible for the product’s overall infrastructure and functionality. He also directs the development and integration of new extensions, including the successful delivery of new product releases and updates

Hal is a 15-year veteran of the software startup space, with an additional 15 years of experience in technology sales and product management. As an independent technology consultant for many years, Hal was instrumental in steering products to launch by taking on various roles ranging from acting chief technology officer to acting engineering vice president.

Most recently, Hal was the CEO and co-founder of Commitnet, an enterprise-level social collaboration tool. Prior to Commitnet, he served as vice president of engineering and professional services at Bricsnet, an enterprise software package for the real estate industry. As vice president of engineering and technology at security software company Bridgestream, he was responsible for overall product architecture, development and deployment, as well as support and feature implementation for the firm’s Fortune 50 customer base.

When he’s not in the office, Hal can be found playing table tennis with his 12-year-old son – and getting beaten 99.9 percent of the time.