Our Team

Christian Vanek
Co-Founder & CEO

SurveyGizmo CEO and co-founder Christian Vanek is first and foremost a technologist – and the original creator of SurveyGizmo 1.0. Striking the right balance of business vision and technology innovation, today Christian is the driving force behind SurveyGizmo, one of the most robust online data gathering tools in the marketplace. With more than 15 years of experience creating web apps, he has developed numerous private label applications for marketers, sales forces and researchers.

A modern day CEO, Christian’s values permeate SurveyGizmo and his leadership style is untraditional. An East Coast native transplanted in Boulder, Colorado, he has created a casual workplace that fosters creativity, camaraderie and community involvement. A perpetual entrepreneur and avid gamer, in his free time Christian delves into new ways to use code to solve business problems, develops original games and takes an active role in supporting innovative youth education programs.

Scott McDaniel
Co-Founder

Scott previously was Internet Director of MarketingSherpa. Prior to that he was the Marketing Director of MessageMedia (an Email Service Provider aquired up by DoubleClick) and also headed the web design and development firm Decisive Communications.

For Widgix, Scott concentrates on making applications more useful and easier to use. He does this using his expertise in usability and design gained from his years as an Internet marketing and development specialist with a background in graphic design. Scott built his very first web page in early 1997, but all evidence of this has been destroyed to protect the innocent. He holds a Masters degree in Volcanic Geo-Chemistry (and honestly, we are not really sure what that means, just that he is a smarty). We are hoping that some day at Widgix, he might be able to apply that expertise to something so that he can finally prove the value of his formal education.

Chad Shinsato
Technical Lead

As the Technical Lead at SurveyGizmo, Chad designs customized solutions for clients and is always awaiting the next analytical challenge. Chad is a developer that will pick over a problem with a fine-toothed comb. He’s a problem solver at heart and is always looking for the next mountain to climb (if only to ski back down it). He loves to play with data and one day (he claims), he’ll be able to predict the future—he’s currently building a master computer to do just that. If Chad won the lottery he would travel through Asia, build a massive house, and then spend all his time developing a practical light saber.

Jase Smith
Web Designer

Jase is the web designer for SurveyGizmo. A scary-tall guy with huge design skills. Jase has been the force behind the gradual, yet pervasive changes to the SurveyGizmo interface – making it cleaner, easier and more modern every day. Visit our office to observe Jase in his natural environment. The best place for a duck-blind is between the kitchen and dev room. Jase can be seen lumbering between these habitats each day, stopping occasionally to graze for red vines above the cube walls.

Marybeth Alexander
Customer Support Manager/Goddess

Marybeth is the Customer Support Manager at SurveyGizmo, though she prefers the term “Customer Hero”. Previously, Marybeth taught middle school about 90 miles from Cuba in the Florida Keys. While she misses the long hours spent grading papers, she is happy to be at SurveyGizmo fulfilling her dream of being a real tech geek.

Andrew Crocker
Web Designer

Andrew is one of our spectacular web designers who has been building and designing websites since he was in Middle School. He loves video games, riding his bike and learning about science and science fiction. He has a cat named Dr. Waffles (what an awesome name!) and enjoys traveling out of the country as often as he can.

Alan Yim
Customer Account Manager

Alan is one of our support superheroes who has a love for Manhattan but was born and bred in Colorado. When he’s not helping Wow our customers, he can be found eating, breathing and living soccer (Manchester United for Life!) or hanging out with friends playing video games.

Chris McCown
Customer Account Manager

Chris, originally from Oklahoma, is one of our stellar support superstars. His background is in customer support – from Dell to IBM. While in college, he lived for a year in Japan, where he learned how to paint and how to use public transportation (Oklahoma has none). When he’s not making our customers smile, he can be found riding/working on/yelling at his 1975 Honda CB550, playing board games and adventuring around Colorado. He once wrestled a bear and fought a shark (not at the same time – now that would be a story!) and he sincerely believes that if he plays enough Tetris he will achieve complete enlightenment.

Lisa Cook
Client Services Manager

Lisa is one of our client services agents and specializes in helping out all our fantastic nonprofits. She comes from a background in account management and technical support and even managed a leather store! When she’s not reading Jane Austen or Harry Potter, you can find her trying to catch up with her three kids or playing her Wii Fit.

Seth McClaine
Developer

Seth is one of our wonderful web developers hailing from Virginia. After graduating from Radford University, he packed up all his stuff and moved to Colorado to fulfill a life long dream that was brought on by his love for snowboarding. When he’s not busy learning the ins and outs of the backend of SurveyGizmo, he can be found playing ultimate Frisbee, tennis, or snowboarding.

Matt Null
Developer

Matt is one of our wonderful web developers that comes to us with over 4 years of experience doing freelance and working with medium to large size businesses. During his college years at Marshall University, he ran Cross Country and when he’s not outside rock climbing, he can be found pursuing a newfound passion for the creation and integration of social networking websites. Or searching Craigslist for killer deals!

Pharlain Ross
Level 17 Survey Wizard/Dean of Students

Pharlain is a reformed pastry chef from upstate New York. She’s very happy to be away from both professional kitchens and the land of snow, but you’ll still catch her forcing baked goods on coworkers and encouraging snowball fights. When she’s not helping to create fantastic surveys she’s baking, cooking, reading, or talking to her cats (Brontë and Kafka) about literature. She shares her Denver apartment with her cats, partner, and more gamebooks, board games, and video games than she has time to play. She likes to think of her job as a tabletop rpg where she gets exp each time she helps students and gets survey super powers every time she levels up.

Marni Zapin
Product Marketing Manager

Marni Zapin is the Product Marketing Manager at SurveyGizmo. She has more than 15 years of market research experience scoping, writing, programming and analyzing hundreds of online surveys for companies in a variety of spaces including Consumer Packaged Goods, Business-to-Business, Not-For Profit, Economic Development, Energy, Media., and the list goes on! When Marni is not integrating the voice of the customer into the SurveyGizmo product, she can be found spending time outdoors in the foothills of Boulder with all her boys; her husband, two sons and dog.

Ryan Hadley
System Admin

Ryan is our new system administrator (read: savior) here at SurveyGizmo. With almost a decade of experience under his belt, Ryan rules the system with an iron fist and no mercy for sloppy system logs. When he’s not knee deep in fixing things for marketing, he spends his time with his beautiful wife and four, angelic children (ages 1-7) or being a geek in general. Video games on vacuum tube computers, Linux, the Sci-Fi channel… if its got 0′s and 1′s in it, you can bet he’s tinkered with it. Ryan also boasts an affinity for the works of Neil Patrick Harris and the TV show, Glee.

Dan Nadler
Customer Account Manager

A son of Massachusetts and a recent alum of the University of Colorado, Dan Nadler is our newest Customer Account Manager. While at CU, Dan studied rocket science… Just kidding, but seriously. He received BAs (plural) in Astrophysics and Psychology. During his college career he did research for a behavioral neuroscience lab, learning how to perform stereotaxic brain surgery. Couldn’t make this up: astrophysics, brain surgery, and mind control. Quite the catch for SurveyGizmo. When he’s not putting his genius to work here, he enjoys banging on the drums for an up and coming (fingers crossed) band called ‘Carry Me Ohio’ as well as skiing and SCUBA diving. And to round out this Dan of all trades, the man can golf too. Welcome to SurveyGizmo, Dan and thank you for boosting the aggregate IQ a few points!

Kimberly Harding
Billing and Finance Coordinator

Kimberly is the new Billing and Finance Coordinator here at SurveyGizmo. Originating from ♪ a place where the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet ♫ (Oklahoma), she most recently moved to Westminster from Aspen, CO. With 5 years of accounting experience, you can be assured she knows her plus and minus. Kimberly may be a number-cruncher, but she likes to escape the office by skiing, hiking, biking, running, reading, cooking, and on and on and on. She ain’t no slouch at softball either. In fact, she reps the title of former All-District MVP. Woot woot! When she gets time away from being almost too active, she spends time with her furry children. One lovable, golden retriever pup, Mosley, and 1.75 cats, Niener and Gary. (Gary’s is sans one ear) And with that, we would like to welcome Kimberly to SurveyGizmo!

Tess Smagorinsky
Dedicated Support Manager

I would like to make a long-overdue introduction to one of our support team members, Tess. She comes to us from the east, New Joisey to be precise. Before fleeing the flat, boring east coast she attended Wesleyan University and graduated with a degree in Russian. I can’t resist… In Soviet Russia, survey takes you! An avid fan of cowboy boots, local microbrews, and the occasional hike, we believe Tess was made for Colorado… except for the whole SCUBA thing. Even a thousand miles from the nearest ocean, you can call her Tess Cousteau on account of her underwater prowess. Tess also loves her some music. Keeping with her eccentric aesthetic, she enjoys Ben Folds, opera, and Michael Franti. P.S. she wants a new pup! Preferably a mutt. No, a loveable mutt. Welcome to SurveyGizmo, Tess!

Christina Bell
Professional Services Manager

We have another New Jerseyan… New Jersian, New Jersite, New JerseyiOn… Whatever. Everybody, meet Christina. Christina, meet everybody. Christina is our new Professional Services Manager! This title is pretty fitting considering that she’s a proven pro in a variety of facets. She’s a double black-belt in the art of a listening to Michael Bublé, a master of hiking and biking, and an aficionado of vintage and thrift fashion to top it off. In fact, she’s got a fashion blog for anyone who’s in need of some style (like yours truly). When she’s not busy being a style savant she’s taking care of her two kids (11 and 7 years old). Christina is an excellent addition to our lovely company and we welcome her with open arms and her favorite Bublé tune on blast.

Anthony Hildoer
Senior PHP Engineer

And I quote, “I moved 2,000 miles because I wanted to be closer to the mountains.” A quote from who you might ask? Anthony Hildoer, our new Senior PHP Engineer, here at SurveyGizmo. Anthony escaped the beautifully, sunny weather in Miami, FL for the colder-than-it-looks, sunny weather of Boulder, CO! While in the sunshine state, Anthony attended the University of South Florida where he picked up an insane amount of tech-knowhow and earned a few pieces of paper (Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science). If you couldn’t tell from the quote, Anthony likes to be outdoors. Mountain biking and camping, he loves ‘em, but he’s not always in the wild. He also enjoys playing with his two (three in June, congrats Anthony!) kids and the occasional dabble into PC gaming. Anthony’s an excellent addition to the SG Crew and we’re happy to have him here!

Aleta Hubbell
Marketing Coordinator

We now have an alumnus of the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem working at SurveyGizmo. *OMG!! Teenage girl scream!!!* But wait, there’s more! Aleta is our new Marketing Coordinator. (i.e. She keeps everyone’s head on straight.) A woman of many talents and experiences, Aleta hales from the Winter Park area originally where she attended a performing arts high school to train her voice as a classical AND country singer. Following her graduation from high school, she traveled to a few institutions of higher learning: Belmont University in Nashville, TN; Mira Costa College in San Diego, CA; and most recently, Boulder’s very own University of Colorado. Aside from being a serial scholar, Aleta enjoys Mexican food and dominating any Pictionary game she finds herself in. A romantic, she dreams of floating through Italy on a gondola with a fat plate of spaghetti. We can’t promise you a vacation to an Italian villa, but we’ll see what we can do about the pasta. Welcome to SurveyGizmo, Aleta!

Josh Robitaille
Account Executive/Billing Coordinator

Do you know the name of Quint’s boat in the movie Jaws? Our Account Executive and Billing Coordinator, Joshua Robitaille, definitely does. Josh is a movie trivia genius, I kid you not, but wait there’s more! Being a graduate of Rhode Island College and a Woonsocket, RI native, he’s got that silky-smooth New England accent. He’s also got an affinity for picking up Animal Style Double Doubles from heaven/In N’ Out (He once had to grab 100 of ‘em, true story.) and collecting vintage video games. Among his other interests are shooting hoops and owning in general. When he’s not ‘owning’, he’s hanging out with his furry children, Manny (Boston Terrier) and Titus (Meow Meow). It’s great to have Joshua at SurveyGizmo, all hail the SG Trivia Titan. P.S. The boat’s name is “the Orca”.

James Kircher
Account Executive

Another grand introduction is in order, this time we present our new Account Executive, James Kircher. A Coloradoan originally, James has survived the fierce boredom of Midwest Kansas and Nebraska (quite a feat if you ask me.) Before dedicating his life to his wife, Melissa, and beta fish, El Bandito, James attended the University of Wyoming. While pursuing a degree in Marketing, he spent many long nights ‘studying’ at ‘The Library’. (If you’ve been to UW, you know what I’m referring to. For everyone else, a hint: it’s a bar.) Keeping with the Wyo aesthetic, James enjoys the outdoor escapades, be it snowboarding, hunting, or arguing with his wife, Melissa, about getting a dog. The impending dog’s name will be ‘Rooster’. When asked for epic stories replied, “I don’t have brief stories.” So if you want to hear some lengthy tales, James is your man. Welcome to SurveyGizmo and we’re all pulling for Rooster’s existence!