On the Record with Rose
On the Record with Rose is a collection of interviews conducted by one of our amazing employees, Rose Pleskow. These interviews highlight the people who make up our world-class team and make Brightspot the special place it is.
Emma’s journey into software engineering wasn’t linear — but once she found her footing, she never looked back. From discovering a love for coding in college to building solutions that directly impact users at Brightspot, she’s grown into a developer who thrives on learning, collaboration and making a difference.
Rose Pleskow has been working at Brightspot since 2011 as a content and quality assurance specialist. In addition to writing employee profiles, Rose has played a critical role on a variety of client projects with her keen eye for detail and Brightspot publishing expertise. She has contributed to the launch of various projects ranging from SpecialOlympics.org to Amazon Science and Healthgrades.
Meet the mastermind behind Brightspot’s training and development — a passionate leader dedicated to helping employees grow, learn and succeed through creative, engaging programs. From onboarding new hires to designing innovative learning experiences, Kara is dedicated to making Brightspot a place where everyone can thrive.
With a career built on adaptability, strong customer relationships and a passion for problem-solving, Glenn thrives in his role leading Brightspot’s Strategic Accounts team. His ability to connect with customers, align technology solutions with business needs and foster long-term partnerships has made him a trusted advisor — one who is just as focused on building meaningful relationships as he is on driving growth.
Curiosity, adaptability and a strong foundation in secure coding are key to thriving in the fast-evolving field of software security, says Brightspot’s Mohammed Amiwala. In this interview with Rose, Mohammed shares insights into his career path and daily responsibilities as a security software engineer.
Laine has been part of the Brightspot team for five years, starting as an intern and now thriving in her role as a full-time content manager. She has been at the forefront of numerous customer projects, bringing creativity, attention to detail and customer-focused commitment to every task. In this Q&A with Rose, Laine reflects on her dynamic role, from crafting content to collaborating with customers, and shares how each project fuels her passion for delivering exceptional results
Having joined in 2021 in search of a more dynamic, collaborative environment, Tarik Josaitis has found his fit at Brightspot. Today, as Director of Customer Engagements, he’s all about keeping projects on track, building strong customer connections and delivering the best possible outcomes for some of our biggest customers.
A Principal Product Manager at Brightspot, Becky shares with Rose about what it’s like working on customer projects with complex workflows, content requirements and integrations, plus how being an excellent listener and an open and transparent communicator are the hallmarks of a great product manager.
Since joining in January 2022, Duncan MacBride has experienced various roles within the company’s sales group that now see him leading Brightspot’s team of business development representatives. Duncan manages the team to nurture inbound and outbound sales opportunities, helping to clarify how Brightspot CMS fits each company’s unique needs and ultimately drive new business. Outside of work, he enjoys Charleston’s walkable neighborhoods, excellent food, outdoor activities like golf and tennis, live music, and time on the beach.
Reuniting at Brightspot with several former colleagues, Julia Heflin’s role as Controller involves daily, weekly and monthly financial tasks, auditing and forward-looking forecasting to help the business thrive and grow. Outside her day-to-day accounting and finance duties, Julia is a passionate equestrian and is deeply involved with Brightspot mission activities including volunteering at Holistic Horsemanship Services and during Special Olympics’ events.
Ninad Khalate reflects on his seven-year tenure as a software engineer at Brightspot, from making the connection as a passionate Java developer during a career fair to deploying innovative features and solutions for Brightspot CMS customers. Outside of work, Ninad’s passion for sports—and especially soccer—places Barcelona at the top of his travel list.
Gaston Filardi shares insights on his journey from being a Brightspot client in Argentina to a product-management lead at our Virginia HQ. Read on to learn about the exciting projects he’s leading for various customers across the media sector, as well as across countries and continents (plus, get his take on the big debate: greatest of all time, Maradona or Messi?).
Rose sits down for a chat with Chris Hutson, a Senior Product Manager with Brightspot. A man used to wearing many hats to get myriad customer implementations over the line, Chris has led the successful delivery of projects including for NBC Sports, the PGA Championship and Drive, Chip & Putt.
In this chat with Rose, Dan Sisan reflects on his 12 years at Brightspot, involving a switch from the physics lab into software engineering and more recently leading delivery and client engagement across multiple projects. Learn about Dan’s lifelong computer fascination, his commitment to developing innovative solutions for our customers, and the vibrant company culture at Brightspot that engages employees both during and outside office hours.
Jake Graham, a developer at Brightspot since 2020, shares with Rose about his role in delivering innovative and creative solutions for the company’s software teams and products. A keen video gamer and rock climber, Jake is also passionate about volunteering his time to support many of Brightspot’s community-service efforts, including a trip in summer 2023 to volunteer at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.
Rose sits down for a chat with Brightspot’s Alistair Wearmouth. Before joining in 2020, Alistair was a user of the Brightspot CMS at CoStar, plus has enjoyed a mix of editorial and product management roles that included managing homegrown and other CMS solutions for companies like National Geographic, USA Today and Orbitz.
Having joined Brightspot in September 2022, CEO Raleigh McClayton is ushering in the next chapter of growth for the company. Here, Raleigh shares what excites him most about the opportunities ahead as well as some of his personal passions and experiences.
Liz Bell is a Senior Manager with Brightspot’s Customer Success team. Now approaching five years at the company, Liz shares how her prior role on the sales side of the business has helped with the communication skills that are essential to foster strong working relationships with stakeholders and ensure that each customer is getting the most out of their platform experience.
Grace Owolabi works as a quality assurance (QA) engineer at Brightspot, helping steer delivery projects to completion and to ensure they meet each customer’s exact requirements and expectations.
Meet David Bultema, Brightspot’s Chief Financial Officer. Here, he shares with Rose about his responsibilities overseeing all financial activities for the company, from budgeting and accounting to forecasting, reporting and analysis. Outside of the office, he can usually be found enjoying the outdoors (and with something pumpkin-flavored to eat, especially in fall).
Brightspot software engineer Praneetha Sattiraju shares her experiences developing a number of innovative yet challenging features across the Brightspot platform, which are helping make the CMS experience better every day for our customers and our internal teams.
Jenna Warren is a VP, Customer Engagement at Brightspot, and handles a key strategic account for the company that spans multiple current and emerging projects. She shares with Rose about her experiences growing and managing this relationship, plus her background in CMS technology, media and competitive figure skating.
Rose sits down for a chat with Brightspot content director Mark Hoover for his insights on the power of the Brightspot platform and what it takes to synthesize and communicate highly technical CMS concepts to diverse audiences. He also shares about his love of movie-making, a talent he also puts to good use while producing a variety of video content at work.
Rob Lazorchak is Brightspot’s Director of Quality Assurance, where he leads a team of QA specialists to assure the smooth and successful delivery of varied, challenging and unique customer projects. When he’s not in the weeds of testing complex use cases and requirements, Rob can be found enjoying the outdoors and especially the beach with his family.
A product manager with Brightspot since 2020, Adam Hershaft shares his experiences as the main customer contact for high-visibility projects including Walmart’s newly launched corporate website.
Lindsey Shields, a visual designer with the Brightspot design team, shares with Rose about her experiences working on a variety of web-design projects for Brightspot customers like Healthgrades and Johnson & Johnson, plus the inspiration she takes from across the art spectrum.
Rose sits down for a chat with Brightspot sales team member John Peterson to learn more about his perspectives on working with customers throughout the sales-engagement process, plus what excites him most about delivering innovative solutions for each new prospect.
Harshitha Mattapally sits down with Rose to discuss her history with Brightspot, what it’s been like to work extensively with GraphQL on the platform team, and the advice she has for the next generation of female software engineers.
Ruth Amaya de Zelaya is often one of the first people Brightspot employees see when coming to the office, sharing made-to-order counter drinks at the barista station and essential support throughout Brightspot HQ each day. Here, Rose sits down with Ruth to learn about her role at Brightspot and how she makes the company a brighter place each day.
In honor of January’s National Technology Day, Rose sat down to chat with Matt Livas—Brightspot Senior Software Engineer, problem-solver extraordinaire and all-around nice guy—about how he got started in the IT field, the superpower he wishes he had and how working across the company in different departments has helped improve his work overall.
Samantha Miller has been working at Brightspot since August 2020
Roy Ben-Yoseph has been working at Brightspot since July 2013