Gary Swart  new_releases

Tech and healthcare investor and former executive with decades of experience including general management of all size organizations, sales, operations, staffing, and strategy. Until April 2014, Gary was the CEO of oDesk (UpWork), the world's largest online workplace. Gary guided the company to industry-leadership and through a merger with Elance, while serving as a leading voice for the future of work and the emerging online work industry. Gary is deeply passionate about helping entrepreneurs build their businesses and regularly shares his insights with fellow business people and anyone crafting their career. Drawing upon his unique position as a witness to disruption in work, Gary provides mentorship on how to craft a successful path -- giving more than 30 fireside talks last year alone. Prior to oDesk, Gary's career grew from early entrepreneurial ventures to an executive position at IBM. Throughout, he has excelled at building high-performance, innovative and exceptionally loyal teams. His past positions include: -VP of Sales and Operations at Intellibank, a SaaS collaboration platform -Business Unit Executive (SMB Division), IBM Rational Software -Director of Corporate Sales, Rational Software -Western Region Sales, Pure Atria These positions were often a progression through a series of acquisitions that led to increasing levels of responsibility and team oversight. Combined, Gary has managed thousands of people during his career on teams ranging from small and entrepreneurial to large teams for global enterprises.