Deep Industry Expertise & Inspired Next Generation Technology

Founder & CEO

Jeff Mason

Prior to forming Groundspeed, Jeff served as SVP of the insurance holding company Chelsea Rhone, where he led sales, alternative risk transfer programs, and all innovation efforts. He’s held various positions in commercial insurance for the last 19 years.

He is also the founder of Evolucent, a risk consultancy, CRCS, a captive insurance company administrator, and QAReader, a quality information SaaS for healthcare facilities.

Jeff holds an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan and a BA in Economics from Michigan State University.

Chief Technology Officer

Naim Falandino

Naim leads the long-term vision of how machine learning, data engineering, and
analytics can deliver actionable data solutions. He has twenty years of experience in technology and organizational leadership.

Prior to joining Groundspeed, Naim was part of the founding team at Deepfield, where he served as Chief Data Scientist, and later as Director of R&D at Nokia for the Deepfield product line after the company’s acquisition in 2017. He holds a MS in Information Science from the University of Michigan and a BS in Computer Science from Michigan State University.

Chief Revenue Officer

Jeff Heine

Jeff leads Sales and Marketing for the company. He has extensive experience in building and scaling high-tech startups, including ten startups with eight successful exits.

Prior to joining Groundspeed, Jeff served in the Insurance and Financial Services industries, in which he helped start sales at Guidewire Software, scaled Adsensa globally, leading to the acquisition by Exari, scaled Ascent from seed round to B round, and began his career at CCC Information Services. He holds a BS from Bradley University and is a certified Business Professional by Hecht & Associates in Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.

Chief Operating Officer

Eric Kobe

Eric leads the company’s Operations, Analytics, HR, Recruiting, and Business Operations teams. Prior to joining Groundspeed, he was most recently VP of New Markets at Affirm, where he spent four years scaling the Strategy and Operations team during the company’s growth from 100 to 900+ employees.

Prior to that, Eric led Operations and Analytics at Wiser Solutions and started his career in management consulting. He holds an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a BS in Systems Engineering and Economics from the University of Virginia.

Vice President, Professional Services

Sally Sinden Williams

Sally is responsible for Groundspeed’s professional service organization and customer implementations.
She has a distinguished career in leading project management and technical delivery teams at Zurich
Insurance and The Hartford Insurance Group, two global publicly traded insurance groups.

Prior to joining Groundspeed, Sally was the Vice President of Portfolio & Project Office at Crawford & Company, a publicly traded claims services company. She holds an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and a BS from DePaul University. She also holds a certificate in Executive Education from Babson College and a certificate in Project Management from The George Washington University.

Vice President, Software Engineering

Jeremy Walker

Jeremy is responsible for the growth and development efforts of the engineering team
and leads the IT support organization. He has more than twenty years of software development
experience, helping numerous startups navigate the challenges of growing an engineering organization.
Prior to joining Groundspeed, Jeremy served in a similar role as VP, Engineering at StockX, where he
helped the company attain unicorn status. He holds an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of
Business at the University of Michigan and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

Vice President, Business Operations

Katie Cartwright

At Groundspeed, Katie leads the Business Operations team, focused on cross functional projects and building for scale. She has a decade of experience in technology and growth stage start-ups.

Prior to joining Groundspeed, Katie has spent time at Chegg, Adara, and EasyPost, where she led teams in
business operations, sales and sales operations, customer support, HR, and analytics. She holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Director, People Operations and Talent

Thressa Nichols

Thressa supports the team by implementing best practices and improving performance to help
the company achieve its goals. Prior to joining Groundspeed, Thressa had a brief stint managing
state-wide grants in the non-profit section, where she then transitioned to a career helping tech
startups build their teams. Groundspeed Analytics is her fourth startup, where she uses her love of
building communities to help the People Operations team foster an inclusive and collaborative
environment. She holds a BS in Human Capital and Economics from Michigan State University.