Meet our global leadership.
Wellford Dillard
Chief Executive Officer
Wellford Dillard is the CEO of CM Group. Wellford has more than 15 years of experience in the software industry and held CFO roles at six companies prior to CM Group, including OPower (OPWR: sold to Oracle) and GetWellNetwork (sold to Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe). Prior to holding senior leadership positions in the software industry, Wellford worked in management consulting, investment banking and equity research. Wellford holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and earned his BA in Finance from the University of Memphis.
Ethan Zoubek
Chief Revenue Officer
Ethan Zoubek is the Chief Revenue Officer of CM Group. He has more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur and leader in SaaS technology companies. Prior to CM Group, Ethan was an enterprise sales leader at Krux Digital and ExactTarget (both acquired by Salesforce.com). Ethan has been an active mentor and advisor to numerous tech startups. He attended Rutgers College at Rutgers University, earning a BA in English Literature.
Cody Bender
Chief Product Officer
Cody Bender is the Chief Product Officer of CM Group. Prior to joining CM Group in 2017, Cody worked at Return Path for six years, ultimately leading their Product organization and Email Certification program. While there, he worked closely with partners like Microsoft, Yahoo, Comcast, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as well as with some of the largest email marketers in the world to improve the experience of email for both senders and recipients. His career in software development started by designing and building software solutions for municipalities and governments across the US. Cody earned his BA in Mathematics from Coe College.
Sharon Strauss
Chief People Officer
Sharon Strauss is the Chief People Officer of CM Group. Prior to joining in 2018, Sharon was the Chief People Officer at GetWellNetwork, Inc. She has more than 25 years of human resources and change management experience and has held Human Resources leadership roles at a number of leading global companies, including Tiffany & Co., Citigroup, Dunkin’ Brands, and General Electric, as well as several software companies. Sharon attended Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Ash Fagura
Chief Operating Officer
Ash Fagura is the Chief Operating Officer of CM Group. He has over 12 years of experience working with several technology companies in both software and hardware. Prior to joining CM Group, Ash managed the financial go-to-market and pricing strategy of consumer products at Cisco Systems and software products at Salesforce.com. Ash holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at University of California Los Angeles and a BS in Managerial Economics from University of California Davis.
Tom Janofsky
Chief Technology Officer
Tom Janofsky is the Chief Technology Officer of CM Group. He has more than 20 years of experience in growing and building teams and products in early and growth stage companies. Prior to joining CM Group, Tom was the CTO at Sailthru and Blackfynn, as well the SVP of Engineering at Monetate. He attended the University of Scranton, earning his BA in philosophy.
Shane Phair
Chief Marketing Officer
Shane Phair is the Chief Marketing Officer of CM Group. Prior to joining CM Group, he led marketing and demand generation teams as VP of Demand Generation at Cleo, a global leader in enterprise integration solutions. Prior to Cleo, he held senior sales positions with Brainshark, Ipswitch, and Motorola; while also spending several years in South Korea working in the education space. Shane holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and earned his bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University.
Mike Vantusko
Chief Financial Officer
Mike Vantusko is the Chief Financial Officer of CM Group. He has over 35 years of financial, strategic and operational expertise in both public company and private equity sponsored companies. Prior to joining CM Group, Mike served as the Chief Financial Officer at Achieve3000, Inc. Mike is a CPA with a MBA from Case Western Reserve University, along with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance.
Jesal Prabaker
General Counsel
Jesal Prabaker is General Counsel of CM Group, specializing in SaaS, technology, and privacy law. Prior to joining CM Group in 2016, she worked as Corporate Counsel at Clearslide and In-House Counsel at AurionPro Solutions. Jesal holds a J.D. from Indiana University, Maurer School of Law–Bloomington and earned her bachelor’s degree at UCLA.
Cassie Young
Chief Commercial Officer - Sailthru
Cassie is responsible for both the sales and post-sales customer experience at Sailthru, overseeing a variety of sales and customer-focused teams who are focused on one common goal: empowering our clients to drive quantifiable lift in their marketing programs. Formerly a Sailthru client and a long-time direct marketer, Cassie joined Sailthru from Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) where as VP Marketing Analytics & Business Intelligence, she led the company's intrapreneurship efforts and evangelized lean development and business analytics across the organization. Previously, she served as VP Marketing for Savored (acquired by Groupon). Cassie graduated from Duke University and holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Xavier Casanova
Co-Founder & CEO - Liveclicker
Xavier Casanova is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur specialized in building cutting-edge online marketing applications and businesses from the ground up. He founded web analytics vendor Fireclick in 1998 (acquired by Digital River) and media sharing platform Wambo in 2004. In 2008 he co-founded Liveclicker, a market-leading real-time email personalization solution, where he now acts as CEO. Xavier holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Ecole Polytechnique in France and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Xavier holds multiple patents in web-related technologies and also acts as advisor and investor in a number of promising technology startups.
John Twomey
Chief of Staff
John Twomey is the Chief of Staff at CM Group. John brings capital markets and technology investing experience to the CM Group team. Prior to joining CM Group, John was an investor with Guidepost Growth Equity, a technology focused private equity firm in Boston. John attended New York University, where he graduated with a BA in Economics.