Leadership
Corporate & sales
leadership
Corporate & sales leadership
Scott Etheridge
Chief Executive Officer
Scott Etheridge is the Chief Executive Officer at Arise Virtual Solutions.
Scott has been with Arise for over ten years. Prior to taking the role of CEO, he led and managed the Global Financial, Independent Business, and Technology Operations of the company as the COO/CFO. Scott has over 20 years of senior leadership experience and is responsible for developing and executing overall company strategy and growth. Since his arrival at Arise, the company has more than tripled financial performance.
Before joining Arise in 2009, Scott was the Vice President and CFO of the Partnered Brands division of Liz Claiborne, where he spearheaded a $1.5 billion global wholesale operation. Prior to joining Liz Claiborne, Scott spent 11 years at NBCUniversal, a former subsidiary of General Electric, where he served in numerous leadership roles including CFO of NBC Sports and led integration teams on acquisitions of both Telemundo and Universal. Before leaving GE, Scott held the role of Senior Vice President and CFO for NBCUniversal International where he led $3 billion in annual sales and was responsible for international operations and expansion.
Scott is an Auburn University graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting. While at GE, Scott graduated from several leadership and Six Sigma programs. He has also served on the Finance Committee of the NY Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Ana Sanso-Hill
Chief Financial Officer
Ana Sanso-Hill is the Chief Financial Officer.
Ana is responsible for oversight of financial planning and analysis, accounting, controllership, tax, treasury, and all finance-related processes and activities. She joined Arise in 2013 and previously served as the company’s VP of Accounting, Controller. Previously, Ana spent four years at RSM US LLP and 9 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is a CPA with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master's degree in tax from Florida International University
Robert Padron
Chief Growth Officer
Robert Padron is EVP, Chief Growth Officer at Arise. Robert is responsible for leading the Business Development, Client Marketing, and Strategic Account Management teams. Robert is an evangelist for the CX Platform Economy and believes wholeheartedly that a work-from-home platform must be a critical component of any organization looking to deliver world-class care. He is a trusted advisor for our clients and ensures that the unique value that Arise offers our customers comes to life in the work we do every day.
Prior to this role, Robert Padron was Chief Customer Officer and was responsible for leading the Global Customer Success organization – orchestrating one voice across Customer Success inside Arise – and one unified and cohesive experience externally – with our customers.
Prior to joining Arise in 2010, Robert spent 15 years at Precision Response Corporation as Senior Director of Client Services. There he was responsible for expanding relationships with key clients in the company’s cable support and logistics support business units with consistent results delivery and growth. Over his tenure there, he held multiple roles within organizational development, operations, client services, and project management providing him with a breadth of experience to understand the business holistically.
Through and through, Robert is an outsourcing professional that has been in the business for over 25 years and loves what he does.
Robert holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in business administration and the other in music from the University of Miami. He has a Masters of Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University.
Lisa Carstarphen
Senior Vice President, General Counsel
Lisa R. Carstarphen is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Arise. Lisa joined Arise in December 2011 and is responsible for leading the Arise legal team, as well as providing corporate governance leadership and legal counsel to the Arise senior executive team.
Prior to joining Arise, Lisa served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Russell Hobbs, Inc. (formerly known as Salton, Inc. and Applica Incorporated) for over ten years where she was responsible for all legal matters for the company, including securities, corporate finance and corporate governance matters. Before Russell Hobbs, Inc. Lisa was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, P.A. and served as Vice President, Associate Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary of Capital Bancorp, a bank holding company.
Lisa brings a wealth of knowledge and over 20 years of broad-based legal experience in providing boards of directors and senior corporate management of public and private companies with counseling on a wide variety of legal matters.
Lisa received her Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina, where she served as a member of the North Carolina Law Review, and her undergraduate degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Miami. Lisa is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Tom Maddux
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Tom Maddux is Senior Vice President and General Manager at Arise. Tom is responsible for client relationship management, operational delivery, and business development for clients in the Retail, eCommerce, Healthcare, and Insurance industries.
Tom has 30 years of executive management experience in the international business services outsourcing market including BPO, KPO, and ITO. During this time Tom partnered with numerous multi-national clients to improve operational delivery, enhance customer experience and optimize financial performance.
Prior to joining Arise in 2014, Tom was President & COO for Center Partners (WPP), President at Sitel and Apex Covantage, and Vice President at Convergys, Fortis, and Wachovia. In these roles, he worked across a wide variety of verticals and geographies.
Tom has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wofford College. He completed Tuck Executive Program (TEP) from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Tom also participated in the Fellows Program at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania for three years.
Judith Rodriguez
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Arise
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Judith Rodriguez is Senior Vice President and General Manager at Arise. In this role, she is responsible for business development and delivering client results to some of the world’s most recognized brands.
Judith is a seasoned professional with more than 23 years in the business process outsourcing industry. Her professional career has concentrated on developing and managing key client relationships, delivering world-class outsourced services, and driving organizational growth strategies.
Judith started her career at PRC and has experience managing all facets of Client Services, Certification & Quality, and Operations across a variety of industry verticals including financial services, tech support, and concierge. Judith is a leader who has proven experience retaining and growing Fortune 500 customer relationships by exceeding customer targets and building strong teams through thought leadership.
Judith holds a Master’s Degree from St. John’s University of New York City.
Keir Greenwood
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Arise EMEA
Keir is the Vice President & General Manager of Arise EMEA and is responsible for the implementation, operational delivery, and relationship management of new and existing Clients in the European portfolio. Keir leads a talented Management Team, all of whom work from home, to facilitate the delivery of virtual BPO services to market-leading brands through the Arise Platform. Keir joined Arise in 2009, has a background in staffing solutions and currently resides in the northwest of the UK.
Charmaine Stafford
Senior Vice President, Service Partner Marketing & Experience
Charmaine Stafford is Senior Vice President, Service Partner Marketing & Experience. She is responsible for reimagining and elevating the end-to-end Service Partner journey, positioning Arise as the platform of choice for those seeking virtual opportunities. In this role, she leads the following talents teams: Service Partner Marketing, Customer Opportunities, Partner Support, and Learning Design & Delivery.
Charmaine joins Arise with over 20 years of experience in leadership, operations, strategy, and customer experience. She spent 10 years at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. where she led product innovation and service initiatives to lift revenues, establishing hotels as best-in-class performers. She was also a hands-on manager who led the operations at the W Times Square, W Union Square, and Sheraton Boston Hotel. As a Six Sigma Black Belt, Charmaine was largely recognized for implementing process improvement initiatives and creating innovative programs to boost customer experience ratings and hotel performance metrics.
Charmaine transitioned out of hospitality to join CLEAR, a biometric identification company dedicated to changing the way people work, live, and travel. In her role as Senior Vice President of Operations and Customer Experience, she led field operations and owned the end-to-end member journey – from acquisition and onboarding to problem resolution and retention. She also launched and spearheaded the company’s service and loyalty program and was responsible for leveraging customer insights to significantly increase member acquisition, revenue, and net promoter scores. She also held roles at Envision and Deloitte.
Most recently, Charmaine was Vice President of Operations at Intercontinental Hotels Groups (IHG), where she provided overall leadership and strategic direction to the New York-based leadership team. She managed a $1.5B region and was recognized for maximizing hotel performance, leading guest experience innovation, and driving positive change across IHG hotels in the Region.
Charmaine received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Organizational Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton School of Business. She received her Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Charmaine is currently an active member of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. She also sits on the advisory board of City Interiors, ConvrtX, and Lifestyle Learning. When she isn’t working, you can find Charmaine sweating it out on her Peloton, teaching her kids how to play the piano, or planning the next adventure with her family.
Sean Wisdom
Vice President of Client Marketing
Sean Wisdom is Vice President of Client Marketing at Arise.
He has been a driving force in bringing cutting-edge technologies to businesses worldwide for over 20 years. With extensive experience in sales, sales management, and all facets of marketing, Sean has started successful global business solutions programs for Verizon and Dell. At Verizon, Sean started the Global Enterprise and Government division and managed all GTM activities for Emerging Technologies. At Dell, Sean led the development of the Evolving Workforce strategy which leveraged technologies across mobility, cloud, and security to enable remote work and "The Future Ready Enterprise." Most recently, Sean transformed the GTM strategy for Office Depot including segmentation, strategic messaging, and digital demand generation strategies.
Lisa Pelish
Vice President, Service Partner Marketing
Lisa Pelish is the Vice President, Service Partner Marketing at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc.
Lisa leads Service Partner Marketing and is responsible for attracting Service Partners and their agents to the platform, and then engaging with them to promote client opportunities.
After joining Arise in 2014 she re-imagined the Arise brand from the perspective of Service Partners and positioned the Arise® Platform as the premiere work from home business opportunity in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Under her leadership, the network of Service Partners on the platform grew from a few thousand sign-ups a year to tens of thousands of monthly registrations, with millions of annual web visitors and an active social media following of over one hundred thousand fans. It is the power and size of this network that enables Arise to deliver unparalleled flex and ramp capabilities to clients on the platform.
Prior to joining Arise, Lisa's career evolved in parallel with the birth of the Internet and digital marketing, as she took on roles of progressive responsibility with major media companies including Comcast, Viacom's Showtime Networks, and Tribune Media. Her most recent experience with a publicly held company was with SFN Group (Spherion Staffing, Sourceright Solutions) where she marketed to candidates and businesses in the call center BPO and high volume RPO space; experience that she adapted to promote the unique customer support business opportunity of the platform.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Florida Atlantic University and a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Florida International University.
Elaina Biffle
Vice President of Learning Design and Delivery
Elaina Biffle is the Vice President of Learning Design and Delivery at Arise, dedicated to training and development optimization across the learning ecosystem. Elaina engages customer support executives and training management teams to optimize business performance by leading and implementing hybrid training programs focused on innovative learning solutions.
With over 10 years of progressive experience in learning and performance consulting, Elaina is passionate about organizational and customer satisfaction, retention, and growth through learning. Elaina has led and supported successful training initiatives at Fortune 100 companies and within the higher education realm, in addition to consulting with small and mid-sized businesses looking to virtualize their learning experience. She is an active contributor to the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Outside of curating world-class learning strategies, Elaina leads yoga and wellness experiences for athletes. She is a certified project management professional and holds a Master of Education degree in Adult Education from Grand Valley State University.
Tim Savitt
Vice President, Business Development - Generalist
Tim Savitt is an accomplished, high-energy sales executive and trusted advisor, with global customer service expertise within the retail/eCommerce, technology, telecommunications, travel, and financial industries. He is a decisive, results-oriented team builder and motivator, with a passion for creating and delivering on business objectives.
Tim has been providing customer care solutions for Fortune 500 companies for over 15 years and remains passionate about helping clients realize customer service excellence via Omni channel communications. He is driven each day knowing that he must successfully deliver on the “promise” of providing an outstanding customer experience for his clients.
Anthony Tortolini
Vice President, Business Development
Anthony Tortolini is a seasoned business process outsourcing (BPO) sales executive. A trusted consultant with more than 25 years' expertise in retail/eCommerce, technology, travel and hospitality, financial services, and government, Anthony is passionate about driving success for his clients and has a track record of building long-lasting relationships as a result.
Anthony represents a passionate people champion, focused on the customer experience and ensuring true customer loyalty. With strong business strategy and enterprise-wide technology skills, detailed financial and operations savvy, and an extensive record of innovation and success, Anthony delivers valuable outcomes for all.
Ken Wheeler
Vice President, Business Development
Ken is Vice President, Business Development in the UK and is responsible for identifying and winning new clients for the Arise Virtual Solutions portfolio. Before joining Arise Ken spent 20 years in the BPO industry-leading sales and customer service teams for onshore and offshore service providers in the UK and South Africa as well as holding senior sales leadership and delivery roles with a number of leading consulting firms. He currently lives in Hertfordshire in the southeast of England.
Shawn Santos
Vice President, Business Development
Shawn Santos is Vice President of Business Development at Arise, dedicated to the technology sector. Shawn has over 20 years of technology industry experience, including 10 in the outsourcing space, focused on maximizing revenue and customer experience for some of the world’s most recognized brands in enterprise software, SaaS, security, devices, social media, big data & analytics, marketplaces, IT services, storage, and networking.
Built on a foundation of strategic consulting, Shawn is passionate about solution design and consultative sales to help companies accelerate revenue and drive successful business outcomes with global initiatives that have spanned Customer Experience, Inside Sales, Customer Success, Recurring Revenue, Support, and Partner Enablement.
Shawn has an undergraduate degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and has completed post-graduate work at both the University of California at Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
In 2008, he founded Hope Animal Network, a community-driven non-profit organization focused on advancing animal welfare in developing countries. In 2016, he published "How Companies Succeed in Social Business: Case Studies and Lessons from Adobe, Cisco, Unisys, and 18 More Brands," through Pearson FT Press.
Mike McDonald
Vice President, Business Development
Mike McDonald is a trusted and accomplished business development executive and advisor with global customer care and collections experience within the financial services, retail, insurance, and commercial industries. Throughout his career in the BPO space, Mike has partnered with numerous clients to enhance customer experiences, optimize financial performance, and improve operational delivery.
Prior to joining Arise, Mike served similar growth roles for many years at Sutherland and iQor.
Mike earned his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Marketing at California State University, Chico. He also earned his Masters of Business Administration at California Lutheran University.
Ted Kassiotis
Vice President Business Development
Ted Kassiotis is VP, Business Development at Arise. He is an innovative customer experience thought leader with over 25 years of successful omnichannel customer support operations, solutioning, business development, client services, and vendor management. Ted’s hands-on consultative approach stems from his customer-centric design thinking and contact center technology expertise, helping clients transform their customer experience, driving increased adoption, renewals, sales, and reducing total cost of ownership.
Ted brings authenticity and credibility to the client partner relationship having been the client at Sears and Verizon for many years, managing numerous vendors, and seeing firsthand the keys to a successful Client/BPO partnership include: honesty, integrity, dependability, flexibility, proactivity, thought leadership and not over-promising and under-delivering. Today, Ted’s clients benefit from his experience as both the client and BPO vendor, sharing the necessary sense of urgency and intense focus on customer experience that clients expect and are paramount to drive customer success.
Ted has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts and a Master’s in Project Management and Operations from Southern New Hampshire University in progress. Originally from Boston, MA, Ted now stays classy in San Diego, CA.
Bill Trocano
Vice President, Business Development
Bill Trocano is an experienced and trusted BPO executive with a depth of experience within the Healthcare/Insurance and Utilities Industries among others. Over the course of his career, he has partnered with numerous companies to enhance their customer experience and gain efficiencies providing them with a higher ROI and high level of service for their customers.
Prior to joining Arise, Bill spent in excess of 15 years in the industry with some of the largest organizations in the world and has had the opportunity to travel all over the world on behalf of his clients.
Bill attended Syracuse University where he majored in marketing and finance.
We are Arise
Arise is fundamentally changing how companies interact with their customers, by connecting them to the gig economy and real-time, on-demand micro-companies to achieve a superior customer experience.
