Our Team

What do we do?

PostRank is focused on the development of tools and information that make sense of social engagement data on the web. Founded in the spring of 2007, PostRank launched its first filtering and ranking service in July 2007 to tremendous market reception. The PostRank feed management service offers free, easy-to-use tools to enhance personal productivity for users, and provides audience engagement information for publishers.

Our company

Based in Waterloo, Canada, PostRank Inc. is a privately held company founded in early 2007 by Ilya Grigorik, Francis Lau, and Kevin Thomason to deal with daily information overload and our overflowing feed readers. Utilizing the latest cloud computing technologies and distributed algorithms we created the PostRank™ filtering process to better measure social engagement online. With a great mix of strong technical and creative talents, our team continues to innovate by developing new information management solutions.

Our team

Ilya Grigorik – CTO
E: ilya [at] postrank.com P: x220 Blog: igvita.com Twitter: @igrigorik Ilya’s friends got tired of him explaining the finer points of how he invented the hyperdrive and flux capacitor — after all, they were only in Kindergarten at the time. So off he went to do other things, and eventually get a B.Sc. in Computer Science from University of Waterloo. Then one day Ilya narrowly avoided certain death beneath an avalanche of unread RSS feeds. He knew that something must be done to protect future generations from the menace of information overload. And voila — PostRank was born. In his spare time, Ilya dreams of one day being able to travel again, armed with a backpack and a camera. In the mean time he spends his spare time catching up on podcasts and tinkering around the house with DIY projects like cupcake-icing robots and artificially intelligent picture frames.

Carol Leaman – CEO
E: carol [at] postrank.com P: x221 Twitter: @carolleamanIt’s rumoured that Carol has overthrown hostile governments and climbed Everest single-handedly, but she doesn’t like to talk about it. She has worked in the management consulting, virtual reality, and software industries, but identifying great opportunities and helping companies achieve their potential is where she really works her magic. (We like to think we fit both categories.) Despite having a Masters in Accounting, Carol is no mere bean counter. Whether it’s building up new companies or helping turn around those experiencing struggles, Carol’s unique blend of strategic skills and hands-on operations management is pure alchemy.

Cheri Doherty – Director of Operations
E: cheri [at] postrank.com P: x229 Twitter: @cddoherty Cheri has been known to leap tall buildings in a single bound, just because she can. More often, though, she uses her superpowers to keep people and operations running like a well-oiled machine. Prior to joining PostRank, Cheri’s tactical-fu kept TD Bank, Bell Canada, and Quarry Integrated Communications ship shape. Outside of the office, Cheri occasionally applies her research tenacity to hunting down fabulous shoes, and she can often be found out on the links using her laser-like focus to lower her handicap.

Peter Frisella – Business Development
E: peter [at] postrank.com P: x223 Twitter: @pfrisellaPete’s picky, and we think that’s a good thing. With research and analysis experience working for some of tech’s heaviest hitters, Pete knows how to ask the right questions and spot great opportunities. His combined business and tech background also makes him as comfortable with the suits as with the geeks. (Though he admits that his code, while functional, won’t win any beauty contests.) He’s a big Raptors fan, and has become an enthusiastic golfer in the past year, but won’t be abandoning his post to run off to Augusta or St. Andrews any time soon. (And really, shouldn’t he be focusing on his foosball skills?)

Andrey Aredakov – Research Analyst
E: andrey [at] postrank.comAndrey is proof that there’s more than taiga and the occasional frozen wooly mammoth in Siberia, though he mostly grew up in Moscow. That certainly explains why he chose to move to Canada rather than Australia. He originally set out to become an engineer, but apparently had too many Big Questions, and so ended up completing a dissertation in philosophy. (And you thought philosophy majors couldn’t get good jobs…) His particular fascination is with metaphysics, which might even be a bigger finding than the stories nestled in the billions of data items PostRank collects. Andrey has been analyzing media for a decade, which he equates to ethnography — studying all the weird and fascinating stories of people’s lives, both those they make public and those (more tantalizingly) that they try to hide. He sees social media as a natural extension of media exploration, with more and shorter stories, unedited and real-time. We’re certainly loving the stories he’s been uncovering, and we think plenty of industries will, too.

Andrew Baldwin – Developer
E: andrew [at] postrank.com Blog: devbaldwin.com Twitter: @thebaldwinAndrew’s story begins on a dark and stormy day in 1983, when a doctor handed him a keyboard and away he went. After spending some time in Silicon Valley, Andrew realized how much he enjoyed the joys of four seasons, and an opportunity to redefine RSS – nowadays he spends his time plumbing the depths of virtual intertubes of Amazon’s AWS services to make PostRank tick. Andrew is an intrepid adventurer and spends a lot of his time volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and Global Village. He owns one lawn chair.

Dan Sinclair – Developer
E: dan [at] postrank.com Blog: everburning.com Twitter: @dj2sinclDan emerged from the ocean some 2 million years ago, covered in primordial ooze. After developing opposable thumbs, he started poking around at anything and everything these new-fangled computers had to offer. Dan holds a bachelors of Mathematics in Honours Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. He has spent the last 5 years in Toronto building, speeding up and breaking things while longing for Campus Pizza. He works on Ruby, Java and various other technologies with a bent on breaking things. Dan feels most at home in his natural habitat, coding in a room lined with books, video games and Grateful Dead albums.

Michael Amygdalidis – Developer
E: michael [at] postrank.com Blog: maplealmond.blogspot.com Twitter: @maplealmondMichael started his programming career when his dad asked him for some help with printing envelopes and he wrote an application to handle the company’s financial records. Since then he’s walked a path precipitously close to the dark side of large enterprise, almost turning into a glassy-eyed automaton, drinking the Kool-Aid while droning on about “synergy between core competencies” and “value-added turnkey solutions”. Fortunately, Ruby’s shining light reactivated his latent love of making awesome things that matter, and he’s been writing Ruby ever since. When not coding, he runs pen and paper RPGs, tries to improve his game at the company foosball table, and spends 20 minutes a day repeating the spelling of his last name to outsourced customer service agents.

Enrico Bianco – Developer E: enrico [at] postrank.com Blog: liveandcode.com Twitter: @enricobiancoEnrico’s love for Ruby is no surprise given his love of everything else Japanese. While not quite fluent, he watches anime without the subtitles and can sing karaoke songs in Japanese. Enrico and Michael go way back to their university days; Enrico recommended Michael to PostRank and, once Michael found out how awesome the team was, Enrico soon followed. Oddly enough, this is not the first time this has happened. Enrico is deeply immersed in social media, running a blog, a podcast, and having an extensive network of Toronto tweeps. In short, he’s the ideal user of the same product he’s working on. In “the biz” we call that “eating your own dog food”. Ironically, Enrico is a cat person.

Carolyn Marshall – Developer
E: carolyn [at] postrank.com Twitter: @karolijnCarolyn’s co-op term apparently went so well she was compelled to return! The team was totally jazzed to welcome her back full time after she graduated, and she’s already snagged prime window seat real estate. She’s currently learning the joys of winter commuting until she moves closer to the Greater Kaydublian Area, and we’ve thrown her right into the deep end with all the big, fancy, super-secret projects we’re working on for 2011!

James Stewart – UX/UI Designer
E: james [at] postrank.com Twitter: @JamesStewartUXDJames is such a good designer that his picture doesn’t even need colour. No newb to the startup space, James’ working background includes both the corporate and agency sides of design work. He also has mad foosball skillz. Educated in Toronto, James is a native of this area, and came back to embark on his career (he also likes it here). While his personal interests mostly include design… and more design, James is also a fan of classic cars and unique aircraft, though fortunately for us his lack of independent wealth means he has to work for us rather than jetsetting about, at least for now. Apparently, Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun is also based on James, but then again he did admit he might lie on his Get To Know You questionnaire…

Jeff Weber – UX/UI Designer E: jeff [at] postrank.com Twitter: @JefferyWeber
When James’ non-stop complaining about being chained to his desk 24/7 got too annoying in late 2009, We decided it was probably time to find him a some help, a Watson to his Holmes, so to speak. In 2010, Jeff came to us after many years in the agency world, and finds it soothing to just have one client. Like any typical designer, Jeff’s main hobby is more design, however, that extends off the browser page spending his time tinkering with his bicycles or arm wrestling with Charlie Sheen. He claims levitation skills, but we have yet to see any evidence of them… Perhaps once his yoga practice improves.

Melanie Baker – Community Manager
E: melanie [at] postrank.com P: x224 Blog: melle.ca Twitter: @melleMelle is the Technology Triangle’s longest-serving community manager… as far as she knows. (That mostly just means that sometimes people buy her coffee to get her to tell them how to hire one.) Her parents still don’t really understand what she does for a living. After starting her career at a startup, during the dot-com no less, Melle spent a few ill-fitting years in the insurance industry before returning to the tech fold. Those jobs did make for some good stories, though, and were actually more professionally useful than theatre school. She is also co-founder of Communitech’s Community Management Peer 2 Peer Group, and in her spare time reads a lot, writes a little, makes sockmonkeys, and bakes things. She rules the dev pit with an iron fist and a delicious apple crisp, and is a dead shot with a Nerf gun. She finds it a bit weird when people other than her Mom call her Melanie.

Jason Santo – Marketing Manager
E: jason [at] postrank.com P: x210 Twitter: @jasonCsantoJason’s Grandmother thought he was possessed as a child, and so nearly had him exorcised by a Portuguese witch doctor. Well, that would certainly explain his terror toward performance reviews… Anyway, it turned out he was just energetic. Whew. Growing up, he turned those energies to the performing arts, but alas, as a long-term career option it was (to be or) not to be. And so, like Melle, he turned from the stage to the corporate sphere, and has sampled the gamut, working for small and large businesses, a startup, and a not-for-profit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s held roles in client relations, tech support, training, economic development, and online community management. Told you he was energetic. Jason thinks that growing up during the golden age of media and advertising in the 80s was an excellent start to his marketing education, what with having been the target of millions of brand messages to date. When he’s not tirelessly working to polish and evangelize PostRank’s brand and services, you can find him volunteering with the Contemporary Art Forum of Kitchener and Area, preparing the pork-laden comfort foods of his Portuguese-Hungarian heritage for friends, or playing tennis in the local park.

PostRank Bear – Mascot
E: bear [at] postrank.com Blog: blog.postrank.com Twitter: @postrankThe PostRank Bear (BooBoo to his friends), ended up at the company by accident. He was in the process of learning French, and thought the original company name was AideOurs. An honest mistake. Now that he’s here, though, he’s having a great time, keeping the feed filters clear of dead links and restocking the beverage fridge. In his free time, BooBoo enjoys bubble baths, moonlit walks on the beach, string cheese, and UFC.

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