Leadership
Automating and integrating your critical organizational processes -
A to Z
Bala Guntipalli
President & CTO
Bala has a wide variety of experience both in business, member-based associations and nonprofits. With hundreds of successful projects to his credit, Bala’s business background includes positions at IBM Corporation, COX Enterprises, Global Healthcare Rehabilitation and CUNA Mutual Group.He also provided management consulting for many small to medium-sized businesses.
Bala has wide exposure in board and advisory roles for several nonprofits, He served as President of the Plymouth, Minnesota chapter of Rotary International.
Other nonprofit and member-based associations for which he volunteered or served in leadership positions were Rising Star OutReach, Toastmasters International, Business Network International (BNI), The Blake School, The Children’s Workshop Montessori, Ronald McDonald House Charities (Upper Midwest) and many others.
Trent Gifford
Senior Vice President – Sales
Trent comes from a 20 year background in non-profit and association leadership and has served on several boards, still very active today in two of them.
He has also been serving customers in the software and telecommunications service industries for over 30 years. Trent’s leadership skills and experience centers on start-up operations, helping new “technology based” businesses launch their services into new markets, while building and leading the sales and business development teams.
Trent also spent many years building and leading solution engineering organizations in the wireless and SaaS industries.
The keys to Trent’s success come from his leadership ability, not just coaching and mentoring his teams and individual contributors, but also in his keen ability to develop strategic and tactical plans with his team. These plans keep his team focused and helps enable each member of the team to execute their individual plans for maximum success.
Trent believes in “Working & Winning as a Team”, and with this mindset he has had great team level success throughout his career.
Steve Snyder
Chair – Advisory Board
Steve has deep experience in several critical roles, such as general management, business development, strategy, marketing, and sales. He currently serves as President and CEO of Whitehall Specialties, Inc, in Whitehall, WI.
The community of nonprofits and associations has played a large role in Steve’s life – working with various nonprofit and for-profit organizations, small and large.
Whether serving the community as the Chairman of the Board of the largest Medical and Life Sciences Alley in the world (https://medicalalley.org/) in an official capacity or as a member of largest nutritional ingredients associations in the United States, or as a buyer of multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology solutions, Steve believes Affnetz™ work in the community provides many ways to empower good in the world.
Steve received his MBA from The Harvard Business School and lives in the Twin Cities area in MN.
Cindy Chandler
Vice Chair – Advisory Board
Cindy serves as the National Healthcare Practice and Nonprofit Leader for TowerHunter, a nationally recognized executive search and leadership consulting firm. She is a nationally recognized consultant serving clients in the healthcare and nonprofit sectors. During the past 25+ years, Cindy has dedicated her work to helping clients evaluate talent and culture, recruit and build effective Boards of Directors and high performing leadership teams.
Pete Keers
Vice President – Marketing
Pete’s professional experience ranges from sales, marketing, and IT positions in Fortune 500 organizations to a leadership role for a successful technology venture.
Pete has specific financial services and medical device experience but has a knack for understanding the unique needs for a wide variety of industry verticals.
As a board-level writer and presenter, he has developed a deep sense of customers’ fundamental business and communications needs. This, combined with a strong impulse to intimately understand the target audience, underpins the crafting of powerful, action-oriented messages.
Pete received his B.S. in Business Administration and MBA from the University of Minnesota.
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