Executives
Andrea Anderson
Vice President of Inside Sales and Customer Loyalty
Before joining Avalara, Andrea served first as marketing manager and then as chief knowledge officer at a rapidly growing marketing automation company. Prior to this role, she spent seven years formulating marketing strategies for the Microsoft Business Solutions division of Microsoft. Andrea is one of the inventors of a patent-pending, rules-based marketing engine, has authored many e-marketing best practice white papers and has been published in numerous marketing trade publications. She also developed knowledge capital and class curriculum on interactive marketing that are used today in MBA and undergraduate programs and instructed courses for the Notre Dame MBA program.
Andrea holds an MBA from North Dakota State University.
Ethan Bell
Executive Vice President, Operations
Ethan brings a diverse 15 year business background to his role leading Avalara’s operations. He has served in senior roles in finance, marketing, and IT at multiple high-tech organizations. Most recently, Ethan served as the CIO at Cascade Billing, one of the Northwest’s largest independent medical billing services company, where he led the development and implementation of critical reporting and workflow management systems that delivered dramatic improvements in efficiency and customer experience. He started his career as the co-founder of Metainfo, a successful software developer in Seattle in 1994. Metainfo products provided core networking functionality for Internet systems built on the Microsoft Windows NT platform. As the CFO and head of marketing for Metainfo, Ethan helped grow Metainfo into a leading global provider of networking technology, reach profitability extremely quickly, and ultimately sell to Check Point Software Technologies in 1998.
Ethan graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in business administration and finance with a certificate of international studies in business (Japan concentration). He studied Japanese and international business at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan.
Patrick Falle
Vice President of Sales
Patrick is responsible for establishing and maintaining Avalara’s sales strategy, field engagement activities and partner channel efforts. Before joining Avalara, Patrick held several positions with Check Point Software, a leader in Internet security. As director of Check Point Software’s Global Managed Service Providers team, he managed a national sales team that generated more than $80 million in revenue. He established several firsts at Check Point, including being named the company’s first United States channel sales manager and being the first member of the company’s Global Sales Team.
Patrick holds a degree in language and International trade from Eastern Michigan University.
Michael Gardner
Vice President of Compliance
Michael joined Avalara in 2007 with more than 15 years of experience as a professional service partner. Prior to Avalara, Michael was the partner in charge of the tax technology solutions practice at The SC&H Group. He was also co-founder of Taxconnect, a successful tax technology services firm, and a regional practice leader and SALT strategies professional with KPMG. Michael is a member of the State Bar of California and an active member of several tax and financial associations. A frequent industry presenter on tax technology issues, Michael has authored many articles on transaction tax reform, global tax automation trends and best practices using rate content in multi-tiered systems environments.
Michael’s education includes earning his juris doctorate degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a bachelor of arts in history and economics from George Mason University and numerous executive certificates related to project management and use, implementation and training on specialized software applications.
Jerry Goade
Chief Financial Officer
Jerry is a highly experienced financial executive with over 20 years of expansive knowledge in all aspects of financial management and accounting within various industries, including clean-tech, wireless internet, telecommunications, digital media and retail. Prior to joining Avalara, Jerry was the CFO of Imperium Renewables, the nation's largest manufacturer of biodiesel where he led the development of the company’s corporate and financial infrastructure in its startup phase. Jerry’s career accolades include CFO executive level positions at industry giants including Clearwire, Loudeye, and D. Garvey Corporation. In the early stages of his career, Jerry worked as a CPA at Deloitte and maintains membership today with the Washington State Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.
Jerry graduated with honors from Seattle University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Kim Hayden
Vice President of OEM Sales
Kim brings more than 20 years of business growth and development expertise to the Avalara team. with extensive industry experience in both vertical and horizontal markets. Before joining Avalara, Kim worked at State of the Art, Inc., where he was instrumental in the business growth that led to State of the Art’s 1998 acquisition by the Sage Group, PLC. In his nearly 13-year tenure with State of the Art/Sage, Kim helped build strategic business relationships and inspired third-party solution providers to achieve greater levels of business success.
Kim obtained his degree from Ball State University with a studies focus in Business Administration and English Literature and has also participated on advisory boards for Microsoft and Business Objects (SAP).
Marshal Kushniruk
Executive Vice President of Strategic Accounts and Customer Experience
Marshal’s broad background informs the core of Avalara’s customer experience strategy and worldwide partnerships initiative. Bringing more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing of accounting, financial and ERP software solutions, Marshal’s responsibilities at Avalara include overseeing software development with a focus on usability, ensuring high-quality customer care systems and technical support in addition to effectively managing major strategic ERP accounts and independent software vendors. Before joining Avalara, Marshal was vice president of sales and marketing with Sulcs & Associates. He has held several other high-profile industry positions, including sales manager of Greater Canada at Great Plains Software, vice president of Abacus Accounting Systems, Inc. and president of Group 21 Consulting, Inc.
This diverse industry expertise includes creating and managing value-added channels with value-added resellers and developing over 50,000 clients.
John Osman
Vice President of Business Development & Strategic Accounts
John joined Avalara by way of the company’s acquisition of Independent Systems in May 2008, where he was vice president of Sales and Marketing, responsible for all aspects of sales, marketing and business development efforts. With more than five years experience in the sales tax industry, John has been instrumental in forming partnerships with Infor, SYSPRO and Everest, providing ISPI with a critical edge in the industry.
John graduated from Indiana University with a Telecommunications major and a minor in Economics. He also holds a Certificate of Business from the Kelley School of Business.
Luis Saenz
Vice President, Engineering
Luis Saenz brings nearly one dozen years of experience to his role as vice president, engineering, with responsibility for product development, quality assurance, and engineering operations. Prior to joining Taxcient, Luis served as a lead consulting developer and software architect at Oracle, specializing in content management and compliance, where he led the design and implementation of large-scale enterprise applications and platform technology products. Luis has also taught computer science and programming courses at the college level and for corporate clients.
Luis graduated from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, with a B.S. in computer science and engineering.
Bryan Wiggins
Vice President, Marketing
Bryan is a veteran marketing manager with more than 25 years experience as a marketing and public relations leader and business communications consultant. Past engagements include 10 years with Westinghouse Commercial Systems Division near Baltimore, MD, where he was responsible for public relations and communications efforts of a $3 billion defense technology organization. Freelance relationships included AlliedSignal Avionics in Redmond, WA, Honeywell Aerospace divisions in Phoenix, AZ, and Washington Mutual in Seattle. His most recent position was VP Marketing Services at Watson Furniture in Poulsbo, WA, where he built a dynamic marketing organization that spearheaded the fastest period of sales growth in the company’s 50-year history.
Bryan has Bachelor of Arts degrees in History and Journalism from Syracuse University.
Mark Withers
Vice President of Development
Bringing more than 20 years experience and boundless enthusiasm to the Avalara team, Mark leads the Avalara global development organization that is committed to solving complex business problems and building the finest sales tax solutions in the industry. Before joining Avalara, Mark was a customer experience leader with Airborne Express/DHL, where he managed the company’s Web-based shipping platform, which used Microsoft ASP, COM and Oracle database technologies to process nearly 500,000 shipments per month.
Mark graduated from Eastern Washington University with a degree in management information systems and also earned an Army Reserve commission. As a citizen soldier, Mark served in leadership positions in the Army Reserve and Washington National Guard.