About Us / Team and Investors
We've assembled a small yet seasoned team to get Glassdoor.com moving in the right direction (and keep it there). Many of us have worked together before and are excited to reunite. We're like-minded people who are passionate about building great products and we're having more than our share of fun building this one.
The Management Team
Robert Hohman – Co-Founder, CEO
Robert Hohman is co-founder and chief executive officer of Glassdoor.com and member of the company's board of directors. Before creating Glassdoor, Bob was most recently president of Hotwire, a leading discount travel site and division of Expedia, Inc. Bob was one of the original team members of Expedia, and was part of the executive team that took it public in 1999. During his Expedia tenure, Bob also served as president of Classic Custom Vacations and executive vice president of Cruise & Packages for Expedia North America. In Expedia's early stage, Bob led the engineering team that built the cruise, hotel, and package booking systems. Bob started his career at Microsoft and worked as a software developer in a range of areas from Windows 95 to interactive television to online games. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from Stanford University.
Tim Besse – Co-Founder, VP of Product and Marketing
Tim Besse is co-founder and vice president of product and marketing of Glassdoor.com. Previously, Tim was the director of product management and online marketing the Asia Pacific division of Expedia. In this role, Tim developed new markets in Australia, Japan, and China, and assumed general management responsibility of the Hotels.com business in Asia. In other Expedia roles Tim helped launch other early stage businesses, including Expedia's telesales and private label businesses as well as its online luxury offering, Classic Custom Vacations. Tim holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
Ryan Aylward – VP of Engineering
Ryan Aylward is vice president of engineering of Glassdoor.com, who brings more than 10 years experience in the software development field. Previously, Ryan was the senior director of engineering at EzRez Software where he led the development organization responsible for supporting more than 50 travel Web sites. Prior to EzRez, Ryan spent more than five years with Hotwire, where his duties involved both management and development roles, including building the original Web site. Ryan also served as an engineer at Motorola. Ryan holds a B.A. in computer science from the University of Notre Dame.
Mark Palmer – General Counsel & VP of Finance/Business Operations
Prior to joining Glassdoor, Mark served in a similar role as Corporate Counsel and Director of Privacy at Jigsaw and brings more than 5 years of experience working in-house with user generated content communities. Prior to Jigsaw, Mark was in private practice working directly with start-ups and early stage companies. Mark also has more than 10 years of litigation and trial experience. Mark holds a Masters of Law in International Information & Communications Technology Law from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven Belgium, a J.D. from the Duquesne University School of Law and a B.A. from Dickinson College.
Jim Buttimer – VP of Business Development
Before joining Glassdoor, Jim was the CEO of CareerTV where he led and grew the company from site launch in 2007 until it was sold in April 2009. Prior to CareerTV, Jim held several roles at WetFeet including Vice President and General Manager where he helped build the online and print career research business for job seekers until the sale of the company at the end of 2006. Jim has also worked as a management consultant for Mercer Management Consulting and financial analyst for Bank of America. Jim holds a B.A. in Economics and Public Policy Studies from Duke University and an MBA from Cornell University's Johnson School.
The Investors
Glassdoor is backed by leading venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures.
