Last year, we introduced a new awards program honoring achievement and excellence among Strattam’s portfolio companies: The Golden Armadillos.
True it its iconic Texas namesake, the Golden Armadillo award recognizes distinctive leaders with relentless drive and innate instincts for successful evolution. Winners are selected by secret ballot, and their names are engraved on a trophy that’s proudly displayed at our Austin office.
This year, we’re excited to continue the tradition by honoring four more outstanding executives. Please join us in celebrating and congratulating the recipients of our 2nd Annual Golden Armadillo Awards!
SCOTT POITEVENT
Blacksmith, CFO
Scott joined Blacksmith in January 2018 as Director of Strategy. During that time, he supported conceptualization of the new Insights/Advanced Analytics product and led corporate development/ M&A review. In March 2019, following the previous CFO’s retirement, Scott was promoted to this vital role, where he guided strategic M&A efforts. Specifically, Scott led Blacksmith’s execution of the FSE acquisition, while also successfully expanding the company’s senior debt relationship with PNC.
Throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, Scott has spearheaded an exceptional Accounts Receivable collections effort. Thanks in large part to his diligence, Blacksmith’s cash is at an all-time high and is enough to support the FSE acquisition without additional equity from Strattam. Scott’s numerous additional accomplishments include hiring Blacksmith’s first true Vice President of Human Resources and implementing the company’s new ERP system.
DAN WARD
MHC, VP, Product & Engineering
In early 2019, just months before MHC’s addition to the Strattam portfolio, Dan joined the company and led technical due diligence on seven targets—three of which have now been successfully included into the MHC portfolio (Vanguard, Ecrion and ContactTelecom). Additionally, Dan defined the new software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes and tools for all MHC products, while also implementing a program to train all staff and migrate all products (existing and acquired) to the new model.
Dan’s other recent accomplishments include the creation of a new product platform (Lando) intended to drive development efficiency and seamless integration across the entire MHC portfolio. As part of this process, he forged an offshore relationship with an Eastern European development organization that had the necessary skills to help MHC staff build out Lando and drive better cost structure. As if this weren’t enough, Dan leveraged previous experience attaining SOC 2 certification to start a similar process for the new product offerings within MHC. And finally, to top it all off, Dan completed these achievements while pursuing his third degree, a Masters in Computer Science, from the University of St. Thomas.
JOHN EMARD
Contegix, CRO
John joined Contegix in 2018. Since that time, he has completely rebuilt the sales engine for the company, seeing improved performance in each of the last four quarters. John has also raised the company’s partnership with Atlassian to another level—so much so, in fact, that the Atlassian Federal team considers Contegix sales almost an extension of their own efforts.
John’s expertise has helped blend partner sales with direct sales as part of his GTM model. He’s also forged an incredibly strong partnership with Elizabeth Clor, the Contegix head of marketing. She and John are truly a team! And John knows better than most how to strike a successful work-life balance. He maintains his rhythm as a part-time professional musician, and he’s known to take Zoom calls from his music studio.
Elizabeth Clor
Contegix, CMO
Elizabeth joined Contegix in 2019 and immediately got to work revamping the company’s entire approach to marketing. Where once the organization focused exclusively on brand, advertising, and events, Elizabeth shifted gears to create a demand center of excellence, leveraging data to drive critical decisions.
Under Elizabeth’s leadership, marketing now leverages digital campaigns and technologies to drive pipeline and, as a result, consistently contributes pipeline in excess of goals. Elizabeth also led her team to deliver a new SEO strategy that has significantly increased inbound web traffic. And, as mentioned previously, Elizabeth has struck a powerful partnership with head of sales John Emard. Together, the two have built a relationship on mutual respect, and it shows.
For their monumental achievements over the past year, we congratulate these four Golden Armadillos and thank them for continuously demonstrating the Strattam Capital standard of excellence.
