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Our leadership team

Poppulo’s leadership team mirrors the entire organisation: a winning blend of talent, innovation, ambition and experience. Meet the visionary leaders of Poppulo.

David Levin

David Levin

Chief Executive Officer​

In 2005, David co-founded Four Winds Interactive (now Poppulo) with a vision for how digital media applications could improve the way businesses communicate and engage with their customers and employees.

After growing the company to more than $65M in revenue without any major outside investment, in 2019 FWI took a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners to fuel its next round of growth.

In 2021, FWI acquired workplace management innovator SmartSpace and the employee communications leader Poppulo. The three companies combined under the Poppulo name, supported by a unified brand, vision, and product suite as the leading communications and workplace experience software company. Poppulo’s customer base is an A-list of the world’s most successful companies, including 47 of the Fortune 100.

David has previously been recognized by ForbesMagazine’s list of most promising CEO’s under 35. Prior to Poppulo, David co-founded Sage Circle, a software and consulting services firm focused on Industry Analyst Relations, and was an Associate at Denver-based venture capital firm, Cornerstone Ventures.

Sam Bufton

Sam Bufton

President and Chief Operating Officer

Samantha has successfully driven transformational growth for organizations of all sizes for almost 20 years. Prior to joining Poppulo in 2022, Samantha served as EVP/ General Manager of Momentive‐AI’s (formerly known as SurveyMonkey) survey business.

She joined Momentive as a product leader in 2013 to architect its Enterprise offering. Previously, she spent 15 years in product management roles at Facebook, Intuit, FanSnap, and Yahoo, where she built and led teams that created innovative consumer and enterprise products. She also worked on the Corporate Development team at Autodesk, driving M&A integration and strategy initiatives.

She has a B.Sc. Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire and an M.B.A. from the University of Oxford..

Jenny Brook

Jenny Brook

General Counsel & Executive Vice President

Jenny Brook is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Poppulo. She serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team with global responsibility for all legal operations and functions. Jenny has over 25 years of business and legal experience, including intellectual property, software licensing, contract management, data privacy, cyber security, corporate governance, and employment law. In her role, Jenny helps guide the company in responding to the wide range of matters across the legal technology and business spectrum, in rapid growth and increasingly complex regulatory environments. Prior to joining Poppulo, Jenny was a shareholder and top litigator at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig. Repeatedly recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine while in private practice, Jenny was named by Law Week of Colorado as one of the top 10 influential women lawyers. Jenny earned her JD from Notre Dame Law school and her Bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.

Eoin Byrne

Eoin Byrne

Chief People Officer

Eoin leads Poppulo’s Global HR and People Function. Prior to joining Poppulo, Eoin sat on the Board of Lidl US as Chief Human Resources Officer. Eoin has extensive experience internationally, having spent time at Lidl in Ireland, the International HQ in Germany, andin establishing Lidl in the US.

Eoin has a wealth of experience in the design and implementation of strategic HR and people engagement initiatives, as wellas in sales operations, administration, and wider HR functions.

As part of his remit, Eoin leads our internal communications function, harnessing Poppulo’s own platform to drive employee engagement. Eoin’s other areas of interest include the future of total wellbeing, company culture and employer brand.

Mairead Maher

Mairead Maher

Chief Marketing Officer and GM EMEA

Mairéad brings extensive strategic marketing experience to her role as Chief Marketing Officer of Poppulo, having worked across a range of diverse industries and sectors over three decades, from national media to FMCG and SaaS. In 2017, she spearheaded the rebranding and repositioning of Poppulo, a key driver in the company’s journey to becoming the global leader in employee communications. Mairéad leads brand strategy along with the strategic marketing of the group and its brands, as the company continues to scale internationally. Based in Ireland, with responsibility for teams globally, Mairéad also servesas GM EMEA, to propel success and integration into the global business.

Edward Knighton

Edward Knighton

Chief Financial Officer

Edward brings over 25 years of finance and leadership experience to Poppulo, having worked across various growth sectors, including retail, healthcare, hospitality, media, and software.
With experience working with several private equity firms, including as CFO at TOMIA, another Vista Equity Partners portfolio company, he has extensive experience in financial strategy, operations, and driving growth and expansion plans. Edward has successfully led and executed multiple transactions, refinancings, restructurings, and exits.
Edward holds a B.A. in Classics from the University of Cambridge as being a qualified accountant in the UK.

Lance Gilmour

Lance Gilmour

Chief Sales Officer

With 20+ years of sales leadership experience, Lance is well placed to guide Poppulo’s global sales team through the company’s next phase of revenue growth. Lance has developed his career selling to enterprise, mid-market and SMB organizations, working at tech giants such as Oracle, Sage, and Dell, as well as scale-ups including Apttus. Consequently, he has extensive experience in value-based and solution-led selling and strives to create a culture for the sales team to follow this approach—always seeking to deliver value for Poppulo’s customers.

Glenda Kirby

Glenda Kirby

Chief Customer Officer

With 20+ years of experience in technology, Glenda is a trusted, inclusive, and compassionate business leader with a strong passion for building high-performing teams and an appetite for solving complex problems. Throughout her career, Glenda has transformed customer-focused teams; driving retention, growth, NPS, CSAT, call reduction, and operational efficiencies while also ensuring customer delight was at the core of the business strategy. She is a diversity champion—during her time at LinkedIn, she led both the Women in Technology Group & Investing in Women Lead, and during her time at Indeed, she held Global IRG roles championing women in business.

Abhi Anantharaman

Abhi Anantharaman

Chief Technology Officer

Abhi brings more than 20 years of software engineering experience to the role, working across industries such as Financial Services and Technology, building a variety of products from low latency, high-frequency trading systems to big data analytics products for e-commerce. Most recently, Abhi served as Poppulo's Senior Vice President, Head of Engineering, where he was responsible for product development, engineering, architecture, AI, research, data science, and more. Previously, Abhi held software development and engineering leadership roles at Amazon and Morgan Stanley.

Abhi holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University, USA, and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Bangalore University, India.

Tess Fagan

Tess Fagan

Chief of Staff

Tess is an accomplished technology and operations leader with a strong track record in driving success across engineering, product, project, and operations teams, while fostering high-performing, diverse global teams. She's recognized as both a technologist and an award-winning strategic leader, known for leading successful enterprise projects and guiding technology transformations.
Before joining Poppulo in 2023, Tess served as Chief of Staff for Global Technology and Product at Iron Mountain. In this role, she managed a team of 750 employees in 26 countries and oversaw a partner and vendor ecosystem of 320+ strategic partners, including industry giants like Google, AWS, and Microsoft.
Tess's experience extends to the public sector, where she led Program Management and Governance for the City of Boston. She also brings insights from roles at Wayfair, Fuld + Company, and early-stage financial and solar industry startups, including a U.S. Department of Energy-funded fintech startup.
Tess holds dual undergraduate degrees in Economics and Environmental Science from Boston University and is a graduate of Harvard Extension School's Full Stack software engineering program.