Team

In 1998, Hetal founded Northbound – with the aim of building a services agency that would partner with its customers by offering them support across their critical functions. She launched the Technology Services business unit in 1998, working with several notable customers such as IBM, GE, Pfizer, etc. That business unit is now the largest division of Northbound – with over 500 employees. In 2004, Critical Support Staffing was launched – and has now become among the leading businesses of its kind in the US.

In 2006, Northbound DGS was founded – with the vision of building a sales and marketing partner for enterprises that focused exclusively on customer engagement and revenue acceleration. Since its founding in 2006, Northbound DGS has worked with over 50 clients – across Fortune 2000 as well as growth-stage enterprises.

Northbound’s track-record of success across its several businesses and across all its clients is stellar and impeccable. With a career and background in Computer Science, business development and entrepreneurship, Hetal has been a strong force for the development of Northbound. She has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Bombay University.

Srikant Sharma brings two decades of experience and business acumen to Northbound. His areas of expertise include business strategy and execution, driving market demand, sales and marketing. Based on strong backgrounds in financial services, engineering and manufacturing, and enterprise software, Srikant is able to guide Northbound’s customers in targeting their customers via a solution-selling approach. Srikant’s previous roles included running Americas Strategic Sales & Marketing at Open Text’s Web Solutions Group, Global Marketing to the financial services sector at Interwoven (Autonomy). Srikant’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Bombay, and an MBA from Cornell University.

Chrissy Dal Porto is an innovative, results-driven marketing executive with proven ability to drive demand. For the past 15 years she has established a track record in delivering lead generation initiatives resulting in dramatic top line growth. Her core competencies include demand generation, ROI metrics & reporting, alliance and industry marketing, marketing automation, CRM optimization and enterprise social networks. Her previous roles include Director of Americas Marketing at Borland Software and Strategic Account Manager at Bank of America. Chrissy’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in World Literature and European History from University of California at Santa Cruz and raised in Rome and Paris, she speaks fluent Italian and French.

Zoe brings close to 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the technology, public sector, retail and consumer goods markets where she has demonstrated her leadership capabilities at Eastman Kodak Company, Oracle and SAIC, BackOffice Associates, ABC Home, HD Buttercup and local NYC political campaigns. Zoe’s business expertise is in solution based selling, partnership development and field and consumer marketing. She is a supporter of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in schools and volunteers when she can in her spare time. Zoe has a Bachelor of Science from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.

Lesley Barnes’ career has been dedicated to working in marketing and advertising in the tech, health and art industries. After starting her career at Extensis, a software start-up, as a Marketing Programs Manager, she moved on to agency work. Helping clients such as Hewlett- Packard, Diamond Multimedia and CreativePro launch products, build brand and drive demand. Through her career, she found her strength in marketing strategy. Helping her clients understand their market and customers values to define a strong, realistic and functional marketing strategy is her strong suit as well as a keen understanding of the need for strong project management to achieve defined results. Lesley’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism. She’s a professional photographer and an aspiring writer.

Deanna brings many years of client service and project management to Northbound. She spent the early years of her career working for companies such as Hewlett Packard and 3Com. She eventually moved into the agency side working as an Account Manager at a top marketing & advertising agency in the Bay Area. She spent 10 years managing a variety of projects for integrated marketing campaigns for companies in hi-tech, start-up and medical. Accustomed to working in a fast-paced, creative environment serving as a liaison between the client and creative team, she has a proven record of on time project completion and first class customer service. Deanna received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from San Jose State University.

Scott Hume is a results driven manager. As a former National Canadian Ski Team and NCAA athlete, he understands the importance of motivation, leadership, and more definitively results. Training and athleticism taught Scott the importance of goal setting and being a team player, creating supportive and collaborative environments whether on the hill or in a business environment. Scott joined Northbound two years ago as part of the data and enablement team where he streamlined reporting and analysis across all divisions of DGS. A graduate from the University of Reno, Scott studied International Business with a focus on Finance, German Language and European Culture. He is keenly interested in understanding intrinsic motivation as it relates to individual behaviors and enabling people to reach their goals. His finance background, hands on approach and constructive attitude led him into his current role as Manager of the Account Development Executive team.