The Team
James Mayes, CEO
James has been with Mind the Product since the first conference in London in 2012. Initially focussing on commercial sponsorships, he’s taken on an ever increasing number of challenges as the company has grown, leading to his appointment as CEO in 2017. He still owns many of the partnership discussions and spends much of his time travelling to maintain and develop these relationships.
Before joining Mind the Product, James had two other careers. He started as a tech recruiter in 1996 (first project: building Europe’s first Java development team for IBM’s research lab) and continued in this industry for 12 years. His focus was on building niche technology teams for startups and enterprise alike. He embarked on a startup journey of his own in 2009 in a commercial/product role, selling TweetJobs in 2011 to continue his learning for a year with another of London’s hottest firms. Both were in the social talent/community space.
Martin Eriksson, Co-Founder & Curator
Martin Eriksson started his career as a web designer and developer, realised he didn't have enough talent at either but did have a real knack for translating it all for the business people. After several start ups in his native Stockholm, he has led product teams at Monster, the Financial Times, Huddle, and Covestor in London and Boston. He founded ProductTank and co-founded Mind the Product, and now works as a Chief Product Officer at large while running the content side of Mind the Product. He is also the author of the best-selling Product Leadership: How Top Product Leaders Launch Great Products and Build Successful Teams (O'Reilly, 2017)
Analisa Plehn, Director of Operations
Analisa joined the team as a volunteer at the 2013 conference and quickly took over all the operational aspects of the business, and is the one that makes sure all our crazy ideas and events actually happen. She is an innovation consultant and brand strategist who also provides brand strategy, communications, account management and ongoing brand support for a variety of clients in fields such as food / beverage, luxury / fashion, tech services and healthcare.
Rosemary King, Director of Training Products
Rosemary started her career in political campaigns and did field organizing, advance and fundraising before she left politics behind for similar jobs with gov and non-profit orgs. After struggling with bad systems and tools in both areas, Rosemary went back to grad-school at NYU Wagner and earned an MPA, specializing in management and systems analysis. After completing an independent study on digital tools for civic engagement, she was hired by non-profit tech start-up Case Commons in 2010. After time with ThoughtWorks NYC, Rosemary made the jump across the pond to join the new PivotalLabs London office as its first Product Manager. After going freelance and focusing on consulting and training, she joined Mind the Product as Director of Training.
Chris Massey, Product Manager
Chris brings a background in technical editing, community building and product marketing to his perspectives on product management. He's been marketing B2B software products to developers for 8 years, and prototyped an experimental technical publishing platform along the way. Chris things in terms of user narratives - which is to say that he likes getting to know people. He also first encountered Mind the Product as a conference volunteer, where took on the leadership of the volunteer crew, before joining the team as an editor, community leader, enthusiastic baker, and Product Manager. You can find him at ProductTank London, or on twitter as @camassey.
Marc Abraham, ProductTank Coordinator
Starting his career as a corporate lawyer, Marc made the transition into digital technology initially as a project manager and then as product manager. Marc has been managing products for the last 7 years, working on a range of successful digital products/services, at companies such as 7digital, carwow, YouView, Not on the High Street, and currently at WorldFirst. He works closely with organisers of all our ProductTank meetups in over 100 cities around the world to ensure deliver the highest quality events for a the world's largest community of product people.
Emily Rubenstein, Operations Manager
Emily makes everything easy for us and creates great events for our product community. If you have a query about an event you are attending, she will be your first port of call. When she is not looking after you or us, Emily works behind the scenes with venues, speakers and sponsors. Her experience as a teacher comes in handy when herding us all in the right direction!