Alyona has a PhD in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning. Her PhD,
funded by Google, has shown that algorithms can be as accurate as people at figuring out the main topics in
text. When she was approached by several companies wanting to understand key topics in what their customers
are saying, she combined ideas from her PhD with the latest advances in NLP to create a new approach that
became the core of what Thematic does. She enjoys doing yoga and going to music festivals, which these days
means taking her two kids along.
Alyona Medelyan, PhD
CEO and Co-Founder

"
Aaron is a Software Architect with over 20 years of experience working on kick-ass projects. He designed and built
software and hardware capable of hosting and delivering sub-second access to hundreds of millions of documents.
He previously co-founded a startup that was acquired and publicly listed. He also lead an internationally successful
film/video consultancy.
Aaron Glover
Lead Engineer
Austin has worked in sales roles in a variety of industries ranging from online advertising to commercial locksmith
and lends his passion for customer experience to his role at Thematic. As a singer-songwriter, he often makes his way
around the local open mics in San Francisco. He also enjoys traveling, spending time with his fiancé and their two pups,
and cooking in his free time.
Austin Presley
Business Development and Research Manager
Irene leads a nationwide team of Enterprise Consultants at Fuji Xerox helping
companies with automation and digital transformation. Irene's background is in Computer Science and for the
past 15 years she has been helping businesses expand into new technology-based revenue streams. Irene received
multiple awards, including Fuji Xerox Sales Presidents Club award.
Irene Direnko-Smith
Advisor
Joanne has a background in IT and international cooperation. She lived in 6 countries and is passionate about empowering people through technology. In her free time, she enjoys sailing and tasting new food.
Languages: French, English, Spanish
Joanne Antonetti
Customer Success Manager
Kees worked in the Market Research industry as a data analyst and software developer in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Auckland. He loves Machine Learning and NLP. He speaks English and Dutch. Sometimes some French or German may come out, but only if you feed him enough camembert or sauerkraut. In his free time he goes sailing with his kids.
Languages: English, Dutch, French, German
Kees Varekamp
Data Scientist
Nathan was previously Chief Architect at Serato, a leading software solution for DJs
with millions of paid users who rave about Serato’s products. He joined Alyona to create a product that can
scale to true enterprise volumes while being easy to use for any consumer. As a developer and software
engineer, Nathan’s expertise is in concurrency, real-time performance and effective data visualizations. He
has worked both in technical and project/product management roles ensuring that the technical outcome matches
the needs of stakeholders. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling, skiing and reading.
Nathan Holmberg
VP Product and Co-Founder
Previously, Nick led ManpowerGroup’s customer experience and loyalty efforts across North America. He spent three years as a part of Bain & Company's NPS Loyalty Forum, alongside companies like Apple, American Express and Lego. Nick is a passionate advocate of Servant Leadership, a lover of food and music and a major Seinfeld junky. He is also a former customer of Thematic.
Nick Stroud
VP Customer Operations
Originally from Denver, Colorado, Nicolas grew up in New Zealand from the age of four
but has maintained his American accent until this day. Nicolas studied Design for Technology. He is passionate
about user experience design and won an award for most knowledgeable about subject area in Audacious, the
Dunedin student start up competition. He is a self taught DJ who in his spare time plays in night clubs and
once was the supporting act for the internationally acclaimed Dubstep DJ Spag Heddy.
Nicolas Zawadzki
Customer Success Manager
Nigel has a total of 15 years of experience as a product manager and software
designer. Prior to Thematic, he led product teams at Kickstarter responsible for improving the tools that
creators run projects with. He also worked on early mobile apps at Google, ran a design consultancy, and
earned degrees in computer science and human-computer interaction. Nigel is a keen hiker and loves climbing.
He has an irrational fear of cockroaches and public speaking.
Nigel Warren
User Experience and Product
Rob originally studied information management and civil engineering, but switched
into Data Science and Machine Learning a few years ago. He is the founder and organizer of New Zealand’s
largest Data Science and Machine Learning meetup group. In his spare time, Rob is an avid Surfer and often
practises his Spanish language skills.
Robert Dumbleton
Senior Data Scientist
Sandy has over 12 years of experience in sales in both SMB to Enterprise, leading teams and coaching others. She won multiple top sales rep awards and takes pride in being one of the few women in tech sales. She spends her free time shopping, traveling across the world, spending time with family/friends, being a major foodie, and reading up on Astrology.
Languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi
Sandy Torban
Head of Sales
Stephanie is from Oakland California. She has 2 beautiful children and enjoys spending time with them. Stephanie received a full Volleyball scholarship to attend college and was also invited to try out for the Olympic Volleyball team. She loves to cook, shop, hike, and travel. She also used to own an award-winning BBQ restaurant.
Stephanie Perry
Account Executive
Tyler started working as a Marketing Intern at the age of 17. Later that year he took his idea for a gaming management platform he visualized as a 14 year old and raised seed capital, starting his own Tech startup company in the gaming space. Now at 22 he spends his free time indulging in pop culture, meditating, and practicing Tai Chi.
Tyler Dye
Digital Marketing Manager
Vamsi has over 9 years of experience developing front-end and back-end applications. She’s also developed some highly secure mainframe applications in health insurance and telecommunication. Vamsi enjoys travelling, photography and camping in her campervan.
Languages: Telugu, Tamil and English
Vamsi Vempati
Senior Front-end Developer