Raise, an online gift card marketplace and one of Chicago's more high-profile startups, announced Tuesday that it hired Maureen Calabrese, Chief People Officer, and Jillian Sheehan, Chief Financial Officer, to its Executive team.
Both women bring 20 years of experience and a background in leading technology companies to the startup, according to the announcement on the company's website. Calabrese was most recently the CPO at Cision; previously she held executive positions at Ipsos and the Nielsen Company. Sheehan is the former CEO of Textura, where she led the company into an IPO and acquisition when they sold to Oracle.
Calabrese joins the team with the goal of driving business through establishing a coaching culture and promoting employee engagement and commitment, according Raise. Sheehan plans to scale and invest in innovation, technology and talent.
Both new hires say they are passionate about making the tech field more accessible to women, the post said. Currently, Raise is 40 percent female and 60 percent male -- both in employee breakdown and Executive team breakdown -- according to Meghan Fox, Chief of Staff at Raise.
That's above the average of most U.S. public companies, which are comprised of 10 to 17 percent women, according to 20-First's Gender Balance Scorecard. But it doesn't compare to Grub Hub's gender balance, which recently reported that it was made up of 50 percent female employees and 50 percent male employees.
(Image via Raise)
