Phone2Action, an Arlington, Va.-based grassroots advocacy platform, has had a busy year, landing partnerships with the likes of Patagonia, Ben and Jerry's and more. And to keep up with their growth, the company had made key hires on both its engineering and product teams.
In the past month, the nearly six-year-old company has hired Johnny Reading as its vice president of engineering from HelloWallet; Andy Stanley as VP of product from D.C.-based Gist42; and Nik Philipsen as a product manager from Opower.
Phone2Action's tech started as a platform that made it easier for advocates to contact government representatives, combining both social media tools and mobile responsiveness. In 2017, the startup launched Social Pulse, a social media advocacy management tool.
Reading joins the company's engineering team from HelloWallet, where he was the SVP of engineering for financial wellness and worked with over 2 million banking clients. He started his career by building interactive marketing campaigns for high-profile clients, such as GE, JPMorgan Chase and Coca-Cola.
"As an engineering leader, Johnny has been at the forefront of emerging technologies and continues to be a lifelong learner," said Ximena Hartsock, Phone2Action's co-founder, in a statement. "He has a passion for mentoring successful teams through continuous improvement, radical candor, and lean methodologies."
Both Stanley and Philipsen were hired after Reading, and each one will be joining the product team. Stanley brings more than 20 years to the VP of product role, where he'll be responsible for the creation and execution of the company's product roadmap.
"Andy has more than 20 years of professional experience, and he has spent the last 12 years leading product and engineering teams in the development of leading advocacy and PAC software products," Hartsock said.
"Andy is expert in grassroots advocacy, legislative communications, and product management and design."
The three new hires follow a new hiring trend for Phone2Action. Most recently, Phone2Action also hired Erik Rosedahl as its head of alliances and stakeholder impact from the National Association of Manufacturers in October 2017.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to better reflect Phone2Action's growth in 2017.
