High fives all around for big Nerdery promotions

We’re happy to announce the promotions of two of our key leaders – Kris Szafranski and Tom O’Neill.

Formerly director of software development, Kris takes on the Vice President of Software Development role being vacated by Tom, who is moving into the newly created position of Chief Strategy Officer.

“One of the most important things that we’ve done over the years is to find great people (bad asses) and put them in a place to succeed (with their big ideas) – something that I think our company has been particularly good at,” said CEO Mike Derheim in a staff email.

Mike went on to call Kris a “rockstar” under whose leadership “our small group of programmers has expanded to almost six times its size and has become arguably the best interactive development team on Earth.”

In this move, Kris will take over the strategic reins from Tom as the primary leader of the development department, and also becomes a member of The Nerdery’s EC (executive committee) team. Kris started at The Nerdery in 2006 as a programmer and was promoted to software project manager before serving as director of software development. Last week, Biz Journal interviewed Kris when we made their Fast 50 list for the fourth consecutive year.

In Tom’s new role as Chief Strategy Officer, Mike said, “Tom will work with each of our leaders to ensure that their goals and objectives are in line with those of the company, and will make sure all of the pieces are in place for those goals and objectives to come to fruition.”

Tom began his Nerdery career as a programmer in 2004, when he was among our first employees. After spending the better part of the past year launching the Chicago office, he recently returned to the Twin Cities to take on his next challenge. “Tom’s ability to push initiatives forward and lead people toward a goal is obvious if you’ve ever had the chance to work with him, and this move will give him the tools he needs to do that across department lines,” Mike said. “If you see Kris, toss him a high five and a hells yeah – he deserves it. If you see Tom, no action necessary – he’ll probably throw out the high five/hells yeah on his own.”

Do you like bad asses with big ideas? Sweet! You should come work at The Nerdery. Head on over to the Jobs section where you’ll find more than 20 open positions.