Get to know our valuable team by scrolling through our bios & photos below.
A twenty-three-year technology industry veteran, Jon brings a wealth of executive-level experience—both domestic and international—that has enabled him to transform and bring profitability to both startups and large company business units alike. He has managed zero to multimillion-dollar growth; built and led teams in sales, marketing, product, systems engineering, support and operations, has directed and supported product launches and go-to-market strategies for field operations and market expansions across the globe.
Prior to founding Ursus in 2015, Jon was Senior Vice President of Field Operations for Embrane Inc., where he led the venture-backed startup field operations effort until the company was acquired by Cisco in May 2015. Before Embrane, Jon managed global sales and field operations for the Cloud Business Unit at Dimension Data, the world’s largest Cisco reseller. He joined Dimension Data, by way of OpSource, a leading provider of cloud and managed hosting services catering to SaaS providers.
Jon joined OpSource by way of Panterra Networks, an early entrant VoIP and messaging company where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer, responsible for all day to day operations including data center operations, marketing, sales, and field support in the US and Europe.
Jon earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was recognized as a three-time rugby All-American and part of two National Collegiate Rugby Champion teams. He currently serves as an assistant coach of the defending High School National Champion Danville Oaks.
Cheryle Peikert is responsible for financial reporting and analysis, controllership, internal audit and controls, financial processes, tax, and treasury. She brings more than 25 years of global financial management experience to Ursus.
Before joining Ursus in 2015, she served as Controller at Bear Data Solutions, a leading I.T. services company, where she had responsibility for all facets of the organization’s financial strategy, planning, management, operations, and accounting.
Prior to Bear Data, Cheryle started as the first accountant and soon after was promoted to corporate controller at Robbins Scientific, a global manufacturer of biotech supplies and instruments, and helped build the Finance, Human Resources and IT functions within the company. Apogent Technologies acquired Robbins Scientific where she spent four years as a Division Controller post-acquisition.
Cheryle holds a Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Lori joined Ursus as a Senior Technical Recruiter in 2016 and was promoted to Director, Recruiting in January 2018 and promoted yet again to Vice President of Recruiting and Delivery in January 2020 where she oversees the company’s recruiting and delivery teams while still providing day to day recruiting cycles.
Lori brings over 20 years of extensive background in sourcing and placement for contract and direct hire opportunities for Fortune 500 and startup companies nationwide and Canada.Lori Kwan started her recruiting career in 1995 as the sole Technical Recruiter for Setka, Inc. in San Ramon, CA. At that time, Setka was a $3 million company and within three years grew to $30 million. Lori was instrumental in the growth of Setka working on both direct-hire and contract opportunities. And, in 1997, Lori was promoted to Recruiting Manager responsible for training and managing six staffing specialists.
In 2000, Lori was recruited to Elan International which was a staffing company headquartered in London. Elan wanted to grow their presence in the United States, and brought Lori on as the General Manager in charge of Recruiting and Operations. In the year that Lori managed the US, she was able to grow revenues from $5 million to $15 million. Lori’s role was focused on recruiting executive-level candidates for clients in the Bay Area. Elan International was then acquired by Manpower in 2001 and Lori took the initiative and purchased the company and renamed it to Trinitē, Inc. For eight years, Lori ran the company as well as continued recruiting for key hire positions and established relationships with such companies as Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corporation and Yahoo.
Lori sold the company in 2009 to Cornerstone Staffing, Inc. and stayed on for several years as the Director, Technical Staffing. In this role, Lori was tasked to establish the technical staffing division and was successful in growing this area from $1 million to $10 million in 2 years.
Previous to the recruiting industry, Lori worked within the technical field including roles such as Programmer, Systems Analyst, Datacenter Manager, and Programming/Operations Manager.
Lori holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems from San Francisco State University.
Driving relationship strategy and revenue generation, Cristina is in her element.
Her powerful sales career has focused solely on people and crafting their success. In January 2021, she accepted the VP of Sales role at Ursus. She brings the stakeholders together – clients, talent, employees – with perfect fluency in global alliances and scalable, enterprise solutions. Cristina creates the Ursus go-to-market strategy, attracts the hires, and creates staffing solutions that are tailored to each client’s specific hiring needs.
Her award-winning track record spans over 15 years of nationwide client staffing, from small start-ups to the Fortune 500. A steady climber with consistent, multimillion-dollar milestones and Top Producer awards, Cristina was an accomplished Regional VP of Robert Half Technology Staffing Services. A recognized staffing industry SME, Cristina is a sought-after contributor to media organizations in the Bay Area. Prior to her stint in the technology sector, she soared with over a decade of sales leadership at Robert Half Legal.
Cristina holds a degree in Sociology from the University of California Santa Barbara. After graduation she spent a year in Japan teaching English through the Jet Program and traveling throughout Southeast Asia with her husband. After repatriating, she landed her first job in education publishing sales and, three years later, transitioned into staffing. Her view: sales with a purpose is meaningful because you are the brand. You build the relationships. You learn from clients. You design the victory. Cristina’s role at Ursus is to design the most impactful experience for clients and candidates, developing high reward solutions for everyone.
She is high impact at Ursus – but Cristina is even more influential at home as “mom” developing high reward solutions where they matter most.
Maddy joined Ursus in 2019 and in a very short two years has been promoted from Team Lead to Manager of Technical Recruiting and Training. She now leads the Ursus staffing and recruiting team and the onboarding and ongoing training program.
Maddy joined Ursus via Insight Global after graduating with a BA in Marketing from Cal State Chico. Recently, she was recognized by LinkedIn as one of the top 1% recruiters in their network.
Maddy leads by example. Her ongoing training and development of the technical recruiting team has been a critical contribution to Ursus’s continued fast growth trajectory in the IT vertical market and cloud talent market.
March of 2021, Keith joined the Ursus team as Vice President of Human Resources and People Operations. With over 10 years working in the staffing industry, Keith brings a unique approach to HR that focuses on collaboration and participation with all aspects of the organization. Utilizing his expertise, Keith leads the HR department initiatives from benefits to safety to employee engagement.
Keith began his HR career in 2011 as a Recruiter in the medical staffing field with Zoe Holding, quickly moving into HR Operations and eventually promoted to Director of HR. Keith provided instrumental support to the varying business units and assisted with the growth of Zoe Holding from 70 employees to 350 employees in just a few short years. With diverse business experience ranging from medical placements to commercial driving and general labor, Keith has extensive knowledge in varying regulatory environments.
With a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Old Dominion University, and his PHRca certification from the HR Certification Institute, Keith is well versed in operational HR support as well as working with a diverse range of employees.
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