Esther Bonardi, Industry Principal for Yardi Marketing Solutions, has joined the Apartment All Stars team and will be sharing her wealth of experience on the multifamily industry on the All Stars’ nationwide tour circuit. The Apartment All Stars are a team of experts that provide impartial instructive programming to apartment associations across the nation. They are known for their inspired, energetic and motivational speaking skills, wealth of multifamily industry knowledge, and results-inducing best practice tips. “I am honored to be included in this group of industry experts.  For years, our industry has looked to the All Stars to share the latest information, the most leading edge solutions, and the most effective strategies for marketing and managing apartments,” Esther said. “And of course, our industry also knows that along with great information, they are going to have a great time at an All Stars event.  I’m very pleased that the All Stars counted  me among those who could deliver this experience to their audiences. “ Esther will bring strong knowledge of multifamily marketing to her presentations on the All Star tour. “I’m all about digital marketing.  I love marketing technology, including both the opportunities and the challenges that it presents.  I will be bringing best practices in digital marketing to the All Stars events. A marketing ‘geek’ is the best kind of ‘geek,’ and I think All Star audiences will feel excited and empowered when they see how easy it is to make technology work to their benefit,” she said. Esther began her career in the multifamily industry in 1987 as a leasing professional, and she never looked back.  Over the years, she has served some of the industry’s best and brightest multifamily firms, taking a career journey from on-site management to multi-sit e management, and...

Lauren Chung pulls inspiration from multiple facets of her life to help clients find the proper solutions for their business needs. Everything from her background in economics to athletic training has equipped her with the skills needed to serve Yardi as a Senior Sales Executive. For Lauren, life seems to have come full circle in recent years. “My family emigrated from Korea when I was five. For the first five years or so in the US, we were living in affordable housing. It wasn’t until recently, when I began working in the industry, that I realized that we were living in affordable housing and how that had helped us. Everything has come full circle,” she says. “I’m truly able to see the benefit of having those sorts of programs that help people who are just coming to this country or getting on their feet for other reasons.” As a child, she had no idea that she would eventually find herself in a position to help families like her own. Lauren obtained her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Maryland before making her way towards a career in multifamily housing. It was a career path that fell right into place. “I began working in mutual funds but that was short lived. Next, I worked HR and office management for VisualHOMES. The company itself began changing direction, targeting multifamily about 15 years ago, so all of us headed that way.” She joined the Yardi family after the acquisition of VisualHOMES in 2010. “I would like to have joined sooner. I like what I do now and I really enjoy working with Yardi. But everything worked out well and I’m really happy here.” Lauren’s favorite part of the job is getting to know new people,...

When it comes to pursuing the things he is passionate about, Cory Hawkes doesn’t cut any corners. Point2’s Manager of Customer Care wears his heart on his sleeve, whether he’s supporting his favorite Canadian Football League team, playing his favorite sport, or working with his top-notch team of customer care specialists. A Point2 employee since 2007, Cory worked his way up from customer care representative to manager of the department with some of the same skills that have made him one of Saskatoon’s top curlers. He’s dedicated, committed, patient and persistent. For our American readers who find curling to be a totally foreign concept, Cory describes the sport as similar to shuffleboard – but played on sheets of ice. “You’re shooting a rock, a 42-pound piece of granite, down a 100-plus foot sheet of ice and trying to get it to stop in the rings that are under the ice at the other end,” he explained. Sounds like a pleasant test of skill, but curling is in fact highly competitive, physically demanding, and very strategic. Curling is played by four-person teams, inspiring close bonding and camaraderie. An avid curler since age nine, Cory plays in three leagues during the winter months and teaches more novice curlers how to improve their skills. He’s on the ice daily, and at the time of our interview, his team was holding the first place spot in each of the three leagues. They’re past club champions, meaning they bested the top teams out of 16 leagues in Saskatoon, and have also competed strongly against other top curlers from Saskatchewan. He still has hope of taking his participation in the sport to a higher level. Curling was officially added to the sports contested at the Winter Olympic Games in 1998....

They call him “Levity”. With his playful and competent manner, David LaGue is known for bringing fun and tranquility to Yardi Global Solutions clients and colleagues. He knows there is nothing clever about being unhappy, and watching him in the middle of his team, you see they’re a clever group; the nickname suits him perfectly. A former CSD manager based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, David joined Yardi eight years ago as an account manager in Client Services at the company headquarters in Santa Barbara. Initially, his focus was the large mixed portfolio of residential and commercial clients. He next moved to Yardi’s military housing product as a team lead and later as manager. Having looked after teams in Santa Barbara, Atlanta and Pune, David was a natural fit for the leadership role when it came time to open a Client Services team in Romania to provide support for Yardi’s European commercial clients. “I was ready for a new challenge professionally; in addition I had a personal interest to experience living and working in another country. And given that I had the full support of the Santa Barbara and European leadership team, the decision was easy.” In just over two years, the team that started with eight support specialists now numbers 43 members and continues to grow. With a Bachelor’s Degree from St. Olaf College where he studied Liberal Arts and Mathematics, David has continued to expand his market knowledge since landing in Romania. Although the initial plan was for him to leave Transylvania after one year, the amount of success and two ancillary services (help desk and data guardian) kept him here for longer. His focus these days is on the needs of Yardi’s European clients, leadership and escalations support, and project management planning. With...

James Beane is one of those rare individuals who can navigate the worlds of back end technical parlance and simple, user-friendly explanations of computing concepts with equal ease. For Yardi’s Manager of Cloud Services, communication is the most important aspect of IT. James’ job description includes answering questions from clients about how Yardi’s Application Service Provider team can make their lives easier and their businesses more efficient. He’s an expert on disaster recovery and business continuity, key processes that provide peace of mind for companies with invaluable business data stored on remote servers. Yardi has opened communication pathways between ASP and clients in recent years, making it easier for executives and administrators to pick up the phone and reach out to James or one of his colleagues on the ASP team and get their hosting questions answered. “We’ve cleared channels of communication with our ASP Hotline, for our hosted clients that have outages, ‘We cannot access Voyager; The report isn’t processing.’ We’ve implemented things like that so our clients can pick up the batline and say ‘I need help,’ and get the same service level that they would from an internal IT team,” James explained. Yardi has also greatly expanded off-site hosting services for clients that take much of the technology heavy lifting off the table for companies of all sizes. Handing hosting responsibility over to the industry leading software developer and application service provider makes good business sense. “Over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time supporting clients’ environments, with 3,000-some clients hosted and 11,000 network devices run,” James noted. “We can help our clients take the guesswork out of it and focus on what they can do really well, which is manage their properties.” Just past his ten year service mark...

For the last few years, Jay Shobe has had a technology to do list that would seem overwhelming by any standards. Yardi’s Vice President of Technology reeled it off for us, almost like it was a set list for a rock show. “Mobility – and that includes Apple, and Android. JQuery and HTML5, for multiple browsers, so IE, Firefox, Chrome, Mac. Multiple screen sizes, from a monster desktop to an iPad to an iPad mini to a phone. Sharepoint. Business intelligence. Cube design.  Data warehousing.” He paused to take a breath. “It’s been an incredible run of technology over the last two to three years. Way more than anything I had ever seen. And as always with new technology, I’m looking forward to seeing things really consolidate, and seeing all of these new technologies move forward into our different verticals.” Jay started at Yardi as a teenager back in 1985, stuffing envelopes, copying computer disks and running errands. After he graduated from Santa Barbara High and headed to Baylor University in Texas to study history, he worked fulltime at Yardi while he was home for the summer. In 1989, he moved back to Santa Barbara and began working at Yardi in client service support. The desire to try programming hit him a few years later. “I think all programmers ultimately have to do their own learning. In programming, things change constantly. It doesn’t matter what you learned yesterday. You’ve got to figure out a way to adapt and learn new technologies,” Jay said. He claims to have not been much of a student in college, but when company founder and CEO Anant Yardi gave him his first programming job to complete, he threw himself into learning how to write code for the Windows-based Enterprise...

Sean Spinks has worked in a diverse range of industries – including the restaurant and catering business, as a college-level instructor for ministry students, and even cleaning carpets. All of these job experiences have given him a unique perspective on customer service, an area in which he excels. Sean, an employee in Yardi’s Raleigh, N.C. office, was recognized during CSD Week in November for his exemplary efforts on behalf of Yardi residential and commercial clients. But a trophy on his desk doesn’t mean mission accomplished for this Texas native. “Always be growing, always be getting better at what you do. Never think you’ve arrived. Yes, I was awarded a Customer Service Week award, but as soon as I get the statue I plan to put a note under it to say: ‘This isn’t the end,’ to remind myself, you have to do this every day. You can’t win an award once and be done with it. You have to keep asking, what can I do to be better at this than I am now?” A supportive environment for such personal growth and learning is one of the reasons that Sean loves his job at Yardi, where he has worked since February 2011. After stints on both the frontline residential and commercial teams, he’s now working on implementations for large Yardi Voyager clients, including a company using Yardi’s new Voyager plugin for single family home property management. “It’s been the best job I’ve ever had.  I truly enjoy every single day. I also enjoy time with my family, but I actually look forward to going to work,” Sean told us. “Yardi asks: what can we do to better you and help you become the most you can be? In turn, that helps the clients. It’s...

Whether she’s hiking an icy trail in Yosemite, troubleshooting an accounting software issue for a Yardi client, or hanging out with rock stars, Pam Alexander is equally at home. Her unflappable and understanding nature shines through in any situation. An eight-year Yardi employee who currently serves in multiple roles as a client services manager, Pam is the kind of person who is great to have on your team, whether the day’s activity is zip lining in Mexico, correcting a general ledger imbalance, or riding an elephant in India. No matter where she happens to be in the world, Pam embraces life to the fullest. The California native has a long list of things she loves about her job, starting with the people she works with, from her team members around the globe to upper management. Pam’s work puts her in contact with Yardi staff in multiple countries and offices on a daily basis. In addition to her work managing the Santa Barbara PAYScan team, she manages the financial portion of the Voyager product, working with development and QA to ensure clients’ needs and wishes are incorporated into software changes.  Troubleshooting high-level accounting glitches and overseeing the Pune client services and residential case teams is another aspect of her work. With experience elsewhere in the software industry, Pam notes that one thing that sets Yardi Systems apart is the company’s willingness to listen and respond to its clients. “Customer service here is client based. We want them to be happy. We always try to accommodate them and be responsive to their needs, to make sure they have what they need to get their job done,” she said.  “To me it’s important to get the clients voice over to development, and I appreciate that I am...

Whether he’s your friendly North Carolina neighbor or the Senior Technical Account Manager who made implementation of your RentCafe property marketing website a breeze, Aaron Wells is the kind of guy who everybody enjoys getting to know. His good-natured outlook is on display all year long, whether he’s cruising around his rural farm on the tractor, hanging out on the couch with his family and potbellied pig (one of many animals who call the Wells’ farm home) or dressed up as a RentCafe coffee cup for Halloween. Aaron showed extreme team spirit when he and wife Terra created his cardboard and cloth costume, which effectively branded his loyalty to the RentCafe product. A Yardi account manager since 2007, he has enjoyed implementing new clients on  RentCafe, which helps market multifamily properties to new renters and provide existing residents with better customer service. “The ultimate goal is to get the word out about their properties and being in new prospect traffic,” said Wells, who has worked with the  RentCafe implementation team since 2009. He enjoys the friendly and fun atmosphere of the Raleigh office and the ever-changing nature of the software business. “Everyone at Yardi is really cool, and always has been,” he told us. Wells fits neatly in the cool category as well. A Raleigh native, he and Terra bought their farm outside the city seven years ago to get away from the city life. She’s a veterinarian, so their home has become a refuge for animals – there are horses, chickens, dogs, cats, pigs and a duck in residence. All are rescues of some sort, except for one new puppy. Niblet, the house pig, was a potbellied pet pig who grew bigger than his owner expected. But even at his current 80 pounds,...

After 11 years in the utility billing industry, Stephen Hennessey is thrilled that he still has the same client base. After all, his clients have become people he cares about. “I enjoy working with them on a daily basis,” said Stephen, who was part of the ista Multifamily Services Group (MSG) acquired by Yardi in May 2012.  “The property managers and clients have become my really good friends.” Making good friends is something that comes easily to Stephen, who often hosts up to 70 guests for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or July 4 at his Newport Beach home. And speaking of home, we found out a little known fact about Stephen that’s quite fascinating – he has lived on the same street for his entire life, though not in the same house. He bought the place across the street from his childhood home, a convenient location that allows him to look after his elderly mother. It’s also close to the beach, one of his favorite spots to hang out, and he has put much time and effort into the property, including creating a backyard oasis with a giant koi pond. His kitchen is a regular gathering spot for his friends, who get together to host foodie parties and potlucks created around unique culinary themes. You might think that living on the same street for so long would narrow your outlook on life, but that’s definitely not true in Stephen’s case. He’s branched out with international travel adventures (tropical beaches are a favorite), is constantly experimenting with new dishes in the kitchen, and recently succeeded in taking on a new passion – fundraising for a good cause. Yardi’s Orange County office is the new home base for Stephen and two of his MSG colleagues. Led by...

Margaret Spalding’s clients know her as the Yardi application specialist who helps make life easier, and as someone who will always follow up with the answer to their question or problem. Her coworkers know her as a strong member of the Yardi team in Glen Head, NY, who not only inspires client loyalty but has been known to bring some fantastic home baked cakes and cookies into the office. At home, Margaret is content to simply be Mom to her three boys, Matthew, Devin and Lucas, aged 7, 6, and 4, who along with husband Michael are her first priority. A New York native, one of Margaret’s formative life experiences as a young adult was spending a year volunteering for So Others Might Eat, a non-profit that ranks as one of the top Washington D.C.-area charities helping the homeless and low-income populations. Her work for SOME involved activity planning at a Single Room Occupancy home, where low-income residents from all walks of life had their own bedrooms but shared communal space for cooking, dining, living and bathing. The work and the residents she met, ranging from addicts in recovery to seniors on fixed incomes, opened Margaret’s eyes to what she appreciated most about her own life. “I went in to it expecting to learn to appreciate the stuff that I had. It turned out that I already appreciated the stuff, and more than anything I learned to appreciate family and support that I have,” she said. Drawing from that lesson for her own kids, Margaret and Michael have created a supportive home life that involves family togetherness, including travel and camping adventures, as well as community activities like Cub Scouts and religion class. All three of the Spalding boys are very different, noted their...

Remon Amboy isn’t just committed to his work at Yardi as Director of ASP – he has shed blood for the company. Repeatedly. A 23-year-employee in Santa Barbara, Remon began his Yardi career as a part-time temp who answered phones for his first few months (he was also attending school at the University of California at Santa Barbara at the time). Fast forward two decades, and he’s now in charge of 10,000 devices, has helped Yardi open 12 data centers around the world and oversees 70 employees. Those data centers, though, can be a little dangerous. That’s where Remon has managed to cut himself while racking servers and completing other equipment set-up tasks, quickly dashing off to the first aid kit to keep his blood off any equipment. Who knew IT had a sharp side? A native of the Philippines who moved to the U.S. as a teen and attended high school in the Bay Area, Remon’s philosophy of work is simple but smart: Do the job at hand, and do it well, and other opportunities will likely follow. “The formula in this company for success was for me, and for others as well, do the job that you’re doing and do it well. If you prove yourself to this company, opportunity will be there. Do your job well, and do it efficiently and good things will happen,” he said. He jokes that he earned a master’s and PhD at Yardi University. At UCSB, he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. Creating opportunity has worked well for Remon at Yardi Systems. His first official job here was in the now-phased out MLS department, where he helped create regular real estate listing digests for regional MLS’. Pre-photo scanners, the work was repetitive and involved...

Some folks go to the gym or take an extra walk around the block when they are trying to stay fit and healthy. David Hull and Alex Lewis, employees in Yardi’s Raleigh office, decided they’d rather try to outrun some zombies. On a quest for improved physical fitness, the friends – who started their Yardi careers together back in January 2012, David as an associate applications specialist and Alex as a commercial account manager – decided to try a unique fun run trend that’s been sweeping the nation. Why just run when you can run with a zombie trying to chase you? Other obstacle-style events include even more dangerous challenges – the Spartan Beast, for example, features a fire pit jump, barbed wire crawl and electric fence. Participants must sign a waiver releasing liability in case of death to be able to race. Motivated in part by the popularity of the TV series The Walking Dead, zombie-themed events have sprung up all over the south, especially in and around Atlanta, where the dynamic drama is set and filmed. Involving obstacle courses, mud, and live zombies/volunteers, flag belt-wearing participants attempt to make it through the course, typically a journey of several miles, without getting “killed.” Make it back with at least one of your flags (out of three) and you’ve survived. Alex and David decided to take on the Raleigh Zombie Escape at Panic Point without doing much running at all. They’d been training for several months on the Insanity workout, a rigorous high-intensity interval training plan that stresses the whole body. It involved intense cardio but not much distance running. Nevertheless, David and Alex decided to go for it and recruited a few other Yardi Atlanta employees to join them. They also agreed to...

Fay Chester hasn’t always been a competitive athlete. Heck, she hasn’t always been an athlete.  A member of Yardi’s Professional Services Group in London, Fay told us she “was very much the person to avoid sports at school…but this situation changed and I realized taking up a sport and an interest outside of work was most needed, and have absolutely loved every minute of it.” With the encouragement of close friends, Fay joined a running club, the David Lloyd Redway Runners Club in Milton Keynes, UK.  Just a few weeks after joining, she participated in a Duathlon/Triathlon training run lead by Great Britain Ironman specialist Campbell Noon.  While Fay never had the intention of becoming a marathon runner, the thought of combining these three unique sports was interesting, so she decided to go for it. The three standard components of a triathlon are swimming, running, and cycling. Races range from a Sprint event (400m lake swim, 20K cycle, 5K run) to an Ironman (3.86km swim, 180km cycle, 42.2K run). Success demands some of the same dedicated focus that has aided Fay in her 11-year asset management/software career. While she hasn’t worked up to the challenging Ironman distance, this former sports avoider has already competed in a duathlon, which was a total of 4 miles running and 11.5 miles cycling. Then she moved on to her very first triathlon, “which was hell,” with a 750m swim, 10K cycle, and a 5K run. What was so hard about this specific triathlon? The cycling was off-road on a mountain bike! There were a few tumbles and spills (we won’t name names) but in the end Fay said she loved it. And that’s not the finish line of this athletic journey for Fay.  She plans another triathlon Sept....

Perhaps there’s something innately special about people named Clark that lends naturally toward a life of duality, not to mention innate problem-solving aptitude. Clark Kent, as we all know, was actually Superman. Yardi Systems Application Service Provider Specialist Clark LaForge also has an impressive out-of-work alter ego. While he does most of his crime fighting on the clock, keeping Yardi’s hosted clients up to current protocols, secure and perfectly load balanced, here are a few things that make Clark a particularly interesting member of the Yardi IT staff. -He was on the football field at Memorial Coliseum in Berkeley, Calif., during The Play, the famous Berkeley vs. Stanford band + gridiron mosh pit that was Cal’s five-leg lateral upset win over the Cardinal in 1982. What was a high school student from nearby El Cerrito doing on the field with the Cal band during the game? It was Clark’s job to make sure the marching band Bears stayed hydrated during the game. -Despite launching his own music career as a clarinet player, with talent that sent him to Europe with a teenage traveling wind symphony, he decided bass drum was his second favorite instrument, and ended up being named to the prestigious Cal State Honor Band as a drummer. That landed him back on the field at Memorial Coliseum, where the UC Berkeley band leader, charged with instructing the high school students, was perplexed as to why the bass drummer didn’t have exacting technical skill. -Even though he played classical music and show tunes in band, out of school Clark was listening to NWA, Ice-T and Too Short .. and DJ-ing with their beats, when he wasn’t on the floor busting out 80’s moves like the Smurf. Fast forward two decades and change, and...

One of the first things that Jessica Fiur learned when she became online editor at Multi-Housing News was that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t your landlord’s charming Midwestern aunt and uncle. For the New York native, talented writer and pop culture aficionado, learning all about the world of real estate has been an eye-opening – and often humorous –  experience. As an apartment renter in New York, Jessica draws many of the stories she uses for her Multi-Housing News blog from personal experience or tales she hears from other renters. The city’s internationally known apartment market, famous for its limited supply, high demand, tiny spaces and sky-high prices, continues to prosper. “As a multifamily reporter, I’m happy they’re able to raise rents, but as a renter, it’s a little scary,” said Jessica, who recently helped her younger brother find a place in the city and drew blog insight from his challenges. “You pretty much have to be ready to sign if you like something, because someone else is coming up right behind you.” She also uses hot news topics, inspiration from movies, and her own life to inspire creative content about renting, property management, marketing and a host of other topics. A recent post on U.S. Olympian Ryan Lochte challenged apartment communities to think smart about protecting their community brand.  Another asked “Is your apartment like (the summer blockbuster film) ‘The Avengers’?” Sound like a stretch? Both posts offer solid logic and effective management ideas. “I love pop culture, so if I see a movie, even if the subject is not about apartments, there are universal themes. Since I like pop culture so much I always try to integrate it,” Jessica said. She picked up the journalism bug while studying at New York...

Linda McFarland’s work at Yardi’s Amsterdam office has been a homecoming of sorts. The Netherlands native lived for eight years in the U.S., where she worked in property management and met her husband, before coming home to Holland nearly four years ago. A world traveler, Linda has an adventurous spirit that drew her to live abroad in Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a college student, and to move to the U.S. shortly afterwards. Settling in the Atlanta area, she entered the Ritz-Carlton hospitality management program and worked in the hotel industry for several years, meeting her husband Robert in the process.  Then she moved on to an assistant property manager position in midtown Atlanta, entering a new industry that she thoroughly enjoyed. As part of her work for First Communities, she was a Yardi Systems user. After their first child was born four years ago, Linda and Robert decided that if they ever wanted to live in the Netherlands, it was time to make a move. They didn’t want to be settled in Georgia and then uproot their family, so they made plans for a trans-Atlantic relocation. Before leaving the U.S., Linda noticed an opportunity for an office manager position at Yardi Systems’ Amsterdam office, and jumped at the chance. She was familiar with Yardi from her work in property management, and just the sort of “international, growing, dynamic” company that she wanted to work for. Yardi’s Amsterdam office serves primarily European commercial real estate clients. Linda has recently taken on some marketing responsibilities in addition to her tasks in human resources and the front office, and says she loves the variety of her job. She starts every day with an hour-long run from the family’s Amsterdam home to the beach....

When he was 14, Yves Hajjar’s father gave him a gift that would influence the course of his life. It was a used personal computer, and along with the remote control airplanes he loved to fly as a kid, it soon consumed Yves’ free time. With the guidance of a computer engineer mentor in his hometown of Lyon, France, he learned not to be afraid to take the PC apart, put it back together, and replace any parts that he broke in the process. Most of his friends didn’t yet have PC’s , so he was lucky to have hands-on experience with one. Soon, he made an interesting discovery. “I quickly realized while poking around the files on the computer that everything was written in English. ‘Print’ means something in English – it means nothing in French. That made me want to come to the U.S.,” said Yves, now a development team lead for Yardi Systems. Based in San Diego, Calif, Yves is part of the Realtown team. Yardi Systems acquired Realtown in 2011. Four years after his dad bought him the used PC, Yves came to the U.S. to attend college at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which had an exchange program with a French university. He struggled at first with the transition to a completely new culture, but received a terrific education. The UMass Dartmouth computer engineering program put students together in groups and emphasized problem solving as a learning exercise. Students’ desks faced each other instead of the front of the room. “We were troubleshooting issues, and learning how to fix problems as a team instead of with a teacher,” Yves recalled. The skills he developed, and one significant moment involving a special girl, were the highlights of his undergraduate...

How did a professional artist end up with a passion for affordable housing documentation? Karin Nelson’s work at Yardi‘s headquarters  in Santa Barbara, Calif. is vastly different from her past life as a wood sculptor. It’s also allowed her the chance to pursue a personal passion – an affinity for music that turned her into a performing artist. Karin plays the flute, an instrument she took up 10 years ago. She started her Yardi career in 1999. Her work requires her to make sure that Yardi’s software is up to date with all government standards and protocols for documentation, a task that entails dealing with near-constant change. “If we aren’t adding features, then the government is changing their rules,” she says. Change is something that she is really good at. After all, she made a successful transition from artist to compliance expert and from someone who was afraid to perform to an accomplished flautist. “I hate to perform, but I love to practice,” Karin said. Overcoming her fear, she plays the flute in chamber music performances in her hometown of Santa Barbara and often performs in conjunction with her twin sister Maren Henle, a violinist who also works at Yardi Systems in the Professional Services Group. Karin’s coworkers have seen her perform at the company’s annual Children’s Day. Employees are invited to bring their kids to work, and a highlight is enjoying the music performed by Karin, Maren, and other colleagues. One thing that Karin no longer has time for with her busy schedule is sculpting – she says that after dedicating her life full time to art for ten years, pursuing it as a hobby wouldn’t be same. But the better life balance she has thanks to Yardi has enabled her to find...

There probably aren’t too many people out there who can say they met their significant other at a Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference. Robert and Deidre Podlesnik are among them. The Podlesniks happened to be in the same line for dinner at the Doubletree in Santa Barbara, Calif. back in 2001. He was a consultant, and she worked for a Yardi client.  Fast forward 11 years, and they have two kids, ages 6 and 3, and live and both work for Yardi in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Robert is the Director of Canadian Operations for the Professional Services Group, which handles software implementations for Voyager International clients. With a background in on-site property management, he finds his work to be a little less dramatic than condo operations, where he literally put out fires (in a condominium building hallway) and was twice threatened with fisticuffs by residents. “People get emotional with their homes. With that, you have to be able to manage those emotions and keep these people in check. I think I was able to carry those experiences into the Yardi world, where you’re dealing with clients who get emotional about their software implementations. I’ve learned over the years – no matter what situation you’re in, you can brainstorm a solution. Keep an open mind, be calm about it, and work toward the end goal.” Robert heads up a team of 10 consultants and project managers in the Canadian office, who handle standard service and full service implementations. Yardi’s software has been customized to meet the specific needs of specific Canadian market niches, including Canadian social housing, which is similar to the affordable vertical in the U.S. market. Yardi Voyager International makes multifamily property management easier for companies around the world. He loves the variety of...

With an international background in accounting and property management, it makes perfect sense that Shridhar Sheshadri landed at Yardi as a Senior Consultant in the Professional Services Group, based in Yardi’s Toronto, Canada office. His career has spanned four continents, taking Shridhar from his home country of India to the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand, Dubai, and now to Toronto, where he and his family have lived for nearly seven years. The opportunity to work for Yardi came along after his Canadian immigration paperwork had been approved. Shridhar told us he was struggling with the decision to leave Dubai, since he had a good job there as a controller for a large property management company. But after being referred for an interview by his brother-in-law, everything fell into place. “It was lightning speed. I think it was providence,” Shridhar said. After spending much of his life moving and also traveling for professional reasons, he hopes that Yardi Systems will be the company he retires from. His widely varied experiences, from his career start as an accountant in India to his oversight of factories in Nigeria and property management of one of the world’s largest residential towers in the Middle East, have given Shridhar a unique perspective that comes in handy when he visits Yardi clients. He travels to assist clients in the U.S. and Canada with their professional implementation processes. “This position has allowed me to mix my past experiences, my background of being a Chartered Accountant, all of my professional experience – and sit across from a Board of Directors and discuss their business rules, how their entire organization works, and try to translate how Yardi programs can best help them,” Shridhar explained. The move to North America has been advantageous...

Janet Spargur, a quality assurance lead for Yardi System’s Commercial division, has two children of her own, but she’s helped bring many more into this world. Her personal passion for assisting with childbirth as a doula – someone who provides emotional support and encouragement while a new mother is in labor – has led her to become active as a fundraiser and volunteer for birth-related causes. With a professional background as an accountant, Janet made a move to join the Yardi team more than 14 years ago after working as a controller for a property management company. She quickly found that she had a true interest in the company’s products, and enjoyed being part of a team that helped make them run smoothly. “The thing I like best is having being on the edge of what commercial development is doing and being knowledgeable about that. It feels good to have the latest and greatest information,” said the longtime Santa Barbara resident. Though her busy Yardi schedule doesn’t always allow her to pursue support requests from expectant moms, Janet worked to found the Central Coast Doula Association, a resource non-profit for parents that helps connect them with experienced doulas. She was the only area doula asked to join the board of the Santa Barbara Birth Center, an alternative to a hospital environment for childbirth that opened in Fall 2011. The center “targets people who want to have something in between home births and the hospital,” she explained. As a resource for first-time Yardi moms, Janet said she is always happy to answer questions about pregnancy, childbirth, and the variety of options available to parents. “She spent a lot of time with my wife in the months leading up to the delivery and was a great...

Isabella Mitchell’s  outlook on life is simple: One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, or how much was in my bank account, but the world may be a little better because I was important to a child. But it’s not just children that Isabella, a mother of two, wants to make a difference with.  She has a passion for creating an experience. As an implementation team lead for residential and condo clients of Yardi based in Glen Head, N.Y., Isabella takes great pride in connecting with clients. “If you can form a relationship with the client it just makes the whole journey better. From the kickoff call till the upgrade to the live team phone call, it should be a Yardi experience:  a professional, friendly, personal experience,” she said. Creating the Yardi experience is second nature to Isabella because Yardi combines all of her favorite things: people, real estate, and computers.  She was first attracted to technology in primary school and later attended St. John’s University, where she earned a degree in computer science.  After college, she spent several years at Dale Carnegie Training (her parents happened to work there as well) in the IT dept.  The experience helped foster Isabella’s love of people and she was able to take some of the management training courses they provided, developing skills that she still uses daily. Born into an Italian family, Isabella’s kids are first generation Americans. Culture and extended family are two vital parts of daily life. On holidays, those priorities move to the forefront.  Christmas Day at the Mitchell house is an event, the same way her mom has always done it. Twenty-two guests enjoy a seven course...

Pam Morrison is a longtime employee and leader at RentGrow, a Yardi subsidiary in Waltham, Mass., who has great passion for her work as RentGrow’s manager of business analytics. She’s an expert on creating custom reports for clients and is excited about further integration of Yardi’s new business intelligence offerings, especially Yardi Orion for Sharepoint with RentGrow’s platform. Outside of the office, Pam has the same commitment to her hometown of Chelmsford, where she grew up and now serves as the Recording Clerk for the town’s Finance Committee. She’s also a dedicated volunteer for the Chelmsford Women of Today, which supports education, service and fundraising projects on behalf of all kinds of causes and local organizations. The Chelmsford Women are a division of United States Women of Today, which advocates leadership, personal growth and community service for by its members. Pam has recently helped make quilts for pediatric patients, urged grocery shoppers to purchase a donation for the local food bank, picked out Easter baskets for children affected by domestic violence, and bowled in a fundraiser for a battered women’s shelter. (She was a collegiate bowler at the University of Massachusetts, where she studied technical communications.) The Chelmsford Women also supply the local fire and police departments with stuffed animals that they can give to children who might be affected by one of their service calls. And they purchase and deliver Mother’s Day gifts to the women living in a local battered women’s shelter. “It’s been a big part of my life for many years. I’m extremely involved with the community through that, and I’ve made a lot of friends that I otherwise would never have met,” Pam told us. A rural community of 30,000 where preserving open space is important to residents, Chelmsford...

Julie Bradley is known for her efforts to deliver great customer service to her Yardi Voyager clients, who rave about her custom reports and willingness to go the extra mile. But there are a lot of things they might not know about Julie – like her status as a member of MENSA, that she’s a math whiz who loves hard number puzzles, and that she named two of her three sons after Alice Cooper. Oh, and she also collects whisks (that’s right, those things you use to beat an egg) and has a tattoo of a dragonfly on her ankle. Who said math majors are boring? Julie worked for CTI for 11 years before coming on board with Yardi nearly two years ago. She’s a team lead for Client Services based in Dallas, Texas. “I love the challenges and working with the data, and I love writing reports and getting in and looking at things behind the scenes to figure out problems” Julie told us. She also likes helping her clients with problem-solving and producing the results they are hoping for. Julie holds a degree in mathematics from North Texas State University and has always loved the logical aspect of math with its absolute results. She loved logic puzzles as a kid and today can spend hours playing a game called Kakuro, a Japanese logic puzzle that’s considered the “mathematical transliteration of the crossword,” according to Wikipedia. Some of the puzzles can take days to solve. Her MENSA status is directly tied to her love of math and puzzles as well. “I wouldn’t say I’m an active member, but a few years ago I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could pass their test. The test consists of a lot of logic...