Press release

Upwork announces appointment of Leela Srinivasan to its board of directors

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Upwork (Nasdaq: UPWK), the largest freelancing website, today announced that SurveyMonkey (Nasdaq: SVMK) Chief Marketing Officer Leela Srinivasan has joined its board of directors. Srinivasan brings deep knowledge of enterprise marketing and the talent market to the company’s distinguished board. Prior to joining SurveyMonkey, she has led marketing departments and initiatives for some of the most innovative organizations of their kind, including Lever, LinkedIn and OpenTable. In joining Upwork’s board, Srinivasan aims to help the company realize its mission to create economic opportunities so people have better lives and further the company’s focus on highly-skilled knowledge work.

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In joining Upwork’s board of directors, Leela Srinivasan aims to help the company realize its mission to create economic opportunities so people have better lives and further the company’s focus on highly-skilled knowledge work. (Photo: Business Wire)

In joining Upwork’s board of directors, Leela Srinivasan aims to help the company realize its mission to create economic opportunities so people have better lives and further the company’s focus on highly-skilled knowledge work. (Photo: Business Wire)

“Leela has a thorough grasp of the talent market and its unique challenges stemming from her experiences at Lever and LinkedIn, while her current role at SurveyMonkey brings a wealth of knowledge from the marketing lens and as a newly public company leader. These factors combine to make her the ideal fit to help chart Upwork’s future,” said Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork. “Beyond that, Leela is both strategic and detail-oriented. She is also connected to our mission, and more importantly, Leela is a wonderful leader who inspires our team. We are delighted that she agreed to join us.”

Srinivasan currently leads all marketing functions at SurveyMonkey, including brand strategy, growth marketing, product marketing and communications. Before joining the global survey software leader in 2018, she served as CMO of Lever, where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing.

Additionally, Srinivasan served as director of marketing at LinkedIn within the Talent Solutions business, where she co-founded the Talent Connect conference, before moving on to become vice president of marketing at OpenTable.

“I am thrilled to join the board of directors at Upwork. Its product and mission resonate strongly with me on both a professional and personal level,” said Srinivasan. “In business today, nothing drives success more than talent. Companies that display agility around talent – those that quickly identify and mobilize skilled talent to accelerate their progress – can gain a competitive edge. As a passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion and belonging, I also recognize Upwork’s potential to level the playing field – to transform how businesses find talent and create new economic opportunities for people who might otherwise be passed over due to geography, or having a nontraditional background or a smaller network. I look forward to collaborating with the Upwork team to help shape the future of such an innovative company.”

Srinivasan joins the Upwork board of directors as the company bolsters its reputation for outstanding executive leadership. Kasriel was recently named a regional winner of the prestigious EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award while Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer Brian Levey was appointed to the newly formed Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Upwork also recently welcomed former Robert Half executive Lars Asbjornsen as its new senior vice president of marketing and Adam Ozimek, a former senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, as its new chief economist.

To learn more about Upwork and the team that is charting the future of work as it happens, please visit www.upwork.com.

About Upwork

Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) is the largest freelancing website. It enables businesses to find and work with highly skilled freelancers. As an increasingly connected and independent workforce goes online, knowledge work — like software, shopping and content before it — is shifting online as well. This shift is making it easier for clients to connect and work with talent in near real-time and is freeing professionals everywhere from having to work at a set time and place. Upwork’s mission is to create economic opportunities so people have better lives. Upwork offers Upwork Plus, an offering tailored for small businesses to help them connect with top-tier freelance talent.

Upwork is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with offices in San Francisco and Chicago. For more information, visit our website at www.upwork.com, join us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Leela Srinivasan

Leela joined the Upwork Board of Directors in July 2019. She has served as Chief Marketing Officer of SurveyMonkey since April 2018 and leads all marketing functions including brand strategy, growth marketing, product marketing, demand generation, and communications. Previously, she served as Chief Marketing Officer at Lever where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing. Prior to that, Leela served in marketing leadership roles at OpenTable and at LinkedIn within the Talent Solutions business, where she co-founded the Talent Connect conference. She also spent three years in management consulting at Bain & Company, and five years in sales. Leela earned her MBA in general management from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and her MA in history and English literature from the University of Edinburgh in her native Scotland.