ChatGPT & AI: We’re incorporating AI into engageSPARK.

Our Leadership Team

AVNER MIZRAHI

CEO

Avner co-founded and leads engageSPARK, building on his six years serving as COO of the company where he oversaw all engageSPARK operations, including product development, partnerships, customer service, HR, finance, and admin.

In his previous life, Avner practiced law, first as a corporate litigator, then as a human rights lawyer. He led one of the largest and first insurance cases to come out of the 2008 credit crisis and then spent several years in Uganda fighting for the rights of vulnerable and marginalized individuals. While in Uganda, Avner co-founded the anti-corruption organization Not In My Country and met Ravi, with whom he co-founded engageSPARK.

Avner is a die-hard Seinfeld fan who at one point could recite almost any line from the show. He also adores Hitchcock and Kurosawa films. His favorite pastime, though, is bowling, and he tries to bowl in every country he visits. Avner has bowled in more than 25 countries, including in Bhutan, where he once bowled with a couple of monks.

MURAT KNECHT

CTO

Murat’s goal is to help the development team build the right thing for our customers, and to build it well. To get there, he’s got an eye on the processes that guide the team’s daily work, on the software architecture and direction and on the product roadmap that the leadership team is constantly revamping and improving.

Before engageSPARK, Murat worked in the Telco sector as well, at a startup in Berlin that got eventually bought by Oracle.He spent his time writing code, leading projects and learning more about deploying software. Prior to that, he also worked with an Agile team in a banking company where he discovered the beauty of meaningful processes.

Just at this moment, Murat may be underwater, about 15m deep, watching a sea snail or a youngster boxfish which really are the funniest creatures on earth. When he’s not helping the team, coding or diving, you may find him reading thick novels, doing online courses, listening to operas or enjoying a sip of Dalwhinnie, which all being said is an excellent whiskey.

CHRISTINE HORTINELA

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGER

Christine is passionate about providing customer and technical support to clients and making sure that they get the most out of their investments. Her experiences have revolved around providing support within the IT industry and she wants to focus her career-building around it. She loves being part of growing something from the ground up.

She’s against animal cruelty and is very vocal about it on her social media accounts. If she was born with a lot of money, she’s probably rescuing animals and building shelters for them. Her ultimate dream is to travel the world with her family.

Advisors

RAVI AGARWAL

CHAIRMAN

Ravi co-founded and previously led engageSPARK, building off the vast expertise he developed from founding and building three companies in Boston. Two of those companies today employ over 3,000 people, and one is public on NASDAQ. In 2001, Ravi was chosen by Entrepreneur Magazine in their “3rd Annual 10 under 30” – top 10 business people under the age of 30 years old.

Ravi co-founded engageSPARK to help businesses and non-profits provide services, information, and education to the 5 Billion people globally who have no (or limited) Internet access.

Ravi tries to do Yoga as often as he can, is a novice but growing paraglider, and loves challenging hikes.

DAVID HUTCHFUL

FOUNDING CTO

SUNNY YANG

LEAD DESIGNER

Sunny is a UX designer with experience working for several large consumer companies such as Yahoo!, Samsung and Motorola. She has experience working on mobile and web UI and enjoys solving complex UX design issues in simple and elegant ways, using user research as a way to inform and validate the designs. When not designing and mentoring younger designers, she enjoys swimming, yoga and pilates. Her favorite pastime is traveling to new locations and getting to know the local culture and cuisine.