Getting to know Persefoni: Meet Ali McElroy

1. And you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?" (Tell us your journey?)

It all started on a trip to Peru when I was 14 years old. It was one of the first times that I saw people living vastly different lives from my own and I started asking a lot of "why?" questions. This innate curiosity about the world both around and far away from me led to BA degrees in International Relations and Spanish. Learning about global "sustainable development" (mostly in a non-profit/government context) through my undergraduate studies made me ask "why aren't businesses more involved in this conversation?", which led me to pursue an International MBA as well. With that, I embarked on my career journey with a nonprofit in Panama, where I managed multiple sustainable community development projects in rural areas, as well as a Corporate Social Responsibility program for Deloitte. Upon returning to the states a few years later, I knew I wanted to gain more experience outside of the nonprofit sector while still "making a difference", which led me to a role as a Customer Success Manager at a SaaS company called Classy, focused on increasing nonprofit's ability to fundraise in a digital world. It was here that I dug deeper into corporate ESG, by founding the employee-led sustainability group (Project Green) and initiating our B Impact assessment, leading the company to become a B Corp certified company within two years. With that, I was sure I wanted to more fully immerse myself in the field of sustainability/ESG/climate change, and voila, I joined Persefoni, where I now get to flex my Customer Success and people management skills all while supporting one of the greatest missions out there.

2. And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. (What do you do at Persefoni?)

My role is to support our amazingly talented Customer Success Management team as their Team Lead, ensuring they have the inter-departmental resources, processes, and coaching they need to make our customers wildly successful on the Persefoni platform.

3. And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?" (What are your hopes for your time at Persefoni?

My hope is that our team retains 100% of our customers and that we are a main driver of high retention and positive NPS scores. I hope that we scale quickly to support customers of every shape and size, and iterate fast to serve the various segments of the market. Also that we continue to be the strong voice of the customer internally, supporting our product team in building the most innovative solutions known to humankind! (Now replace "My hope is" with "I know we will"!)

4. And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?" (Why is Persefoni a great home for you?)

I've always been a mission driven, problem solver at my core, and Persefoni is the perfect place for me to build on my previous sustainability projects + Customer Success experience in the SaaS world. I chose Persefoni for the mission, the vision, and the opportunity to learn from the greatest minds in the climate business while being able to support the organizations that desperately need the technology Persefoni offers as a crucial piece of achieving their climate goals. The startup environment is also where I'm meant to be at this point in my career - the balancing act of creating processes and structure while remaining agile and adaptive brings me much joy.

5. And you may find yourself in another part of the world... (Tell us about your life/hobbies away from work?)

The remote work life has allowed me to extremely mobile, in order to visit friends and family around the country and the globe! You'll often see me with differing Zoom backgrounds as I change locations frequently, but my home base is current the lovely San Diego, CA with my partner Matt. I also have a deep appreciation and love of Latin American countries and culture, which means I often choose to travel to Central or South America where I enjoy practicing my Spanish. If I weren't working at Persefoni and I had already achieved my financial goals, I'd perhaps open up my own bakery on a small island, somewhere. For me, one of the few things worth getting up at the crack of dawn for is baking something irresistibly delicious and seeing the joy it brings to those around me (and I treasure that warm, slow, island life). Staying active and curious are two of my most important values, and I do this by balancing time at home with taking time to explore (especially in nature) or learn new things.

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