Catherine Elyssa Brown, Co-Founder & CEO
At fifteen, Catherine discovered the executive assistance career path. Today, she holds over sixteen years of experience and has assisted celebrities, politicians and CEOs across a multitude of industries. She knows the MVP of every team is always one physical step behind the VIP and five mental steps ahead of everyone, and it is this intimate industry experience that drives the vision behind EM.
Catherine is a graduate of The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., of Women’s Start-Up Lab Accelerator in Silicon Valley and of Rent the Runway Foundation & UBS Global’s Project Entrepreneur Class of 2016. She serves as a host committee member on numerous national fundraising boards and serves as an Advocate Leader for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance on behalf of ovarian cancer survivors nationally. She currently splits her time between her quiet hometown of Naples, Florida and the vibrant start-up scene of San Mateo where she spends much of that time on a yoga mat. You can check out her qualifications here.
Ryan Keating, Co-Founder & CFO
Ryan met Catherine when his Chief of Staff of nearly 16 years retired. As a consultant, founder of Keating Consulting Group and interim-CFO in Silicon Valley – advising and working with more than 135 early stage venture capital-seeking and -backed companies, he knows success simply isn’t possible without the right teammate by his side.
Ryan possesses an extensive financial and management consulting background from more than 20 years with venture backed companies and large technology and management consulting firms including Microsoft, Salomon Smith Barney and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He attended Boston University‘s School of Management and holds a degree in Finance and Information Systems.
Specialties: SaaS Accounting, Marketing/Big Data, CleanTech, Solar, Consumer Electronics, Business Modeling, FP&A, Fundraising
Ariel Myers, Marketing Manager & Chief of Staff
Ariel began her assisting career with an internship where she served as an Executive Assistant and fell in love with the dynamism of the role. Today, Ariel’s experience varies from assisting startups in their Kickstarter stage to full-grown companies and their busy CEOs. She has managed tasks for overstretched career moms and managed people as a Pod Leader at Zirtual. What makes Ariel so successful in her field – and so invaluable to EM, is her ability to seek out the best-fit Executive-Assistant relationships and build valuable partnerships from there.
Ariel graduated from Taylor University with a degree in Public Relations. She is also a stay-at-home mom who keeps her sanity through coffee, chocolate, and little smiles.