Transforming construction productivity

About us

Our mission

Leadership

Our mission

Construction is behind. While productivity has doubled in most industries over the past 60 years, the build trade has remained flat and comes last in technology spending compared to 18 other industries. As former construction engineers, our founders saw teams dragged down by paperwork, litigation and broken communication — all of which was getting in the way of actual building. When the iPad was unveiled in 2010, it marked the first generation of construction field-ready mobile technology. It was the moment when the idea for PlanGrid was invented, and our objective became clear: to make technology so intuitive and impactful that people in construction want to use it. Since then, PlanGrid has been used on over one million projects around the world and is the first Construction Productivity Software that allows contractors and owners in commercial, heavy civil, and other industries to work together throughout the project lifecycle. We’ve brought technology and ideas from other industries to automate the tedious tasks and free up teams to collaborate from anywhere. And there is no such thing as “good enough” here. We only build things to last.

Executive team

Tracy Young

Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

Tracy oversees the corporate direction and strategy of the company, focusing on leadership, innovation, and customers. She founded PlanGrid with Ralph Gootee, Ryan Sutton-Gee, Antoine Hersen, and Kenny Stone in the fall of 2011. Prior to founding PlanGrid, Tracy helped build several hospitals as a construction engineer. She likes to joke that she went from working for one superintendent to hundreds of thousands through PlanGrid. Tracy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Engineering Management from California State University-Sacramento.

Ralph Gootee

Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer

Ralph oversees product strategy for the company from design to development to delivery. Prior to founding PlanGrid, Ralph was a systems rendering engineer at Pixar Animation Studios where he helped write tools for animators used in Cars 2, Toy Story 3, and Brave. Ralph holds a Master’s of Science degree in Applied Mathematics, Probability Theory & Stochastic Processes from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Traditional Mathematics, Abstract Algebra from Salisbury University.

Bill Smith

President of Global Field Operations

As President of PlanGrid, Bill is responsible for our go to market strategy as well as our daily customer, user, and partner experience worldwide. Prior to joining PlanGrid, Bill was a Group Vice President at Oracle and a Group Vice President at Taleo Corporation. Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Oklahoma State University.

Michael Galvin

Chief Financial Officer

Michael leads the company's financial and legal operations. Prior to joining PlanGrid, Michael was Chief Financial Officer at Aruba Networks and Vice President of Finance at BEA Systems. Michael holds a Master’s of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Sameer Merchant

VP of Engineering

As Vice President of Engineering, Sameer leads the company’s product development and delivery efforts. Prior to PlanGrid, Sameer was Vice President of Mobile Commerce at Opera Software, where he managed a global team of more than 400 employees. Sameer co-founded and was CTO at AdMarvel, a mobile ad platform acquired by Opera in 2010. He holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Steve Manning

VP of Product

Steve is Vice President of Products, responsible for PlanGrid’s product strategy and roadmap. Prior, Steve was Senior Vice President of Product at Premise Data. He also spent five years at Opera Software, most recently as Vice President of Products, Revenue and Operations, where he built its Apps & Games division from inception to 200M monthly unique global consumers. Prior to Opera, he co-founded AdMarvel, a mobile ad platform. Steve holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Literature from Princeton University.

David Cain

Chief Marketing Officer

David heads up the marketing team and is responsible for driving market leadership, global awareness, demand generation, and strategic events for PlanGrid. Prior to joining PlanGrid, David was the Group Vice President of Global Marketing and Operations at Marketo where he was responsible for overseeing international marketing, event marketing, content marketing, demand generation and marketing operations. Prior to Marketo, David held B2B marketing leadership roles at a number of leading SaaS companies, including SuccessFactors, OpenTable, Replicon and CrowdFactory. David holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley.

Linda Keala

Chief Human Resource Officer

Linda leads PlanGrid’s HR function and has 25+ years of leadership experience with both startups and large companies. She oversees the development and execution of the HR strategy in support of PlanGrid’s business initiatives. Prior to PlanGrid, Linda was a founder at Tuul, and previously the EVP of HR for SolarCity (now Tesla), where she helped the company grow from about 700 to more than 8,000 employees and supported its successful IPO. Linda grew up in the Boston Area and attended Fitchburg State University for Business and Finance.

Bob Tesler

General Counsel

Bob leads the company's legal operations. Prior to joining PlanGrid, he was General Counsel at WideOrbit Inc. Before WideOrbit, Bob was Vice President of Legal and Strategic Business Partnerships at Aruba Networks and Of Counsel at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Bob holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.

Chuck Hebert

VP of Customer Success

Chuck leads the customer success organization, focused on supporting and enabling our customers to maximize the value of their PlanGrid investments. Prior to joining PlanGrid, Chuck held a leadership role in Customer Success at Workday. Before Workday, Chuck served as an executive leader overseeing customer support, professional services and customer success operations for Taleo's mid-sized business unit. Chuck holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Michigan State University.