I’m Gary Smith. I’ve been involved with WordPress and Magento for the past several years, and currently work at platform.sh. My title is Strategic Account Director (I know, SAD), and I work with major accounts – account management, customer success management, and whatever else needs to be done to keep those accounts growing and happy with our services.

Here are some of my past roles:

eCommerce merchant

In 2002, I was in the embroidery, screenprinting, and imprinted products business. I was asked to create an online store for a membership organization. This turned out to be the first of a few online projects for membership and employee stores. Along the way I was introduced to Magento. I discovered Liquid Web during these days as a great option for Linux hosting. I sold this business in 2009 to one of my vendors, and worked for them for another five years or so. The development agency that I had hired along the way was expanding, and I got a chance to work with them in operations.

Agency background

For about four years, I worked with that development agency, Jamersan. I started out in a consulting role and became their COO. This put me much more into the world of the Magento community, which I found to be extremely welcoming. This agency became a Magento partner during my tenure there. I was introduced to Nexcess during this time, and we partnered with them.

Consulting

For about a year after leaving the agency, I did freelance business consulting and a little WordPress development. I’ve used WordPress (and before that, Moveable Type) for blogging and simple company sites. I have worked with a number of clients on accounting, sales, and operational matters.

Partner Channel Management

I sometimes joke that until I went to work at platform.sh, I’d never gotten a job with anyone without being their customer (i.e. giving them money) first. The first time I got an expense reimbursement draft from Liquid Web (Nexcess’ parent company), I thought it was a hosting bill and couldn’t understand why it was so high. But my time at Nexcess was great, because it pulled together all of the previous roles I’ve described above. I enjoyed being able to work with some of the greatest WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento agencies out there and helping them go to market.

Account Management

As mentioned above, my current role is account management. I work with some of platform.sh’s largest accounts and work to ensure their growth and success, along with their customer success manager (CSM), technical account manager (TAM), leaders in support, the executive team, and others.

Opinions expressed here are my own and not those of my employer.

Contact me if you’d like further info.