Business Spend Management Blog

Hari Murakonda is currently Principal of AI Centre of Excellence at Coupa and leads AI driven classification projects at Coupa. Hari comes with a background in data science with over 10 years of experience. Prior to Coupa, Hari was a Solution Architect at LLamasoft, and Opex Analytics where he led several ML driven solutions to problems in Supply chain and Operations across several fortune 500 Retail, Consumer products, and Airline companies. Hari was an early employee at Opex Analytics and played key role scaling the company, followed by acquisitions to LLamasoft and then Coupa. Hari holds Master’s degree in Analytics at Northwestern University and Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from BITS-Pilani.

J.R. Robertson is Vice President, Coupa Pay, and an entrepreneurial enthusiast and culture builder at Coupa. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Marketing Management from California State University, Chico, and currently resides in the smoky state of California.

John Callan is responsible for product marketing and go-to-market strategies for the Coupa Spend Management platform. John earned his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a dual degree in Engineering and Mathematics from University of Dublin, Trinity College.

Sebastian is responsible for defining and executing the Go-to-Market strategy for Coupa Pay in EMEA. He also manages the strategic partners in the region including card issuers, global transaction banks, and leading financial service providers. Prior to joining Coupa, he spent 14 years at SWIFT, holding various positions from executing Global Key Client Management responsibilities to leading the Go-to-Market activities around initiatives like SWIFT KYC and global multi-bank connectivity for Corporates.

Vanessa Cisz is a B2B storytelling professional with more than 15 years of experience in helping organizations convey the real value of their technology solutions. She holds degrees in creative writing as well as English and German literature.

Ryan is a Supply Chain leader with 14+ years of experience at the intersection of global public health, supply chains, sustainability and technology.

He has consulted on supply chain design in over 30 countries across six continents and myriad industries including customers in the commercial and public sectors, as well as the US Department of Defense. In the public health domain, he has advised the WHO, The Global Fund, World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, amongst other international organizations on programs ranging from HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning, Malaria Prevention, and COVID-19 vaccination. Ryan completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Industrial & Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and is an En-ROADS Climate Ambassador.

Odemi Pessu is a Content & Storytelling Marketing Manager at Coupa. She is also an author, artist, and women’s rights advocate. Odemi earned her Master of Public Affairs at Brown University, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Economy. Her book, Force of Nature, encourages African women to lean into their vulnerability for strength and to honor their divine feminine energy for spiritual liberation.

David is Senior Vice President for Coupa’s Alliances team. He is responsible for driving our partnerships and alliances across our EMEA region. Since joining Coupa in 2014 he has supported our strategic growth through alliances with some of the world's largest global partners and a host of regional systems integrators. In the past 7 years at Coupa he has played an instrumental role in our expansion across the region and has been a fundamental part of our EMEA leadership team. He has more than 20 years of experience in the enterprise software industry.

Prathmesh Shelar is a Data Scientist at Coupa’s AI-Center of Excellence. He joined Coupa as a fresher in 2020 after completing his graduation in Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Nari is currently Sr. Director of Product Segment Marketing at Coupa, where he helps bring products to markets in the areas of Supply Chain Design and Planning. Over the past 20 years, Nari has held VP and Director of Product Management, Research and Marketing roles at Aberdeen Group, River Logic, Steelwedge and E2open. He has significant experience building products from the ground up and managing the P&L for a product suite. He is a proven B2B marketer with expertise in content marketing, competitive intelligence, and positioning. He has published numerous thought leadership articles, whitepapers, blogs and delivered dozens of webinars during his career. Nari Viswanathan is a five times SDCExec Supply Chain Pro to Know award winner. Nari holds a master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

Ryan is a Supply Chain leader with 14+ years of experience at the intersection of global public health, supply chains, sustainability and technology.

He has consulted on supply chain design in over 30 countries across six continents and myriad industries including customers in the commercial and public sectors, as well as the US Department of Defense. In the public health domain, he has advised the WHO, The Global Fund, World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, amongst other international organizations on programs ranging from HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning, Malaria Prevention, and COVID-19 vaccination. Ryan completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Industrial & Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and is an En-ROADS Climate Ambassador.