About Us
Headquartered in beautiful downtown Austin, Texas — the same state where WordPress was born.
We proudly host tens of thousands of the 75 million WordPress sites and apps on Earth – a number that grows every day.
When you host with WP Engine, you’re betting on us, personally. So here’s who we are.
Were you looking for careers and culture? We got that too.
Jason Cohen
Co-Founder, CEO
Jason previously founded Smart Bear Software and co-founded ITWatchdogs, both of which were bootstrapped to profitability, grew to millions in revenue, and were sold.
Jason is a mentor at Capital Factory (like TechStars or Y-Combinator in Austin) and the co-host of OnStartups Answers along with Dharmesh Shah.
Jason writes and podcasts about startups and marketing on blog.asmartbear.com and can be found on Twitter as @asmartbear.
Ben Metcalfe
Co-Founder
Ben can track his involvement with the WordPress community way back before it was even WordPress (B2 was the name of the former project that was forked and became WordPress). Ben helped build the BBC News Website, where he also rolled out the BBC’s blogging platform (sadly not WordPress) and its developer platform.
Since moving State-side, Ben has worked as a technologist and strategist – launching the MySpace Platform and advising numerous startups in his portfolio – including Seesmic, Apture (acquired by Google), News Basis and NutShell Mail (acquired by Constant Contact). Ben has blogged since 2004 on all manner of technology topics at benmetcalfe.com/blog/, which was previously one of the top 50 blogs in the UK.
Mark Kelnar
The IT and PHP Guy
Mark has been developing software as a full time employee and as an independent consultant in Austin since 2000. He has done work for a collection of companies and projects, including work on the website for Hoover’s Inc and Dun and Bradstreet.
His role at WP Engine is to make sure the servers and your site are up and running as expected. If they are not, there’s a good chance that he is already working on resolving the issue.
Mark lives near Austin with his wife and two sons. You might spot him out at a WordPress Austin Meetup. To unplug from the network, he’ll escape to the mountains in Colorado for a few days of backcountry hiking and camping.
Mark will make occasional noise on Twitter at @renderandserve.
Chris Lauzon
Head of Customer Happiness
Chris is an expert in the field of ecommerce consulting and technical support, helping 1000s of clients and businesses since 2002. He has done work for several web hosting and ecommerce companies, as well as teaching different web technologies to the Austin Community.
Chris’s role in WP Engine is to be the “Head of Customer Happiness,” by communicating directly with the WP Engine community and providing support. Chris is extremely excited to be working with the members of the WordPress community and is looking forward to work closely with the WP Engine community.
Chris is very pro active in the austin tech community, and is a fitness enthusiast. He is currently training to partake in triathlons and the warrior dash. He is also a giant video game nerd. Chris can currently be followed on twitter at @squirex2.
Jason Cosper
WordPress Specialist
As WP Engine’s “other Jason”, Cosper is a WordPress specialist and support wunderkind. He’s been tirelessly debugging his xorg.conf file since installing Slackware in 1996 and has been working with WordPress since 2004.In his spare time, Cosper enjoys spending time with his wife and very tiny dog, sampling assorted beers, being NSFW on Twitter, eating burgers, and cursing more than a grown-ass man should.
LA Lassek
VP Of Marketing and Communications
LaurieAnne (LA) has had her finger on the pulse of the technology industry for nearly 15 years, handling strategic marketing and communications for technology start-ups and mature companies, in both business and consumer markets. LA catalyzes company growth, while maintaining a strong connection to company origins and roots. LA joined WP Engine’s leadership team to build their services and platform as well as fuel the company’s expansion in Silicon Valley.
Previously, LA has developed marketing programs, brought new products to market, and facilitated successful exits for companies including Grouper Networks (acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment), SeeqPod, BlueLithium (acquired by Yahoo), and most recently Quova (acquired by Neustar in 2011). LA counts herself fortunate to have worked with the developer community across industries, from the open-source community to the “API economy.” LA is a fan of digital detoxes, has a soft spot for music startups, loves Austin, TX almost as much as San Francisco, and is the proud owner of one of the most memorable Twitter handles on the net: @LA.
Chris Errett
VP Of Dev/Ops
Chris started tinkering with computers in the early days of the Trash-80 and they’ve been a part of his life ever since. His introduction into the high-tech industry started over 17 years ago with a little game company called Origin Systems. Since then Chris has worked at companies ranging from Fortune 500 behemoths to fledgling start-ups.
Starting with the first customer website at Origin, Chris has progressed through the years working in various capacities in several IT organizations and is excited to be a part of the WP Engine team where he can apply his skills in planning, implementation, and operations. He’s the one coordinating projects, updates, rollouts, and upgrades.
Having reached the milestone of living the majority of his life in Austin, Chris considers Texas his home and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. He enjoys far too many hobbies than time allows, including cooking, woodworking, and turning his two children into gamers. Chris lives in Austin with the love of his life and two children.
Trafton Esler
Lead Developer Champion
Despite a decade of computer engineering experience, from hardware (chip design at Intel and Robotics Fairs) to enterprise software (SAP), Trafton specializes in translating developer speak into plain English. He uses this superpower to solve technology problems with the WordPress developers that build amazing sites and host them on WP Engine.
Outside the office, Trafton is always organizing communities, including Burger Thursday, a 4 year quest to find the best burger in Austin, Texas. He is also an avid mountain biker, a certified Emergency First Responder and a Rescue Diver. He recently got into the Twitterverse, and you can follow him via @traftonesler.
Austin Gunter
Brand Ambassador
Austin lives and breathes life around words and people. He is a blogger, and genetically-inclined connector. As the brand ambassador for WP Engine, he handles social media, copywriting, blogging and WordPress community building around the company.
Previously, Austin grew a community of more than 120 tech startups at a small pre-seed accelerator in Austin, TX, worked as a F500 software consultant, and a freelance copywriter. He blogs at austingunter.com, practices tai chi, and tweets entirely too much…
Donovan Hernandez
Junior Developer
Donovan is a developer who is quickly trying to finish his degree in Chemical Engineering. After leaving Hewlett-Packard, he worked for a marketing company that specialized in WordPress design and development. He eventually wants to start contributing to the WordPress core, and start transitioning to back-end development as well. You can find him ranting on Twitter at @heydonovan.
Shayda Torabi
Sponsorships and Event Coordination
Shayda is a true Austin native and a recent PR graduate from Concordia University Austin who helps spread WP Engine love by handling sponsorships and event coordination. Shayda loves getting to connect with the WordPress community and is an avid WordCamp attender on behalf of WP Engine. After starting her first blog when she was fifteen, she developed a true passion for all things WordPress. Since then, she’s been documenting her journeys in the live music capitol of the world. Outside of work you can find Shayda exploring Austin’s amazing live music events, and trolling for trailer food gems and tweeting all her adventures at @shaptora.
Jeremy Pry
Tech Support Ninja
Jeremy first learned WordPress in 2010, pouring through the codex in order to learn WordPress the right way. Within a year, he found himself building the reelection campaign site for a State Representative in Harrisburg, PA. As Tech Support Ninja for WP Engine, he solves escalated support tickets, ensures that your migrations go smoothly, and is the go-to guy for handling Multisite issues. Prior to joining WP Engine, he spent four years supporting global users of Bentley Systems’ MicroStation software; another software program he taught himself from scratch.
Jeremy recently got engaged and has immediate plans to marry his fiancée. When not behind a computer, he loves baking, bike riding, playing ultimate frisbee, being outside in the woods, and skiing. He also loves to sing, and despite his background in computers, he majored in voice at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
Chrishaun Keller
Customer Happiness Specialist / ProDoc Goddess
Chrishaun (or if you’re in Austin, Sique…pronounced “cee-kay”) is obsessed with writing about technology and using technology to write and has been blogging with WordPress since 2005. This has fueled her to create support content and offer top level support for several large tech companies as well as teaching Composition and Technical Writing.
She is married with one grown and one semi-grown daughter and has been known to play video games, cook, make beer, juggle, and play D&D.
Alexander Shenkar
Servant of the servant of the servant
Alexander graduated from the University of Texas in Austin majoring in Philosophy. When he’s not contemplating on the concept of inconceivable simultaneous sameness and difference, he can be found at the local Hare Krishna temple helping with the preparations for the Sunday love feast. Alexander has been a staff photographer with the local newspaper, Daily Texan, and has travelled the world capturing images ranging from Yamuna river puja to the street art on the walls of Tel Aviv. He hopes to have his own show exhibit soon. Alexander has been in the tech industry ever since escaping high school. To him, technology is an exciting vehicle for propagating ideas that can reawaken our original consciousness.
Mike Van Winkle
The Other other PHP Guy
Mike Van Winkle is a PHP Developer living in Santa Rosa, CA. WordPress is his first love (after his wife of course) and his online weapon of choice. He started fiddling with WordPress in 2004 after Six Apart started charging for Movable Type licenses–not that there’s anything wrong with that. After attending graduate school in a completely unrelated field he decided not to put his expensive eduction to use and instead chose to devote his time to building websites. This turned out to be a good choice.
His love for WordPress continues today, though he now enjoys digging into other PHP-based frameworks to learn the latest trends and best practice. When he is not coding he enjoys baseball, craft beer, California weather, spy novels and playing his electric guitar. He loves reading Spy Novels, trying to play All Your Love like Eric Clapton, drinking a Lagunitas IPA, and listening to the Chicago Cubs lose another game … yes, all at the same time.
Mike Hale
WordPress Mechanic
Mike was born with a passion for technology and software. In middle school he made his first website and spent more time building maps for Duke Nukem 3D than he did on his homework. His support experience includes over two years at an international eCommerce hosting company. Mike, like many at WP Engine, has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and runs two small online businesses that operate off of the WordPress platform. In fact, he taught himself WordPress as he grew those businesses, troubleshooting his own bugs and customizing as he went. Running these sites, Mike knows firsthand the importance of keeping customer sites online and error free.
Mike puts in the hours for the sake of his wife and kids, that make his life worth living. He lives North of Austin with his beautiful family in the house that he proudly bought at age 25. When he’s not working he loves to cook, play video games and be outdoors with his kids. You’ll see them rock climbing, hiking, swimming, tubing, camping all over Central Texas.
Patrick Clifford
WordPress Mechanic
Patrick is a technical savvy ninja and Content Management System (mainly WordPress :-) enthusiast. After serving as a medic in the Army, he has been working in technical support and exploring his passion for web development in school. He loves developing websites and sharing his skills with the world and is working hard to master the world of back-end development. After hours you can find Patrick roaming the Austin night scene or commanding a massive online battle from the comfort of his computer chair.
Justin Vela
WordPress Mechanic
Justin has been involved with computers since middle school when he started coding websites from scratch in HTML. He found WordPress early on, made it his CMS of choice, and used it to develop and maintain various WordPress installations for local organizations in his hometown of McAllen, in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
Justin recently moved to Austin to dive into the technology scene and become part of the amazing culture in the city. Fortunately for him, Austin has almost as good of Mexican food as the Rio Grande Valley does.
He spends his free time playing games: video games and tabletop ones. He’s modest about it, but Justin is also an amateur game designer who has distributed a few tabletop game prototypes across the country. He also confessed early on that he’s a big Pokémon nut as well…shhhhhh! You can follow him on Twitter under the name @JustInferno.
Tin Pham
Sales Consultant Extraordinaire
Tin is a fan-boy of the Web Hosting industry. He has been a web hosting junkie over the last decade, as a customer, an entrepreneur, and a member of a number of hosting companies. With more than a decade of experience helping folks have stellar hosting experiences, he joined the WP Engine team to be part of the company’s commitment to premium quality hosting and customer service. He loves the process of helping people find amazing hosting for their WordPress sites.
When Tin is not obsessing over his work, he can be found blogging on HostBlanket, a blog covering all things web hosting. He also curates content at webhostingtalk.com. In his spare time, Tin loves going to museums (particularly art museums) playing video games (usually games of the Blizzard variety), and satisfying his addiction for delicious raw fish at the nearest sushi bar. Also, he often mourns over Pluto losing its’ status as a planet. May Pluto revolve in peace. Tin often finds himself in funny situations and gladly tweets them at @tinner10tin.
Joey Bates
SysAdmin Ninja Division
Joey is as at home in the bash shell as he is in WordPress. His experience covers multiple CMS applications, but WordPress is by far his favorite and the platform he has spent the last 2+ years mastering. Before joining the WP Engine team to be part of the growth, Joe managed data centers at a few well-known hosting companies that had servers across the globe. His role is to maintain server integrity and implement new technologies that will redefine the WordPress deployment experience on WP Engine.
Joey can’t imagine living in a better city than Austin, Texas. In his free time, Joey works on new technologies, gaming, and touring Austin’s amazing live music scene
Bri Draffen
Customer Happiness Specialist
Bri has a diverse background of administrative, customer service, and tech field experience, and loves being part of the WordPress and WP Engine community. Bri was using computers practically before she could walk, she is now hooked on how the internet, and WordPress in particular enriches people’s lives across the planet. As part of the Q Team, Bri is passionate about connecting people with the resources they need to create amazing things with WordPress.
Born in Kansas City, Bri is a Midwesterner at heart, but has lived in the ATX for years (please don’t ask her to choose between Texas and KC BBQ). When she’s not working, she is enjoying Austin’s outdoor adventures, petting other people’s dogs, and marathoning various TV series.
Sergio Manzo
Sales Consultant Extraordinaire
Sergio has more than 10 years in customer relations, account management, and business development, always for companies who prioritize customer satisfaction and support. His role at WP Engine is to connect more organizations and developers with our premiere hosting solution. Sergio is responsible for creating and implementing the “Hero” Team at Electronic Arts that is still in place today.
Sergio is a tequila and mezcal “enthusiast,” and loves all things video games, sneakers, hip hop, and live music. He also likes to cook, draw, and blog with equal mediocrity. Sergio is from San Antonio, but after arriving in Austin for a job 6 years ago, and buying a bit of real estate, he decided he wanted to live here.
Kelly Verdin
Office Manager + Billing
Kelly is an LSU graduate and a Louisiana native who was unexpectedly evicted from New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. She now calls Austin home and will probably never leave. She currently serves as the Vice President of the LSU Austin Alumni Association and has been skating with the Texas Rollergirls Recreational League since 2011 under the name Abita Blackenblue.
As the Office Manager, Kelly keeps our offices running smoothly and our employees happy. As the Billing Manager, she keeps all the accounts in line for payment and troubleshoots any billing issues that come into the support ticket system. Between the Roller Derby and the billing, trust us, you want to stay on Kelly’s good side ;-)
Topher Hota
Senior Customer Happiness Specialist
WP Engine’s “other Chris” comes to the company with a decade of providing top-shelf customer service to various higher-education institutions. Chris is a customer-service ninja, willing to take on complex problems and not stop until client satisfaction reaches its apex. He founded his own company to provide white-glove, end-to-end support to political campaigns, small businesses, and non-profit organizations. He’s still known to do some design and needs assessment work.
As a developer, Chris put together an alternate-reality game called Brain Drained, which is part of a yearly ARG event called Arkansas Midnight Madness. In his spare time, Chris reads sci-fi/fantasy, and is currently looking for a Dungeons and Dragons (4th edition) group. His favorite spirit is Whisky, but doesn’t descriminate against any other drinks :-) He is brand-new to the Austin area, and is open to new ideas and possibilities in the tech world, in the real world, and in the world of Eberron. For any of the above, he can be contacted via Twitter at @chrisfauxta.
Terell Moore
Senior Customer Happiness Specialist
Terell is a WordPress Firefighter. His role at WP Engine is to work directly with customers and tackle their WordPress issues. Don’t let his youthful good looks fool you. Terell has been working in network admin roles since high school, where he competed nationally as a SysAdmin. It was during those competitions that he got interested in Web Hosting in general. He’s been hacking around in WordPress for more than 3 years, and started learning the backend part of WordPress hosting over 2 years ago.
When he’s not figuring out how systems work, he enjoys playing Tennis, and spending time with his family. He also has slightly extreme appreciation for bash scripting, and is teaching himself javascript. Terrell will be attending college in the Fall to pursue a degree in Business Management, with an emphasis on technology. It also stands to note that Terell is a huge Apple fanboy ^_^
Christian Thompson
Customer Happiness Specialist
Christian is a University of Cincinnati graduate who quickly shed the midwest for warmer climates. He has a voracious appetite for experience which has led him to spend months at a time backpacking overseas, submersing himself in new cultures, and learning the fine art of going with the flow. He was introduced to technology at a young age and shortly after found a soldering iron so that he could take his computers and consoles apart to modify them (and burn his knuckles one too many times). Communication stands as the goal of Christian’s pursuits as he believes that all of our experience and tools ultimately provide ourselves with the means to continue adding depth to the universal conversation.
In his free time, Christian is an avid martial artist who is currently training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, journalist, and competitive gamer. He devours documentaries, considers Carl Sagan a hero, and prefers rye whiskey.
Aaron Brazell
Advisor
Aaron Brazell is the author of the WordPress Bible (Wiley), and is most known for his blog,Technosailor.com. He has worked on a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors including several startups since 2005. He has been an active member of the WordPress community since 2004 as a core contributor, developer, user and consultant.
Aaron is a frequent public speaker, engaging with the WordPress community at WordCamps around the United States, as well as marketing, social media, and other industry events. He started and organized WordCamp Mid-Atlantic in 2009 and 2010, a WordPress community conference catering to the Baltimore/Washington region, including Maryland, D.C., Delaware and Northern Virginia.
He has worked a variety of companies including blog network b5media where he worked as the Director of Technology from 2006-2008.
Aaron currently resides in Austin, Texas, where he ensures his dog is well-fed, his bike still has wheels and his craft beer selections are tasty and cold. He maintains a photoblog at photos.aaronbrazell.com and helps keep the Twitter servers in check as @technosailor.
Eric Ries
Investor
Eric is an entrepreneur and the author of the NYT bestseller, The Lean Startup. In addition to serving on the advisory board of WP Engine, he is a consultant for several venture capital firms, an Angel Investor, and was also named Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School in 2010.
Previously, Eric was founder and CTO of IMVU, his third startup, after notching a few failures along the way. His blog, Startup Lessons Learned, is a popular resource for growing tech startups who use his Lean Startup methodology to generate market traction and solve world-changing problems. He lives in San Francisco, and is at least as big of a nerd as you hope he is.
Bill Boebel
Investor
Bill is an engineer and an entrepreneur. He is an investor and advisor with a dozen really cool tech companies, helping them with product and technology design. In his spare time, he mentors world-changing entrepreneurs at Capital Factory, 500 Startups, and TechStars.
Previously, Bill was the founder and CTO of Webmail.us, which Rackspace acquired in 2007. Bill stayed at Rackspace until 2011, scaling Webmail, and then working with Rackspace partnership and M&A. Recently, he stepped back into the role of entrepreneur to begin a project that remains in the super secret phase. Bill gives talks on tech and entrepreneurship, and loves talking with entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world.
Josh Jones
Investor
Josh is a serial entrepreneur and engineer, and is founder and CEO of Dreamhost. In addition to investing in WP Engine, Josh is running ePub Bud, a non profit he founded to promote the open publishing, creation, and sharing of books, with an emphasis on books for children.
Kip McClanahan
Investor
Kip is a venture partner at Silverton Partners, and for the past 20 years he has worked in IT security, networking, media communications and software industries. He served as both CEO and board member to both public and private companies. He has founded or held leadership roles in companies including BroadJump (acquired by Motive), TippingPoint (IPO, acquired by 3Com) and NetSpeed (acquired by Cisco).
As an operator, Kip has raised over $100M in capital and his companies have returned nearly $800M in realized gains. Kip graduated from the University of Texas with a BS in Electrical Engineering. Kip sits on the boards of CopperEgg, Socialware, Sparefoot, and WPEngine.
Toni Schneider
Investor
Toni is the CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and a venture partner at True Ventures. His startup, Oddpost, was acquired by Yahoo! and formed the base of the new Yahoo! Mail, used by more than 250 million people worldwide. After Oddpost, Toni went on to co-found Sphere (acquired by AOL) with Tony Conrad.
Toni was voted CEO of the year at the 2007 Crunchies, and when he’s not running one company or advising another, you can find him with his family crossing the US in their VW van, or adding to his noteworthy collections of cars. Toni grew up in Switzerland and studied computer science at Stanford.
