Creating the future of sustainable commerce

Under his leadership, Optoro has expanded from a scrappy start-up to a major industry player, helping the nation’s top retailers address the $500B market of returned and excess goods. Tobin has been recognized as a leading SaaS CEO through honors such as Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Washington Business Journal’s 40 under 40. Prior to launching Optoro in 2010, Tobin founded eSpot, one of the original eBay drop-off facilities, his first foray into the growing world of e-commerce. Tobin holds a B.A. from Brown University with a double major in Business Economics and American History.

While at eSpot, Vitarello meticulously designed, programmed, and implemented every feature of the proprietary software, systems and marketing algorithms that put eSpot at the forefront of its industry and created the core for Optoro’s software today. He provides an eye for streamlining the reverse logistics process and an uncompromising attitude always demanding excellence. Adam has been responsible for major design elements and implementation strategies of Optoro’s proprietary software and systems. As President, he manages corporate headquarters and remarketing solutions with a one-on-one approach that puts employees first with the goal of maintaining a small-business feel in a rapidly expanding environment. Adam utilizes that same personal interaction strategy with clients and partners in advancing the automation and remarketing technologies that serve as the driving force of Optoro’s service.

When he’s not pulling all the strings for Optoro and our partners, he can be found training for marathons, triathlons, or mountain climbing. Even atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, reverse logistics is never far from his thoughts. Adam holds a B.A. from Brown University.

Prior to joining Optoro, Jim was Vice President at IBM in the retail business unit responsible for the Cloud, Watson & Analytics business in North America. Prior to that Jim was CEO of Market6, a retail / CPG analytic SaaS solution, General Manager of Netezza’s Retail / CPG business unit and co-founder and CEO of two different retail analytic software solution businesses that grew and then were acquired. Jim started his career  at Teradata and spent ten years as a technical systems engineer and ended as a sales leader in the retail business unit. 

Jim lives in Cincinnati with his wife and they have four grown children. Jim enjoys the outdoors, golf, boating and spending time with his growing family. 

Prior to joining Optoro, D’Amato was the Managing Partner of Sears Road at Partners LLC and served as Senior Advisor to Jeff Zients, the Federal Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget. He previously served as the Executive Vice President of Advisory Board Co. and as its Chief Financial Officer, and the CFO of Atlantic Media. Earlier in his career, Mr. D’Amato was a Partner of Bain & Company. Mr. D’Amato has been on the Boards of VisionCare, Inc., Evolent Health, Inc., the Advisory Board Co. and CEB Inc. (alternative name The Corporate Executive Board Company). Mr. D’Amato received a B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Prior to joining Optoro, Tom led the finance and corporate development groups at Opower, a high growth public software-as-a service company serving the utility sector, guiding them to a successful acquisition and subsequent integration by Oracle.

Before Opower, Tom was a partner a New Enterprise Associates, one of the nation’s leading venture capital firms.  There, he specialized in early-stage enterprise technology and e-commerce investments, including those in Vertica (acquired by HP), Echo Global Logistics (ECHO), Innerworkings (INWK), and Groupon (GRPN).

Tom began his career at the Boston Consulting Group where he predominantly served in the firm’s retail practice.   He earned A.B. and S.M. degrees in Computer Science from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Prior to joining Optoro, he served as general counsel for Exodus Communications, Exclusive Resorts, and Starpoint Health. Adam began his career as a corporate and transactional attorney for leading law firms in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.

Adam earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center. Outside of work, he loves spending time in Chatham, Cape Cod or elsewhere with his wife and two sons, enjoying sports, mountain and road biking, cooking, and exploring new cuisines all over the world.

Her track record of building high-performance enterprise-class solutions in eCommerce and operational software drives Optoro’s technology department to deliver reliable, customer-focused solutions that can almost think for themselves. Jess runs the technology team with a keen eye for all functional areas, from initial design through world-class delivery and operations. She is passionate about leveraging technology to fully optimize Optoro’s offerings, ensuring speed, usability, and reliability at every stage of the process.

She speaks often in the open-source community and organizes several open-source groups in the DC area. Her work with the community allows her team to incorporate the best and brightest ideas from a variety of sources into Optoro’s products, delivering best-in-class solutions for complex problems.

When she unplugs, Jess can be found running, cooking, playing music, and spending time with her family; although she often writes open-source software instead of sleeping.

Ricardo has led teams that serviced successful fulfillment operations in a 3PL model for companies like Comcast, Sandisk as well as several OEM’s and software companies. With his insatiable drive for process improvements and lean operations, Ricardo is a key player managing our internal operations as well as the ones where we are co-located with clients and 3PL providers.

When not making sure all our orders ship on time in full and with no errors, he spends quality time with his two children, cooking and mountain biking. Ricardo has a BS in Industrial Engineering from ITESO in Guadalajara, MX.

He spent much of his time overseeing data management through the design and development of product catalogs and content management systems. His aversion to repetitive tasks and his passion for efficiency pushed him to adopt an “Automate All The Things” mantra, leading to expansive expertise in data modeling, integrations, and architecture. Prior to joining the Optoro team, Mike was instrumental in optimizing content management at Simplexity, dramatically reducing overhead for the company’s largest partners. At Optoro, Mike utilizes his data management and automation experience to ensure clients’ products are a part of our catalog with compelling content and optimal pricing, all with incredible efficiency. He is also leading the charge to further unlock Optoro’s expansive historical data for reporting and analysis. Mike lives with his family in a veritable menagerie complete with a coral reef aquarium and one adorable Jack Russell Terrier, Speck.

With almost 20 years of professional experience guiding retailers and providing thought leadership, Casey owns accounts, revenues and client support at Optoro, focusing on client success and partnerships. Casey previously served as Managing Partner of Retail Strategic Ventures, an advisory services and venture firm within retail/wholesale, and EVP for the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the trade association for the world’s largest and most successful retailers. Prior to RILA, Casey spent a decade at KPMG and its spin-off consulting division, BearingPoint, in their retail management and strategy consulting practices. He lived overseas for several years working for international retailers in Asia, South America and Europe.

Recognized as a leading retail authority, Casey has appeared in numerous media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, Fox News, ABC News, NBC News and National Public Radio. He received his B.A. in Economics from Denison University.

Away from Optoro, Casey is a human jungle gym for his two young boys and spends time with his amazing – and understanding – wife. He serves as a Trustee on the Board of his alma mater, Denison, and on the national Board for Meals on Wheels America.

From conference calls with Fortune 500 retailers to working taco lunches with refurbishment technicians at warehouses south-of-the border, Ken has seen many layers and partnerships in reverse logistics, and he collaborates with our Business Development team to bring winning reverse logistics solutions to our clients.  Prior to Optoro, he spent six years at another reverse logistics company where he was responsible for an account portfolio of over $100M per year in addition to designing and managing more than $10M-worth of in-house and outsourced electronics refurbishment.  He began his early supply chain career at CEB’s Operations practice.

Ken received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and his M.B.A. from Georgetown University. He traces his passion for the ways that business can support environmental responsibility to his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica and continues to support that work as the vice-chair of the non-profit Friends of Jamaica.  He spends his time as much as possible enjoying the woods with his wife and daughter or jogging the streets of Washington, D.C.

Denis owns channels and partnerships for Optoro and is responsible for ensuring those relationships are high impact, revenue generating, and scalable with our strategic partners, including UPS.  Most recently Denis was the Vice President of Sales and Account Management at Hobsons a DC based EdTech firm focused on student success.  Denis got his professional start as one of the original team members that launched the start-up Intelliworks.  As a disrupter in the EdTech space Intelliworks grew rapidly and was ultimately successfully acquired by Hobsons in 2011. Through the acquisition, Denis relocated to Melbourne for three years as the Vice President of Sales at Hobsons APAC.

In his free time, Denis can be found fly fishing, playing any sport possible and spending time with his wife Cara and his two boys Foster and David.

Denis holds a BA in Business from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

In her role, Carly is responsible for all messaging, public relations, digital marketing, events and brand management at the company. Carly joined Optoro from Opower where she was in charge of the company’s US corporate communications program and was responsible for all communications and marketing aspects of Opower’s 2014 IPO. Previously, Carly worked at the British Embassy on climate and energy policy, and Dittus Communications, a local PR firm. Carly graduated from Duke with a B.A in History.

Away from work, Carly loves spending time with her husband and two children, traveling the world, and eating Squeaky Pops.

At Optoro, Ann overseas initiatives that enable retailers and manufacturers to accelerate sustainable supply chains. She works with Optoro’s clients to quantify the sustainability benefits of using Optoro’s reverse logistics software and promotes recommerce among relevant retail and brand stakeholders. Ann also heads up all of Optoro’s internal sustainability programs. As such, she works to reduce energy use, packaging, and waste production at the company’s facilities and heighten environmental awareness among Optoro employees. Prior to joining Optoro, Ann worked at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development and the Weeden Foundation. She has performed extensive research on a number of environmental policy issues including natural gas drilling, renewable energy subsidies, and nanotechnology. Ann has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Lewis and Clark College and an M.S. in Environmental Policy from Bard College.

Prior to Optoro, Emily worked in campus recruiting with Deloitte for a number of years and also managed the human resources department for The Headfirst Companies. Emily graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a B.A. in English and also holds a M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Virginia. Before moving to the D.C. area, Emily worked in career and student counseling at both Wake Forest and UVa. Outside of work, Emily is a huge Washington Nationals fan and serves on the executive committee for the Wake Forest Community in D.C.