Class of 2020: The podcast

In the third episode of the Classof2020 podcast Series 3, we speak to Tracy Zserdin, CO-Founder of Made Possible By - www.madepossibleby.us

Tracy lives in Oklahoma, US with her husband and family. She is the former President of the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce and still plays a huge role in the community today.

She speaks to us about her life, her company and how to Do Good.

In the second episode of the Classof2020 podcast Series 3, we speak to Jess Sullivan, a ‘Googler’. Marketing manager Jess shares her career journey from startup life in the Silicon Valley to working for Google in Sydney. In her fifth year at Google, Jessica currently works on marketing for Google Pixel and lives in San Francisco.

Series 3 is here!

Welcome to the third and final series of Class of 2020 podcast.

This season, we have spoken to different industry professionals from all walks of life. Our host, Harriet Ferguson is back interviewing our professionals!

On the first episode, we meet Cat Haland. Cat is a still life, drinks and beauty photographer whose feminine and colourful work has attracted a wide range of clients. Her Norwegian roots inspired a style that is grounded in nature with organic compositions and materials.  

Find out more at http://www.catrinehaland.co.uk/

Find out more about the Class of 2020 at www.classof2020.org.uk

Elena is 23 year old and she graduated last year from the University of Liverpool, where she studied Business Economics. Before university, she took a gap year and also did a placement year where she worked in Brand Strategy at British Airways.

She joined the graduate scheme with Makepositive in October 2020, and it has been an incredible experience so far. Not coming from a technical background, she feels very lucky to have found an amazing company, which has provided thorough training and support during the pandemic.

Faith graduated from the University of Nottingham with a First Class in BSc Chemistry with Honours. After university, she found a passion for technology and engaging with clients from different sectors which lead her to the path of Consultancy. Currently, she’s an Implementation Consultant at Make Positive and works with companies to fully utilise their Salesforce platform, which can vary from working on new implementations to enhancing existing functionalities. Her day to day varies but mostly consists of building and restructuring a client's Salesforce platform and having daily conversations with them to ensure their requirements as being met.

Tom is 24 years old. He has a BSc in Sports and Exercise Science, and a MSc in International Business from the University if Winchester.

After graduating, he went intro the world of tech recruitment. Even though that wasn’t his ideal job, it was a great opportunity to gain experience. Due to Covid, he lost that job in June 2020 but very quickly found his way to Makepositive through their graduate scheme.

Xiuchen joined the Makepositive graduate scheme after graduating from Imperial College London. He had studied Biomed, but felt like he wanted to change fields, and both the idea of Tech and Consulting interested him greatly. He grew interested in joining the Makepositive team, not just for the role, but for the company culture Makepositive created. The grad scheme so far has taught him a lot of skills for Salesforce and consulting and he has now completed the Admin Certification. He looks forward to working on projects with clients.

Dan graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a Distinction in my MBA in 2018. Following an 18 month stint working in early-stage Venture Capital running innovation programmes, he began his journey into the Salesforce eco-system to be an Implementation Consultant through the Makepositive Graduate Programme in October 2020.

Victoria is a Salesforce Implementation consultant who has over seven years experience on the platform working for both partner consultancies and product providers. She has been on many and varied projects during her career and has been lucky to see behind the scenes of some really exciting companies. In her spare time she’s a mum to my wonderful toddler and enjoy walking, travelling and house renovations.

Chris is a Salesforce pre-sales consultant for a London based implementation partner with 13+ years experience with customer facing projects. In 2016, he discovered the Salesforce platform and decided to shift his career from manufacturing project management to Salesforce consultant and it's been the best move he’s ever made. Outside of work, he is a complete movie nut and really misses going to the cinema... He can't wait for them to open again!

Louise French is a Principal Implementation Consultant at Makepositive, a multi-award winning Platinum Salesforce consulting partner.

She started her career as a Salesforce consultant in 2014 after studying for a degree in Financial Mathematics at Loughborough University.

She moved to Makepositive in 2016 and has since worked on multiple large Salesforce implementations, most notably leading a complex CPQ implementation into a 900 seat Salesforce org.

Within Makepositive, Louise co-leads the Implementation Consultant practice focussing on the happiness and development of the team alongside defining configuration best practice across the company. 

At the time of this recording Victor was an Implementation Consultant at makepositive. Since then he has moved on to a role as a Salesforce Consultant at Cognizant Worldwide Limited, a Global Salesforce Strategic Partner. 

His Salesforce career started in 2017 after a degree in Social Science at the University of Kent. 

After university, Victor contracted at Barclays as a Salesforce business analyst for 2 years through the FDM graduate scheme, most notably being part of the team which saw the successful phased migration from Salesforce Classic to Salesforce Lightning across the Corporate Bank.

He then moved to Makepositive in 2019 and has since worked on multiple large Salesforce implementations as a functional consultant.

Vera is Managing Director at Solution Junkies. She has built practices, created delivery methodologies, and developed talent, together with establishing and managing client relationships. She has successfully delivered Salesforce to countless customers. Vera is now applying that experience to a new venture: Solution Junkies.

Solution Junkies is a newly registered Salesforce SI partner that aims to bring the concept of the Social Enterprise to the Salesforce ecosystem,

delivering more than customer success – delivering Projects for Purpose.

Vera is an RSA (Royal Society for Arts) fellow, a member of The International Society of Female Professionals, and a Wish Visitor for Make-a-Wish. Solution Junkies allows her to combine her professional and personal passions, transforming businesses with Salesforce and advancing society for a better future.

Verity Denman is Partner Engagement Senior Manager at Salesforce.

She has been with Salesforce since 2015, originally joining the company with the partner programs team and in early 2020 moving to the partner marketing team.  From a partner marketing perspective she supports Talent Programs, Partner Programs and works with Salesforce consulting partners in EMEA on co-marketing activities.

She has worked in the channel world for nearly 20 years and has had the opportunity to work both agency and client side with the added bonus of living and working in Dubai and California. She is now back in the UK.

Welcome back to the class of 2020 podcast Series 2 : A day in the life of… This season is all about Salesforce. During the course of 6 weeks, our host, Harriet Ferguson, chats with various professionals and recent graduates to find out what a day in the life of Salesforce is really like.