Meet our Clearion Leadership Team

It’s always nice to put a face to a name, right? And somehow it’s even nicer to know a little bit about the folks you’ll be working with. Beyond shaping the Clearion strategy, goals, and culture—and working to best serve our customers and simply transform their work environments—this team has a lot of diverse (and many common) interests from mission trips and international travel to fine dining and outdoor adventure. Take a look and see what you may have in common!

photo of Christopher Kelly, CEO — Christopher Kelly

**CEO**

Why we started Clearion:

It sounds a little highbrow to say that we started Clearion to solve work environment challenges with technology—and that’s exactly right—but in its basest, initial form, it was to prevent me from going crazy doing manual data entry in an old-school environment. Necessity truly is the mother of invention.

What drives me:

Every Clearion customer and application is unique. This constantly drives me, and the rest of our team, to shape solutions that are flexible yet robust. We are passionate about solving challenges and transforming work environments to make your lives easier and more productive. And that’s the truth.

More about me:

From a professional standpoint, I co-founded Clearion with Mano in 2007; however, I’ve been working in utility field operations, geospatial technology, and solutions development since 1995. (I’m sure there’s a lame joke here about working in GIS while still in diapers.) My roles have spanned from crew leader to business leader and include account management, sales, marketing, strategic partnerships, implementation, and product strategy. And, as a Georgia native who loves to travel, I have a BS and an MS in International Affairs from Georgia Institute of Technology.

From a personal standpoint, I have a deep love for my wife and kids and a great fondness for the beaches (and golf courses and redfish) of coastal Georgia where my mother resides. And like a lot of the folks here at Clearion, I’m always in search of the next great meal!

photo of Mano Sadeh, CEO — Mano Sadeh

**CEO**

What I bring to Clearion:

For Clearion, I work on the technical side of the house as the principal software architect and product leader. Knowing how dynamic the market is and how quickly the Clearion customers’ environments were changing, I realized early on that the Clearion platform needed to be flexible and configurable. That direction remains with Clearion today and is what plays into the tagline: Simply Transformational. Clearion makes it easy to tailor powerful software products to the unique needs of each customer.

More about me:

I grew up in Israel and came to the U.S. while my wife pursued her Ph.D. Prior to moving to the states, I served in the Israeli Army and extended my service in a leadership position for a couple of additional years. After college, I worked for Intel as a software developer. When I arrived in Atlanta, I began working with Chris and the rest is history!

Today, I live in Haifa with my wife and three sons and am very much a family man. I love cooking, the outdoors, and going to professional football games. Or, as you would say, I’m a big “soccer fan.”

photo of Karen Smith, Vice President, Business Development — Karen Smith

**Vice President, Business Development**

What inspires me to work at Clearion:

Throughout my life, I’ve been inspired by people with personal stories of transformation and growth. At Clearion, it’s no different. We have the best customers—all of whom are using Clearion to overcome challenges. Whether they are in the early stages of their adoption and have an incredible vision or have been using Clearion for a while and are proactively finding new ways to apply our software to meet their business needs, I always learn so much. And it’s gratifying to apply the lessons that I’ve learned from our customers to help other customers achieve more.

What I recently gave up:

Overthinking. When I stop and think too much, I lose my gut instinct and begin to say what I believe is expected of me. I decided recently to actively engage in being true to myself and others. I’ve always been a happy, positive person but taking this step to stay true to the heart of the matter has been a disruptive way of thinking for me. It’s a welcome change.

More about me:

I’ve been in sales and marketing since the early 1980s while gaining my Bachelor degree at Mercer University in Atlanta. And I’ve been working in software and GIS for the majority of those years with a strong emphasis on telecom solutions. Clearion was a natural progression.

I’m in a wonderful stage in my life: I love my job and have a really close family—great husband, kids and dog. My husband Jeff and I are now empty nesters and having a blast going for bike rides and to Falcon’s games and making dinner with each other every night. I’m the luckiest girl in the world.

photo of Rick Hamilton, Vice President, Sales — Rick Hamilton

**Vice President, Sales**

How I came to Clearion:

I worked with Chris and Mano several years ago in previous work life and we kept in touch afterward. We had conversations over the years about working together again and it finally worked out after Clearion was formed.

I have always worked with electric utilities either on the field inventory or GIS side. I had never given any thought to how the Rights of Way for the electrical facilities were maintained. When I began talking to the group again I realized what a huge undertaking it is to maintain these.

Was the switch to vegetation management difficult?

Yes. I had no idea what all had to be done in order to stand up a Vegetation Management software solution. When I started working with electric utilities performing field inventories, we collected the electrical facilities on paper maps and the office personnel traced our field maps onto linen using ink pens and Leroy Scales. When computers became a viable solution for electric utilities, we began digitizing the data collected in the field into GIS systems.

The GIS systems we digitized into were straightforward. There are only one or two ways to drop a pole or consumer into a GIS system. There were no workflows, cycles, reporting or billing to figure out like there is with Vegetation Management. With vegetation management, there are a lot more moving parts.

Having witnessed the conversion of many electric utilities from pen and paper to computers has given me a very good insight as to what the Vegetation groups are now going through. Almost every company I have worked with while at Clearion is migrating from pen and paper to computers. I do feel that my previous experience with this helps me to better understand what our clients are going through when making this move.

photo of Madelyn Mateo, Senior Consultant / Scientist — Madelyn Mateo

**Senior Consultant / Scientist**

How I came to Clearion:

Over the last 10 years, I have worked within the utility business (electric, gas, & steam) with teams in the departments of Vegetation Management, Environmental, Health & Safety, and Natural Resources to understand the processes and attempt to resolve the complexities involved. Years ago, as a utility arborist I had the opportunity to closely understand how valuable it is to go from paper to electronic, review processes and all periodic changes it goes through and how to translate it into technology, and how the results and data can be of value to provide supporting evidence with concrete results and remain in compliance. I was able to do this with the guiding hands of the Clearion team by using and implementing the software. Once I realized the value, I knew that I wanted to eventually work with the Clearion team and better understand how this software can be the key transformation for real-time knowledge of such dynamic systems that many lives depend on a global scale.

What drives me:

I have always had in the back of my head a phrase that my mom would always say “I wish I could just push a button,” and this has always inspired me. I love to review an existing system, experience the process, and find solutions on how to simplify it. Clearion allows for clients to just push a button and get answers and solutions. Emergency response and the unpredictable nature of it has always fascinated me. Technology like Clearion makes the invisible visible thus can make the unpredictable more predictable for our clients to be able to provide safe and reliable services and customer excellence.

More about me:

I am, believe it or not, a Miami, FL native! I have a husband who is an artist and continually inspires me to be creative, two daughters that are food and nature explorers, and our sweet bird Teo. We love to learn about the diversity of people in the world and what their life is like. I have a history of chefs, bakers, and musicians in my family, so I was born to be a musical foodie. I breathe with the ocean and always have a strong desire to be near it and smell it in the mornings. Continuing education throughout my life has always been a high priority. I have a BS in Environmental Studies from Florida International University and am currently in progress to obtain my Master’s in GIS from Penn State’s On-line World program. I am also an ISA Certified Arborist and love to get hands-on with vegetation and research Ethnobotany.

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