Business

Emerson Spartz

Emerson Spartz

CEO
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Emerson Spartz

CEO

Emerson is a spirited optimist who once unsuccessfully tried to eliminate the word "boring" from his vocabulary. At age 14, he wore a fanny pack for three weeks on a school trip because "it fit all his travel accessories." His fiancée would eventually work out his kinks.
At the age of 12, he began homeschooling. To cope with the soul-crushing boredom, he created MuggleNet, the world's #1 Harry Potter site. Emerson is a New York Times Bestselling author and generally lucky guy. In 2006, JK Rowling extended an invitation to him to interview her in her house in Scotland. Yes, she is awesome. So awesome that she gave him this as a gift. His proudest moment was when Jimmy Kimmel mocked him on national TV. He took solace in the fact that Geraldo still likes him. He graduated in 2009 from Notre Dame with a degree in management consulting.
Special Powers: Photographic Memory for Obscure Data and Grandiloquence

Henry Vasquez

Henry Vasquez

VP of Operations
henry@spartzmedia.com
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Henry Vasquez

VP of Operations

Henry landed at Spartz Media by catapult from an island near Seattle. A graduate of Notre Dame, Henry is classically trained in psychology and political science. A Democratic campaign organizer and blogger kingpin in his past life, he was discovered sleeping on Emerson's couch one day. He is a frequent inventor of words and has a firm moral opposition to writing in pencil. Henry handles recruiting, operations, growth management, and new business initiatives for the company.
Special Powers: People Juggling and Wordsmithing.

Jose Duarte

Jose Duarte

Accounting Director
jose@spartzmedia.com
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Jose Duarte

Accounting Director

Jose handles our day-to-day accounting, user feedback, support, and UX testing.
Special Powers: X-Ray Vision and Flight.

Larry Engstrom

Larry Engstrom

HR Manager
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Larry Engstrom

HR Manager

Andrew Baeckstrom

Andrew Baeckstrom

Advertising Operations Manager
abaeckstrom@spartzmedia.com
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Andrew Baeckstrom

Advertising Operations Manager

Development

Griffin Caprio

Griffin Caprio

CTO
griffin@spartzmedia.com
Doug Johnson

Doug Johnson

Lead Developer
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Doug Johnson

Lead Developer

Mike Hofer

Mike Hofer

Lead Developer
mhofer@spartzmedia.com
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Mike Hofer

Lead Developer

Dylan Spartz

Dylan Spartz

Lead Designer
dylan@spartzmedia.com
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Dylan Spartz

Lead Designer

Dylan was born just months before the original release of Photoshop. Coincidence? We don't think so. One of the founding members of the team, Dylan spent his early years in Laporte, Indiana working with Emerson on Mugglenet. He went on to graduate from Tribeca Flashpoint with a mastery of all 3 dimensions. As our tallest member, he is often commissioned to change lightbulbs and remove cats from nearby trees. Dylan designs all the graphics, layouts, and logos for our sites and produces the videos for our OMG Facts YouTube show.
Special Powers: Pixel Bending and Render Level Over 9000 FPS.

Kris Kroski

Kris Kroski

Web Developer
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Kris Kroski

Web Developer

Tony Maher

Tony Maher

Web Developer
tony@spartzmedia.com
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Tony Maher

Web Developer

Chris Montanaro

Chris Montanaro

DevOps Engineer
chris@spartzmedia.com
Kathy Chung

Kathy Chung

Iteration Manager
kathy@spartzmedia.com
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Kathy Chung

Iteration Manager

Tricia Phillips

Tricia Phillips

QA Software Engineer
tricia@spartzinc.com

Community

Gaby Spartz

Gaby Spartz

VP of Community
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Gaby Spartz

VP of Community

When Gaby and the Internet met over a decade ago, it was love at first sight. Born and raised in Quito, Ecuador between 5 volcanoes, she spent her childhood chasing high scores in video games and even higher scores in life. This earned her a ticket to Notre Dame, where she graduated with a degree in management consulting. Shortly after graduation, she cofounded GivesMeHope and finally embraced her true calling. The webmistress of the original DailyCute, Gaby is a 12-year veteran with 12 times the ninja skills of her pet chinchilla Zoe. Gaby is the head of our product team, keeping our sites running smoothly and our community happy. She is also the host of our OMG Facts YouTube show.
Special Powers: Killer Cute Instinct and Impossibly High Scoring.

BJ Rudd

BJ Rudd

Community Manager
bj@spartzmedia.com
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BJ Rudd

Community Manager

Valerie Liarikos

Valerie Liarikos

Intern
valerie@spartzmedia.com
Alexa Torres

Alexa Torres

Intern
alexa@spartzinc.com
Keith Hawk

Keith Hawk

Managing Editor - MuggleNet
keith@staff.mugglenet.com
Noah Fried

Noah Fried

Managing Editor - MuggleNet
noah@staff.mugglenet.com
Kat Miller

Kat Miller

Managing Editor - MuggleNet
kat@staff.mugglenet.com
Dylan Lavin

Dylan Lavin

Writer - OMG Facts
info@spartzmedia.com
Alex Filice

Alex Filice

Writer - OMG Facts
info@spartzmedia.com

Data/Research

Alison Stanton

Alison Stanton

Senior Data Scientist
alison@spartzmedia.com
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Alison Stanton

Senior Data Scientist

Paige Lo

Paige Lo

Data Scientist
paige@spartzmedia.com
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Paige Lo

Data Scientist

Caitlin Keck

Caitlin Keck

Data & Research Intern
caitlin@spartzinc.com