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Leadership

Alexa put words here

Something about how good the external hires have been as well leaders promoted internally?

Acorn PLMS founders

Executive Team

Years of expertise, one shared purpose. Seasoned leaders, singular focus.

Lead Icon Blake Proberts's photo

Blake Proberts

CEO & Co-Founder

Lead Icon Sam Garnett's photo

Sam Garnett

CTO & Co-Founder

Lead Icon Eloise Littlejohns's photo

Eloise Littlejohns

Director of Operations & People

Lead Icon Keith Metcalfe's photo

Keith Metcalfe

President

Lead Icon Tanis Hoeltgen's photo

Tanis Hoeltgen

Director of Finance

Leadership

The people leading the team charge for our teams.

Lead Icon Ben Satchwell's photo

Ben Satchwell

Head of Capabilities

Lead Icon Daniel Jordan's photo

Daniel Jordan

Director of Customer Delivery

Lead Icon Sara Campbell's photo

Sara Campbell

Director of Demand Generation

Lead Icon Josh Lavulo-Hodges 's photo

Josh Lavulo-Hodges

Director of Customer Success

Lead Icon Laura Trouiller's photo

Laura Trouiller

Director of Product Design

Lead Icon Graham Smith's photo

Graham Smith

Director of Channels & Partnerships

Lead Icon David Cowley's photo

David Cowley

Director of Engineering

Lead Icon Alexa Sommerville's photo

Alexa Sommerville

Brand Manager

Board of Directors

Blake Proberts's photo

Blake Proberts

Board Member

Sam Garnett's photo

Sam Garnett

Board Member

Doug Stewart's photo

Doug Stewart

Board Chair

Charles Chen's photo

Charles Chen

Board Member

Nathan Robertson's photo

Nathan Robertson

Board Member

Blake Proberts

CEO & Co-Founder

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capabilities:

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Sam Garnett

CTO & Co-Founder

As our Co-Founder and CTO, Sam has been behind the wheel of Acorn’s technical direction since day one. With a sharp eye for strategic planning and a steady hand in navigating change, he leads the charge on product innovation, engineering excellence, and scalable infrastructure. Sam’s known for bridging the gap between vision and execution—aligning business goals with the tech roadmap, and translating complex ideas into clear, executable plans. He’s also deeply invested in building a high-performing, values-driven team, and making sure our systems (and people) can scale with ambition.

 

  1. Change Management
  2. Operational Excellence
  3. Organisational Leadership
  4. Strategic Visioning and Planning
  5. Stakeholder Management and Communication
  6. People Leadership & Strategic Management

Eloise Littlejohns

Director of Operations & People

Ex-COO of KPMG Futures Division, Eloise joined Acorn in 2024 to help us scale into the next stage of growth. As our Director of Operations and People, she brings a sharp strategic eye to everything from process improvement to culture building, blending operational rigour with a deep understanding of what makes teams thrive. Eloise leads on everything from HR and employee engagement to cross-functional collaboration and strategic project delivery—making sure our operations run smoothly and our people feel supported, empowered, and inspired.

 

  1. People Leadership & Strategic Management
  2. Operational Efficiency & Process Improvement
  3. HR and Administrative Excellence
  4. Employee Engagement and Culture Building
  5. Strategic Project Execution
  6. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication

Keith Metcalfe

President

Tanis Hoeltgen

Director of Finance

Tanis brings deep expertise in financial strategy and a strong track record of scaling finance functions in fast-moving SaaS and professional services environments. As Director of Finance, she leads budgeting, forecasting, compliance, and reporting with a sharp eye for risk and optimisation. Tanis is known for building high-performing teams, streamlining financial systems, and partnering closely with stakeholders to drive informed decisions. Her passion lies in making finance a strategic enabler—helping the business grow with confidence and clarity.

 

  1. Risk Management and Compliance
  2. Process and System Optimisation
  3. Financial Reporting and Analysis
  4. Business Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement 
  5. Budgeting & Forecasting 6. People Management & Team Development

Ben Satchwell

Head of Capabilities

Ben leads the vision for Acorn’s Capabilities platform, helping organisations turn performance data into meaningful development outcomes. Working across product, user research, and strategy, he connects customer needs to business goals—shaping a product that’s intuitive and impactful. He brings senior leadership experience from CEB (now Gartner), LiveHire, and as Managing Director ANZ at the Public Sector Network, regularly contributes to Training Journal, and facilitates AHRI capability framework development courses.

 

  1. User Research and Empathy
  2. Product Strategy and Vision
  3. Influence and Stakeholder Management
  4. Data-Informed Decision Making
  5. Team Leadership & Cross-functional collaboration

Daniel Jordan

Director of Customer Delivery

Daniel is our Director of Customer Delivery, heading up the Acorn Helpdesk and overseeing customer onboarding and implementation. He plays a key role in driving regional strategy and ensuring operational excellence across every stage of the customer journey. With a focus on efficiency, advocacy, and long-term relationships, Daniel’s all about creating smooth, supportive experiences that set our customers up for success. He’s also a natural team leader, passionate about developing talent and helping his team thrive.

 

  1. Team Leadership & Development
  2. Operational Excellence and Efficiency
  3. Customer Advocacy and Relationship Management
  4. Revenue Growth and Retention
  5. Regional Strategy & Execution
  6. People Management & Team Development

Sara Campbell

Director of Demand Generation


Sara drives Acorn’s demand engine—leading the strategy behind SEO, paid media, lead gen, and everything in between. From digital campaigns to large-scale events, she’s focused on creating moments that move the needle. With a sharp eye on performance, Sara oversees the automation, analytics, and pipeline strategy that fuel our growth. She works closely with Sales, Brand, and Product to align efforts and turn awareness into action—while building a high-performing team that scales with the business.

 

  1. SEO & Paid Media
  2. Marketing Automation & Analytics
  3. Lead Generation and Nurturing
  4. Content and Campaign Management
  5. Collaboration and Sales Alignment
  6. People Management and Team Development

Josh Lavulo-Hodges

Director of Customer Success

Josh is our Director of Customer Success, leading our team of Customer Success Managers and Technical Account Managers. He’s responsible for shaping our customer success strategy, driving growth across key accounts, and championing long-term customer retention. With a background as an Account Executive, Josh brings a sharp commercial mindset and a strong focus on building meaningful, value-driven partnerships. He’s also passionate about developing high-performing teams and making sure our customers feel genuinely supported every step of the way.

 

  1. Customer Success Strategy & Leadership
  2. Account Management & Customer Growth
  3. Technical Partnership & TAM Oversight
  4. Renewals & Retention Management
  5. Customer Intelligence & Advocacy
  6. People Management & Team Development

Laura Trouiller

Director of Product Design

Laura is our Director of Product Design, leading the charge in shaping thoughtful, intuitive experiences across every part of our product. She’s responsible for defining and executing our product design strategy—making sure it not only looks good, but delivers real value to users and aligns seamlessly with our business goals. Laura heads up our team of brilliant UX and Product Designers, championing a design-led culture throughout the organisation. Working closely with Product, Engineering and Customer teams, she’s all about turning complex challenges into elegant, scalable solutions that make a real difference.

 

  1. Strategic Product Design
  2. Design Systems & Operational Excellence
  3. Cross-functional Collaboration
  4. User-Centred Design & Research Acumen
  5. Design Quality & Visual Craft

Graham Smith

Director of Channels & Partnerships

Graham leads Acorn’s global channel and partnerships strategy—building a high-impact ecosystem of resellers & implementation partners, content providers, integrated platforms, and industry collaborators. With a decade in the Salesforce ecosystem (both as a partner and employee), he brings deep experience in go-to-market strategy, enterprise client management, and structuring complex implementation programs. A former pro athlete and national team captain, Graham’s approach to partnerships is rooted in discipline, influence, and long-game thinking—always with an eye on scalable growth and mutual value.

 

  1. Market Analysis and Strategy
  2. Influence
  3. Strategic Partnership Development
  4. Negotiation and conflict resolution
  5. Channel strategy and management

David Cowley

Director of Engineering

As Acorn’s second-ever employee, David’s been instrumental in building the engineering function from the ground up. Now as Director of Engineering, he leads with a people-first mindset to remove blockers, coach through agile practices, and continuously fine-tune how we build. David’s known for creating high-trust, high-velocity teams and making sure every sprint brings us closer to better outcomes—for our platform, our people, and our customers.

 

  1. Impediment Removal
  2. People Management and Team Development
  3. Sprint Planning and Backlog Management
  4. Continuous Improvement and Retrospectives
  5. Facilitation of Scrum Ceremonies
  6. Agile Coaching and Mentorship

Alexa Sommerville

Brand Manager

Alexa is the brand brain behind Acorn’s voice and visual identity, watching over everything from rebrand rollout to multi-channel content strategy. She leads a cross-functional team (copy, video, design, dev) to ensure every touchpoint feels cohesive, creative, clear, and distinctly Acorn. Alexa partners with Demand Gen, Customer Success, Product, and Sales to evolve our messaging, build brand affinity, and make sure Acorn shows up with purpose—whether it’s on the website, in a sales deck, or baked into the product itself.

 

  1. Brand strategy and development
  2. Content creation and management
  3. Content performance and analytics
  4. Cross-channel content strategy
  5. Cross-functional collaboration
  6. People Management and Team Development

The next stage of growth for us means more opportunities for you.