Skip to content
Our Leadership

Meet the team

Get to know the driving force behind our vision and passion for community software. Each one of our senior leaders brings a unique perspective and background to meet the needs of our customers and support our mission. We are leading the way to innovate, create, and deliver the best community software solutions.

Our team believes in the power and connection of community.

LinkedIn Rob Wegner
Rob Wenger
Chief Executive Officer

Rob Wenger has 30 years of experience as an entrepreneurial founder and technology executive. He is the Co-Founder of Higher Logic and currently the Chief Executive Officer for the company. Founded in 2007, Higher Logic connects people, knowledge and ideas through its community and engagement platform. Higher Logic serves over 3,000 customers through 350,000+ online communities with over 200 million users in 42 countries worldwide.

Previously, Rob was Chief Product Officer and Executive Chairman of Association Analytics, Founder and CEO of Cloud Generation as well as a Board of Director for Cosential. Underlying Rob’s repeated success is a deep passion and expertise in product strategy and development. Across businesses, associations and nonprofits, he works to positively impact each client’s success using smart, collaborative technology.

When not inventing the next great software tool, Rob is hanging out with his kids and planning their next great skiing adventure.

LinkedIn Tricia Benedix
Tricia Benedix
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

Tricia brings over 20 years of financial and operating experience maximizing the potential for private-equity backed companies. As the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for the company, Tricia leverages her experience leading technology companies through comprehensive strategies to drive financial and operational performance for sustainable growth. Prior to joining Higher Logic in 2018 as the Chief Financial Officer, Tricia held a variety of CFO roles for Social Solutions, Relias Learning, Mitratech technology companies. Prior to that she also held numerous financial roles for Sunquest Information Systems and Misys Healthcare Systems.

Tricia earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Bentley University.

LinkedIn
Mark Lowry
Chief Revenue Officer

Mark has dedicated his entire professional career to building relationships with clients and partners based on trust, great solutions, and a shared mission to advance the association market. Mark returns as the CRO of Higher Logic, a position he previously held for 10+ years, where he oversees sales, partnerships and client relations. Widely recognized for his association industry and business expertise, Mark currently sits on several boards and councils providing guidance on organizational effectiveness and growth strategies. In between stints at Higher Logic, Mark spent 5+ years as President and CRO of Association Analytics.

Mark is a proud graduate of Virginia Tech with 2 degrees, and outside of work enjoys coaching his boys’ youth baseball, basketball and football teams.

LinkedIn
Conor Sibley
Chief Technology Officer

Conor serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Higher Logic. Conor has spent the past two decades building influential companies where he designed and managed internet scale platforms. He developed his in-depth knowledge implementing emerging technologies and leading multiple successful M&A activities as an executive at startups, enterprises, consulting organizations, as well as with various branches of the military and intelligence community.  He sits on investment and grant boards of multiple funds and teaches Entrepreneurship courses on product development at The University of Virginia.

Most recently Conor was the CTO at Cloud Generation and the Fractional CTO of Association Analytics. In the past, he served as a Network Security Engineer with BBN Technologies, the organization that architected the Internet and first email technologies.

Conor has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and an MBA from the University of Virginia. In his free time outside of ushering in the future of WEB2 & WEB3 technologies, Conor is bouncing around wrangling a house full of kids he refers to as his wild animals.

LinkedIn
Dave Bornmann
Chief Marketing Officer

Dave is an expert B2B marketer with 30+ years’ experience, more than a third of which has been in the association industry. One of the 101 Top B2B Marketing Influencers of 2023, he is known for his strategic leadership, tactical execution, and team building. Dave has marketed career centers, learning platforms, association management systems, print/digital media and most recently analytics platforms as CMO at Association Analytics. His deep experience in these areas will be incredibly valuable as we continue to expand our Thrive platform offerings and position them for success in the market.

An avid believer in the power of associations, Dave regularly contributes to the community through his volunteer work, speaking engagements and content creation. He is a past member of both the ASAE Marketing Council and Industry Partner Alliance.

Dave has a marketing MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Swarthmore College. He is a fitness enthusiast, avid reader, and loves to cook and spend time with his husband, teenager and goldendoodle in Rehoboth Beach, DE when not at their home in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of DC.

LinkedIn
Joanna Luth
Chief People Officer

Joanna leads the people strategy and execution for Higher Logic. She has over 20 years of human resources experience, during which she has aligned people strategy to support organizational goals. With her philosophy of ‘person first, employee second,’ Joanna brings an authentic approach to balancing the needs of the people with organizational strategy. Areas of expertise include: organizational design and development, leadership development, employee engagement and development, benefits and compensation strategy, talent acquisition, acquisition integration and cultural transformation.

Prior to joining Higher Logic, Joanna served as the Chief People Officer for Intradiem. She has also served as Vice President of Human Resources for both eVestment Alliance, as well as Aptean, Inc. Joanna played a pivotal role in launching programs that create great managers and leaders, cultivating a culture of feedback and development for all employees. She has a depth of experience from her role on the Learning & Development team at JDA Software and as the Director of Talent Acquisition & Development for RedPrairie, where she started as a Senior HR Consultant working with recently acquired companies on personnel integration.

Joanna received her undergraduate degree (B.A.) from NYU and her graduate degree (M.A.T.S.) from Claremont School of Theology.

LinkedIn Paul Schneider
Paul Schneider
Executive Vice President of Higher Logic Vanilla

Paul Schneider is the Executive Vice President of Higher Logic Vanilla, bringing over two decades of experience in building and scaling technology companies. At Higher Logic Vanilla, he oversees all aspects of the Vanilla product, driving strategic initiatives to enhance customer support and foster innovation. Paul brings an entrepreneurial spirit to his role, passionate about developing world-class organizations and cultivating strong customer relationships. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending quality time with his family.

Paul is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh earning his Bachelor of Science in Marketing.

LinkedIn Steve Balthazor
Steve Balthazor
Executive Vice President, Engineering & Support

Steve leads the engineering and support functions at Higher Logic. Steve’s career started in the United States Navy as a Submarine Officer, and where he eventually held the position of Lieutenant. Following his time in the service, Steve has held a variety of senior engineering-related positions in the semiconductor industry, the mining industry, and ultimately, in the software industry. Steve was the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Socious, a membership management and online community software company for associations. Steve joined Higher Logic in 2017 after the company acquired Socious, and he continued to lead various areas of product, support and engineering for the company.

Steve has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Nuclear Sciences from Arizona State University.

LinkedIn
Bettina Fowler
Senior Vice President, Customer Success

Bettina has twenty years of experience in software working with customers and teams to deliver successful software implementations, migrations, training, and support. She joined Higher Logic in 2014 and held a variety of customer success positions.  Since 2022, Bettina has been leading the customer success organization to partner with our customers through their journey leveraging the Higher Logic products, from inception to adoption to ensure their engagement drives a successful outcome.

Prior to joining Higher Logic, Bettina worked in the federal contracting space. She previously managed implementations and enablement, with a focus on Federal Procurement and Asset Management for the United States Coast Guard, United States Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Labor.

Bettina has a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland.

LinkedIn
Will Laco
Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations 

Will brings over ten years of experience to Higher Logic with a diverse background in finance and technology.  Currently leading operations and corporate development for the company, he develops and executes strategies that drive efficient growth.  Previously, Will led Higher Logic’s product management team serving both the B2B & B2C end markets. Before joining Higher Logic, he advised and invested in companies as an investment banker at Credit Suisse and a private equity investor at JMI Equity.

Will earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.