Our Leaders

John Borland

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

John Borland is Chief Executive Officer of Perceptyx, where he leads company strategy and daily business operations. In this role, John is the steward of Perceptyx’s mission to be trusted by the world’s leading organizations, helping them leverage their people and business data to create positive employee experiences and greater organizational success.

Since co-founding Perceptyx in 2003, John has worked in nearly every area of the company’s business. Creating an environment where people can thrive has been one of John’s primary goals in building Perceptyx. He is both the company’s historian and visionary, lending a unique hands-on “operator perspective” that emphasizes the importance of innovation, collaboration, and culture across the business. Before being named CEO in 2017, John served as Perceptyx’s Chief Operating Officer. His successful track record in driving significant business growth and product investment helped Perceptyx become the acknowledged industry leader in delivering people analytics at enterprise scale.

John is deeply passionate about the relationship between employees feeling empowered to share their voice and knowing they’ve been heard, and the impact on advancing successful world-class organizations. He is proud of the role Perceptyx plays in helping great companies, including ABInBev, Ascension Healthcare, Citi, FedEx, Hitachi, and more than 625 other organizations across the globe achieve greater success by providing a better employee experience.

A native Californian, John and his wife have been married for 23 years and have five children. In his free time, John enjoys relaxing on the water with family and friends or building something new in his workshop. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from California Polytechnic State University.

Danielle Wanderer

Chief Marketing Officer

Danielle Wanderer, serving as Chief Marketing Officer for Perceptyx since October 2020, has brought a wealth of experience in marketing and strategic planning spanning three decades. She has played a pivotal role in the organization’s marketing strategy by encouraging team building, enhancing cross-disciplinary collaboration, promoting innovation, and delivering quality pipeline to drive top-line growth.

Before joining Perceptyx, Wanderer’s career journey was marked by several positions with companies at key inflection points in their history. As CMO and the first non-founder executive hire at Qualtrics, Dani was instrumental in repositioning the company to CX and building out its first marketing team. Following Qualtrics, she served four years as the Chief Marketing Officer at Quiq, a start-up focused on revolutionizing high-volume consumer-to-enterprise communications through messaging. Starting at $0 in revenue and helping to capture the first 200 enterprise customers in a new category was a great experience.

Dani acquired her passion for B2B SaaS software in 2000 upon joining early-stage RightNow Technologies. After nearly 11 years starting, leading, and building out several new marketing functions at RightNow, going through an IPO, and running global marketing, she helped to ensure a smooth transition following RightNow’s acquisition by Oracle in 2011.

Wanderer’s career began at Hewlett Packard, where she gained foundational expertise in finance, product management, and strategic planning, enriched by her global exposure as a Finance & Marketing Operations Manager in Bergamo, Italy. Wanderer holds an MBA in Finance and a BA in German from the University of Arizona.

Jon Nguyen

Chief Financial Officer

As the Chief Financial Officer for Perceptyx, Inc, Jon is accountable for the daily operations of the company. Jon oversees performance measures for the delivery team, and plays an active role in setting the tone and direction of the business. Jon dedicates a significant portion of his time towards paving the way for future system enhancements to meet emerging client needs.

Jon is instrumental in fostering employee alignment throughout the business, allocating resources to meet strategic goals, improving efficiency and maximizing quality. Jon brings deep technical know-how regarding the system, which is coupled alongside strong leadership skills. Combined with his academic background in Business Management, Jon provides a constant source of thought leadership.

The sheer number of clients that Jon has worked with means that he brings a unique perspective on the industry. For example, Jon has partnered with companies such as: Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Dell, NBCUniversal, Microsoft, and many more.

Lisa Sterling

Chief People Officer

Lisa Sterling is a forward-thinking, engaging leader who has been disrupting the business and HR landscape to create cultural and organizational for the past 20 years. As a Chief Administrative, HR, Culture, and People Officer, as well as an HCM product expert, Lisa led one of the most radical cultural transformations for a fast-growing, technology company. Now with Perceptyx she is leading the growth and transformation of our people and culture, as well as serving as a thought leader to HR and Tech professionals within global organizations.

Steen Andersen

Chief Customer Officer

Steen Andersen is the Chief Customer Officer at Perceptyx, where he oversees all customer-related functions, including implementation and onboarding, professional services, support, customer success, account management, and renewals. Guided by the principle that "everything begins with the customer," Steen brings extensive expertise in driving initiatives that enhance customer experience and satisfaction. He is devoted to building strong, cohesive teams and takes pride in fostering an environment where team members can thrive, grow, and achieve their full potential.

Before joining Perceptyx, Steen accumulated a wealth of experience in global enterprise software organizations. Starting his career in consulting and project management, he progressed to leadership roles in both services and sales. With a passion for delivering complex software and service solutions, he has successfully worked with advanced enterprise customers across the US, EMEA, and APAC regions.

A dual citizen of the United States and Denmark, Steen has lived and worked in the US, the UK, and continental Europe, shaping a global perspective. He now resides in Philadelphia with his wife, while their two adult sons pursue their own paths. In his free time, Steen enjoys walking the streets of Philadelphia with his dog, listening to podcasts, and practicing his skills in amateur photography. He holds a Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Aarhus University.

Vinod Malhotra

Chief Technology Officer

Vinod Malhotra is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Perceptyx. He leads the company’s technical strategy, end-to-end software development, technology infrastructure, and cloud operations to deliver Perceptyx's multi-channel AI-powered enterprise-grade Employee Experience (EX) platform. He is a global technology executive with over 25 years of experience in scaling, transforming, and growing B2B SaaS through technology innovation, product mindset, building high performance teams, and mergers/acquisitions.

Prior to joining Perceptyx, Vinod served as SVP of Engineering at BlackLine, responsible for the delivery of a cloud based Financial Close and Invoice-to-Cash automation platforms that brought in annual recurring revenue of over half a billion dollars. He previously held leadership roles at ICE Mortgage Technology, Tally Solutions, Finastra, and Microsoft.

Vinod holds M. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Delhi and a US patent.

Joseph Freed

Chief Product Officer

Joseph Freed is the Chief Product Officer at Perceptyx, where he leads the company’s product strategy, innovation, and execution across its enterprise-grade Employee Experience (EX) platform. In this role, Joseph oversees a comprehensive portfolio of AI-powered products designed to help large organizations foster a thriving employee culture and drive measurable business outcomes. He is responsible for shaping Perceptyx’s product vision, aligning product development with the company’s strategic goals, and ensuring the successful delivery of innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of Fortune 500 clients. Joseph’s leadership extends to cross-functional collaboration across engineering, marketing, sales, and customer success teams, ensuring that Perceptyx maintains its competitive edge in the HR technology space.

Before joining Perceptyx, Joseph was the Co-founder and CEO of Cultivate, a venture-backed AI coaching and analytics platform, which was acquired by Perceptyx in 2022. During his tenure at Cultivate, he led the company from ideation to successful product launch, securing strategic partnerships and scaling the business to serve global enterprise customers. His entrepreneurial journey also includes serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Samsung NEXT and as Co-founder and CEO of an edtech startup incubated at the Education Design Studio at the University of Pennsylvania.

With a deep passion for product management and innovation, Joseph has held multiple leadership roles in product management across various industries. He has also shared his expertise as a lecturer of software product management at UC Berkeley Extension and is an active startup advisor, mentoring the next generation of product leaders.

Joseph holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business. 

David Hollady

General Counsel, DPO

Currently serving as General Counsel for Perceptyx, Hollady brings more than a decade of legal and operations expertise to the organization. His track record encompasses building legal commercial teams, implementing comprehensive privacy programs, managing complex M&A transactions, and overseeing crucial fundraising activities.

Prior to Perceptyx, Hollady's career trajectory was marked by increasingly strategic roles at companies experiencing significant growth and transformation. As Head of Legal and HumanResources at Lever, Hollady successfully managed the company's $60 million Series D financing round and subsequent tender offer. His leadership extended beyond traditional legal functions to include the development of a privacy program that supported more than 6,000 customers across 30 countries, ensuring compliance with complex international regulations including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPEDA.

Following Lever’s successful acquisition by Employ, David joined the new organization as Head of Legal and DPO, overseeing legal, compliance, and contract operations.

Hollady's commitment to legal excellence and professional development is evidenced by his service on the Content Scope Committee of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, where he helped shape the future of the legal profession's qualifying examination. He maintains active involvement in the legal technology community as a charter member of TechGC, an invitation-only peer community for general counsels who work in the technology sector.

Hollady holds IAPP CIPP/E and CIPM certifications, as well as an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and a law degree from New England Law | Boston.