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Mark Kroll
Flex Talent Network
Professional Background
Mark Kroll is a seasoned professional with an extensive career in finance, technology audit, and corporate governance. With a wealth of experience in high-level positions across major financial institutions, Mark has established himself as a leader in business technology audit. His career began at Deloitte & Touche as a Senior Consultant, where he developed a strong foundation in financial consulting and technology assessment. His contributions to the field were recognized early on, setting the stage for his impressive trajectory in the finance sector.
Following his tenure at Deloitte, Mark advanced in his career by taking on pivotal roles at prominent organizations. He served as Vice President of Technology Audit at Countrywide Financial, where he honed his skills in auditing technology and ensuring compliance within technology systems. His proficiency in these areas led him to Bank of America, where he held the position of 1st Vice President for Corporate Finance Governance. Here, Mark was responsible for overseeing finance governance strategies to enhance operational efficiency and mitigate risk within the organization.
Mark's leadership journey continued when he joined the Bank of New York Mellon as the Managing Director and Global Head of Business Technology Audit. In this capacity, he was integral in shaping the business technology audit strategy of the bank, ensuring that technology systems were both secure and efficient. His tenure in this role was marked by innovative approaches to auditing, leading to significant improvements in risk management and operational processes.
Currently, Mark is associated with Flex Talent Network at PwC, where he continues to leverage his extensive experience in finance and technology to provide invaluable insights and support to various initiatives. His current role allows him the flexibility and opportunity to mentor emerging talent while also engaging in strategic projects that align with his expertise.
Education and Achievements
Mark Kroll's educational background has significantly contributed to his professional success. He completed his high school education at Eastlake North High School, where he developed a strong work ethic and foundational skills. His pursuit of higher education led him to the University of Akron, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus on Finance. This degree equipped him with essential finance knowledge and analytical skills that he would later apply in his professional roles.
To further enhance his understanding of business operations and management, Mark pursued a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Arizona. This advanced degree provided him with deeper insights into corporate strategy, leadership, and business technology, aligning perfectly with his career aspirations in finance and audit.
Mark's educational achievements are complemented by his extensive professional experiences, which showcase his ability to adapt and thrive within complex organizational structures. His leadership in various capacities has not only earned him recognition within his fields of expertise but also contributed to the overall advancement of corporate finance governance and technology audit practices.
Notable Achievements
Throughout his career, Mark Kroll has garnered several notable achievements that highlight his impact within the financial and technology sectors. His strategic leadership role at the Bank of New York Mellon positioned him as a thought leader in the realm of business technology audit. Under his guidance, the bank implemented new systems that bolstered its auditing processes and safeguarded technological integrity.
Additionally, Mark's contributions at Bank of America in establishing corporate finance governance frameworks played a crucial role in enhancing the organization's financial compliance. His commitment to ensuring that financial practices adhered to industry standards is a testament to his dedication to fostering a culture of accountability and excellence in corporate finance.
In his role at Deloitte, Mark's work helped numerous clients navigate challenges surrounding technology risks and compliance issues, showcasing his ability to provide actionable insights and strategic recommendations.
In all his endeavors, Mark has demonstrated a pioneering spirit, a commitment to professional excellence, and an unwavering focus on achieving organizational goals. Most recently, his position at Flex Talent Network at PwC allows him the opportunity to engage with a diverse range of projects while supporting the development of future leaders in finance and technology.
Mark Kroll is a distinguished professional whose education and experience have shaped him into a respected authority in financial technology and corporate governance. His impressive track record of success serves as an inspiration for aspiring professionals seeking to make their mark in the industry, confirming that with the right blend of education, experience, and leadership, great accomplishments are within reach.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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