Nish Gandhi

Delivery/Engagement

Why augustwenty?

It’s all about the people, the startup culture, and the thrill of tackling new challenges head-on.

Profile

Nish comes to augustwenty with a collaborative spirit and a sharp eye for execution. Leading client engagements while keeping a people-focused approach is where he thrives and has decades of experience. Whether it’s making those tough calls or diving deep into the consulting business model, he is there, leading the charge and inspiring others along the way. For fun Nish loves to stay active playing golf, pickleball, and traveling. With a knack for getting things done and a dash of humor, we look forward to the energy and friendliness Nish will bring to augustwenty and our partners.

Super power - Laser Focused on Solutions and Outcomes!

Scott Huston

Delivery/Engagement

Why augustwenty?

“I wanted to work with folks who are passionate about what they do, and join an organization that values people first!”

Profile

Scott majored in sports business at The Ohio State University and started his own personal training business where he learned the joy of helping others realize their own potential. Having a passion for business and helping people, Scott returned to school to earn a Masters in Human Resource Management. He wanted to help organizations find, grow, and motivate their people to achieve great things. Upon graduation he spent 6 years in the banking industry across various strategic human resource areas and is grateful for the experience. With Scott’s experience of starting his own personal training business and working in a large corporate environment, he brings a unique approach to augustwenty for helping a business learn and grow.

In Scott’s spare time he loves to exercise, watch football (especially Ohio State), and cook for family and friends. Or you may catch Scott playing one of the three instruments he plays, or telling an occasional dad joke.

Super power - Super Strength!

Jed Duffey

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I know virtually everyone.

Profile

Jed transitioned from a background in general IT/network/user support to software development 6 years ago. It is no surprise that he has a love of learning about current technologies. Jed has years of experience working alongside the folks at augustwenty and has a reputation of being extremely loyal, dependable, and always willing to help wherever is necessary. A true team player, Jed notably welcomes advice from others and is able to consider other opinions to discover the best cost-benefit solutions.

From a personal growth perspective his most impactful project was where he built a Python application to use an API to retrieve active user emails of a service. After reading and understanding each line of the script he was able to create modified versions of it to adapt to several third-party services that needed to be monitored (ie. Zoom, Figma). This project was significant because it was one of the first times he was able to leverage a programming language to automate a business process and see firsthand the amount of time it saved over the course of a year. Another notable impactful project—Jed had to revamp an onboarding Wi-Fi experience for a major national airline carrier, involving the creation of both a new set of microservices and frontend systems.

In Jed’s spare time he loves to spend time with family and friends. Additionally he pays forward his love of learning by serving as a mentor to computer science students at Columbus State Community College Career Services Mentorship Program.

Superpower: Intergalactic teleportation/travel

Emma Daugherty

Marketing

Why augustwenty?

TBD

Profile

TBD

Super power -

TBD

Jesse Boulard

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

The people. Definitely the people!

Profile

Jesse is an inventor by nature and picked up coding to make a proof of concept for one of his inventions that later became a software engineer at a startup. He has worked with and learned from great software engineers his entire career, first at the startup, then at a large international consulting company to now with the top talent at augustwenty. One of his most notable experiences along the way was helping a company process small business loans much more efficiently by pairing with the tech lead on the project; getting a deep understanding of their systems and bottlenecks, ideating, then implementing those ideas. This resulted in a streamlined process for the company’s underwriters which likely saved the client many millions of dollars. Jesse’s passion is to take a broad knowledge base and ideate to make something unique and powerful. When Jesse isn’t inventing or building something, he is a competitive chess player and loves roller hockey and table tennis.

Super Power - Inventing

Tim Norris

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I heard through the developer community in Columbus… Augustwenty is a great place to work with a lot of really smart, good character people.

Profile

Tim started his career quest by completing a masters degree in Exercise Physiology before getting into software development. In between jobs after he finished school, he took a temporary job working with Excel Spreadsheets, reconciling inventory between two different software systems. He thought there must be a way to automate this and started messing around with writing excel macros and found out he really liked it. This steered him into obtaining a degree in IT and has been working as a software developer ever since. Technology may be his career, but he believes his greatest accomplishment is that of being a father. As he puts it—” kids don’t come with an owners manual so trying to figure out the right thing to do along the way is a challenge.” Tim loves the outdoors and anything associated with it, and is an avid cyclist.

Super Power - Helpful - and would really like to be able to fly.

Mary Kaufmann

Executive Consultant

Why augustwenty?

Their purpose, their brilliant people, and the opportunity to align my purpose and passion to authentically impact the world.

Profile

It all started for Mary when a high school math teacher was taking a computer class at the local community college and offered an after school program for any geek who wanted to “learn programming” in Basic. It revolutionized her life. Mary went to college majoring in Computer Science and Business. She loved designing in Pascal, Fortran, Assembly Language, Cobol, C and more. She installed and managed a huge Macintosh lab for the campus and had the keys to the kingdom.

Fast forward to an adventurous life in working in tech with companies covering a breadth and depth of business and industry—ultimately inspiring, clarifying and developing outcomes-based solutions with speed and impact. Along this journey began evolving Mary’s focus on building learning ecosystems to support the growth of people: to help them ‘jump the curve’ to acquire new knowledge and skills in order to remain brain-and-skill resilient. It is no secret as to why Mary’s strengths are in learning and strategy, but what many don’t know about Mary is she is also fiercely passionate about her family, faith, yoga, and Crossfit.

Super Power - Illumination - shining the light on the potential of people and situations to lift the lid on their potential

Meri Kullberg

Executive Consultant

Why augustwenty?

Simply put—the people! They are the heart, the why, and the reason I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing team—building valuable things while having fun.

Profile

Meri has spent the past 20+ years operating at the intersection of business, technology, and people development. She finds fulfillment in uplifting people to achieve their goals by creating meaningful experiences that drive impactful change–for humans, communities, and ecosystems. Problem solving, experimentation, fast feedback loops and collaboration are all core to how she approaches her work of iterating, improving, and learning along the way. To her, it is all about the journey and what a journey she has had: an honors graduate from Muskingum University in Early Childhood Education; worked as a project manager for NASA; and now business development with augustwenty—and many other adventures along the way. Overall, Meri exhibits her life by experiencing the world in different ways–from the work she has done to kayaking, hiking, traveling, the arts…and sometimes just the comfort of her backyard with her wife, Christine, and dog, Max.

Super Power - Helping others identify their super power

Chris Bernholt

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

Great people doing what they love.

Profile

Chris, like many other developers, started playing video games as a kid. He has been writing programs in some fashion since 8th grade. While working on his computer science degree he programmed lasers, plasma presses, and other CNC machines for a steel fabrication company, as well as working on their job shop and accounting system software. Around 1999 he was introduced to a new language and framework that Anders Hejlsburg, of Borland fame, was working on at Microsoft and soon became hooked on C# and .net. After some time in the corporate world Chris started development and agile transformation consulting for a growing technology company in Columbus, Oh. It was through that experience that heI became interested in machine learning and completed the “Self Driving Car Engineer” nano-degree program from Udacity. Chris is “at home” working on Linux, Mac and Windows and am comfortable writing software in a number of programming languages (C#, C++, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, F#). In Chris’ spare time he enjoys playing the guitar.

Super Power - Invincibility

Caleb Smith

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

It is a great place to learn and grow as a developer.

Profile

Caleb has a passion for creating practical solutions to interesting technical problems. This applies to both hardware, software, robotics, and everything in-between. He is an avid learner which is obvious with his educational accomplishments—graduating from Wright State in Computer Engineering with honors. He is constantly working to keep his mind sharp and learning new ways to think and problem-solve. When he isn’t working on self-improvement, he loves disconnecting by hiking and playing video games.

Super Power - Telepathy

Michael Hall

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I worked previously with the people at augustwenty, so I was excited to get to work with everyone again. I missed being in the consulting side of things……and Dj always seemed to care a lot about the people he worked with.

Profile

A Columbus native, Michael graduated from The Ohio State University with a computer science and engineering degree. He has a ton of experience working with large and small companies in Java & various JS frameworks, developing websites and APIs. Michael is a poly-skilled developer and is always looking to try new things and new technology. In his spare time he loves spending time with his family and tinkering with the lightsabers he builds and playing video games.

Super Power - The Force

Michael Ruane

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I love to create and learn new things. Augustwenty is an amazing place where I can constantly do both…and its a great atmosphere with really nice, fun, helpful people with a similar mentality.

Profile

Ever since Michael began working he has always gravitated towards the IT/Networking/Programming areas of companies leading his interest to graduating with honors in Information Technology from Arizona State University. His focus was networking and cyber security, however, he also has experience in many other industries including the airline industry. Michael worked alongside aircraft engineers, technical trainers, and technicians to create and update aircraft maintenance training material for the T6-C Texan II aircraft. When he isn’t working he enjoys cooking for his family and playing video games.

Super Power - Extremely Alert

Jason Hite

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I wanted to join a smaller company……and I have worked with 90% of them. The quality of their work, a culture that feels like family, and work is fun again—is why!

Profile

Jason’s interest in computers began at about the age of 6 with a TI99/4a computer. Further pursuing this field as a career, Jason obtained an electrical and computer engineering degree. He comes to augustwenty with over 10 years of software development experience. Well versed in the agricultural space, he served over 3 years as a developer and devops in a supporting role—creating a software platform for tractors for a company trying to feed the world and increase efficiency for farmers worldwide.

Super Power - Determined

Phyllis Miller

HR/Finance

Why augustwenty?

The people. And to have the opportunity to be part of a company that is growing and making a difference.

Profile

Phyllis comes to augustwenty with over 20 years of experience in business and finance. She worked with Angela at a previous employer and is now instrumental in keeping contracts in order, projections in check, and overall best utilization of our people. Phyllis’ experience spans from integrating data to new systems accurately and efficiently for over 400+ employees —to living in Indonesia, working in the office of a flight program that provided air service for people living in remote jungle and mountain villages. It is no wonder that one of her favorite things to do is travel and see the world.

Super Power - Attention to Detail

Ruslan Guryanov

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

To work with friends and solve cool problems.

Profile

Born and raised in Russia and spending most of his life in the woods of Siberia, Ruslan traveled to the USA in 2004—never looking back. With a software engineering background, he has been in the industry since 2009. One of Ruslan’s most memorable projects was building a dynamic pricing engine for General Motors which is used by everyone in the United States who is directly or remotely buying GM OEM parts. Ruslan is not only passionate about the work he does, but also for his family, woodworking, and the outdoors to name a few.

Super Power -Mind Reading

Daniel Wagers

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

For the opportunity to work with some of the best people in the industry; to be surrounded by an insane group of continuous learners, thinkers, and inventors.

Profile

Writing code since he was 11 years old, Daniel comes to augustwenty with a degree from The Ohio State University in Computer Science and Engineering. He has worked on everything from device drivers to self-driving cars. One of his most notable accomplishments is leading a team that rebuilt the onboard Wi-Fi system for all planes flown by a major US airline. In Dan’s spare time, he enjoys tinkering, video games and studying math, history, and philosophy. It is no wonder Dan is one of our many keen problem solvers.

Super Power - Time Control

Gabriel Sheeley

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

The people.

Profile

Gabe has always had an affinity for building things. A carpenter for about 10 years before moving to Egypt to start an agricultural company then returned to the US and started software consulting. One of his most notable projects was that of modernizing the nurse workflow for a company that manages a large number of dialysis clinics. It would allow nurses to focus more on providing quality care for their patients, rather than focusing on data entry and technology. In Gabe’s free time he enjoys cycling, hiking, and gaming. If others could describe him with one word it would be “Chill.”

Super Power: Innovative

Rob Huston

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

DJ has the gift of putting together phenomenal teams. I’m grateful to be part of his story.

Profile

Rob comes to augustwenty with an abundance of experience, specifically as an electrical engineer; embedded device engineer, and Apple Developer. One of Rob’s most notable projects is that of an avionics engineer where he designed a multi-target tracking and threat detection algorithm, and software components for the first aircraft collision warning system for general aviation aircraft. Besides his work, Rob loves to enjoy a cold beer with good friends, as well as partake in amateur radio and collect vinyl records.

Superpower: Resilience

William Schleder

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

Because of the quality of the teams and its ownership.

Profile

With a BS in Electrical Engineering, William brings a wide breadth of experience to augustwenty. Ranging from system, hardware, and software development with specific technologies such as DSRC (connected vehicles); embedded systems test frameworks; radar; GBP; Cockpit avionics; airborne electronic countermeasures, to airport automation and his most notable project of creating system and software development for a multi-target tracking radar with unparalleled precision intended for military test ranges. There isn’t anything thrown at him that he can’t figure out. Thriving on solving the gnarliest of problems for his clients, he also thrives with traveling, being outdoors, and spending time with his wife and border collie.

Super Power: Finding Solutions to Complex Problems

Casey Boyd

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I liked the vision of the company and what they wanted to achieve. I appreciate their approach to care for their employees….unlike a big corporation.

Profile

Casey is truly a guy who can create things “mobile to metal.” He has worked in numerous industries spanning from financial services to healthcare, agriculture, automotive and many more. One of his most memorable projects was creating software for an infotainment system within automobiles. It was groundbreaking and gave an early glimpse of what was coming in the automotive industry.

Casey shares a “solving problems” passion with so many others at augustwenty, as well as his love of the outdoors. He especially, though, has an affinity for health care and is also a health coach.

Super Power - Caring

Jason Duffy

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I get the chance to work with a group of fun, smart, and kind people.

Profile

Graduating with an Electrical and Computer Engineering Degree from The Ohio State University AND as a member of The Ohio State University Marching Band, Jason has over a decade of experience creating software in a wide range of technologies from front end to back end—embedded systems to mobile apps. Putting these skills to work, Jason was the Technical Lead for the team that developed the customer-facing iOS app for American Electric Power—branded and customized for each of its subsidiary operating companies. Key to the success of this project was automated testing and deployment to ensure the ability to maintain a rapid release cadence AND working closely with the user experience team and their feedback to pivot where needed in order to provide an enjoyable, high-quality experience.

Super Power: Listening and figuring out the right thing to do and then getting it done.

Nick Preston

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I value the mindset of augustwenty—no matter how flashy or mundane a project may be, success is simply building something of real value with people you want to spend a majority of your days with.

Profile

Graduating with a BA in Science, Computer Science, Nick came to augustwenty as a previous peer to others already working at augustwenty. He has a wide array of experiences in a variety of industries and most notably has worked to build an intelligent infotainment system fueled by personalized driver data for a large automotive manufacturer. When he isn’t coding and solving gnarly problems, he will likely be found with his family, on the ice playing hockey, are attending a Columbus Blue Jackets game.

Super Power - Easy going

Bill Ruane

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

For the opportunity to join an awesome group of people that enjoy working together on interesting and difficult problems.

Profile

Bill has been interested in programming and computers his whole life. He sought an educational background in mathematics, physics, and topped it off with a Doctorate of Philosophy from The Ohio State University. His draw to a career in consulting/software development was the ability to work within a variety of industries on a wide array of problems—one of which he built a custom scanning ferromagnetic resonance force microscope where he was heavily involved in writing its control/automation and analysis software. He is not only passionate about his work, he has a love for music, dining, and dancing.

Super Power - Van Damme’s Spinning Split Kick

Brandon Cromer

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

I truly believe DJ is a real leader…..and saw who else was joining a20. I knew I had to be a part of it….there was no question this company would succeed.

Profile

Graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Engineering, Brandon brings over 10 years of experience and a very broad knowledge of technologies, languages, and practices. One of Brandon’s greatest contributions is working on a team to transform the way a retailer produced software. Taking the client from deployments monthly with software breaking over 60% of the time to deploying software daily with only 3 breaks in a 1.5 year time span.

When he isn’t solving gnarly problems for his clients, Brandon enjoys hanging out with his kids and friends as well as, tapping into his musical skills of playing the bass and being a streaming sound engineer.

Super Power: Dedicated

Cory Shields

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

Because I know and respect the folks at augustwenty greatly; I trust them to work hard and create an excellent place to work.

Profile

Completing a bachelors of arts degree in computer science from a small liberal arts college near where Cory grew up in Northeast, Oh, Cory has been providing consulting for over 12 years. One of Corys most notable projects is the work he did with agricultural technology where he worked with a team to develop a precision farming operating system for self-guided tractors—a system used today by farmers all over the world. Cory finds solutions to some of his clients’ most complex problems through simply spending time in nature: hiking, exploring, and processing innovative ideas.

Super Power: Strength

Derek Nixon

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

…honored to have worked with augustwenty team members, this team is well-oiled, intelligent, hard working, and talented. Combining the technical expertise with its leadership, guarantees nothing but success for the future of augustwenty.

Profile

Derek’s affinity for computers started early. Living in California and the son of an Apple employee in the mid-80’s Derek disassembled a brand new Macintosh to see how it worked. He went on to graduate in Computer Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University where he was also a wrestler. He comes to augustwenty with over 25 years experience varying from enterprise to embedded systems and adept in continuously evaluating project direction and course correcting as needed to ensure our client’s delight. It is clear that in business and personally Derek has a heart for people. One of Derek’s most memorable projects was working many years in prosthetics: being able to help amputees walk and return to an active lifestyle was extremely rewarding. Aside from his work at augustwenty, Derek remains passionate about wrestling, serving as a wrestling coach.

Super Power - Hard Worker

Beth Shaheen

Marketing

Why augustwenty?

I respect the founders and their vision….knowing the culture would be like a family.

Profile

Beth brings to augustwenty over 10 years of marketing experience in the IT industry. With a degree in marketing and business management and years of experience in the telecommunications industry, she stepped aside from her career to serve as the CEO of her family before re-entering the IT industry. She successfully created and grew non-existent marketing efforts to a thriving marketing department encompassing everything from events planning, advertising, social media, public relations, and website content.

Super Power - Connecting with People

Matthew Righter

Solutions Consultant

Why augustwenty?

Simple, augustwenty is packed with people I like working with and enjoy being around.

Profile

Matt considers himself a perennial student and strives to continuously learn from the users of the products he has built. He immerses himself into their experiences so he may have a full understanding of the desired user experience—hence giving him the knowledge to design and build the right software, the right way. With a degree in computer science and mathematics, and has a passion for graphic design—specifically to enhance the user experience for his clients. One of Matt’s notable accomplishments was developing a mobile scheduling app for a large health services organization. It was significant because not only was the focus on reducing friction for patients scheduling with their primary care providers, but the team was able to work closely with users throughout the project to ensure they were providing value to those who are under-served.

Super Power - Problem Solver

Eric Coleman

Engineering Consultant

Why augustwenty?

To have the opportunity to be a part of a new company and build it from the ground up!

Profile

If you asked Eric what his background is he would tell you Dad, hacker, musician, and general-purpose nerd. What he modestly doesn’t mention is his degree from Ohio University in Computer Science and the vast amount of experience he has in software engineering. However, brilliant in mind and kid at heart, he proudly shares his most significant work is that of being a “DAD.” Eric brings a calm, collected, and quick-witted levity to the intensity of some of his projects—enabling him to keep projects ahead of schedule.

Super Power: Detail Oriented

Jennifer Clay

HR/Finance

Why augustwenty?

I couldn’t wait to work with my favorite people again—people I consider family. And the chance to do challenging, beneficial work again…why would I want to be anywhere else?

Profile

Jenn was one of the original five that started with augustwenty. Jenn launched her finance career working on Angela’s team at a previous employer, after she had the great opportunity to proudly raise her two girls—of what she mentions is one of her greatest accomplishments. That experience working in finance gave her a foundation to set up all of the finance systems that would be necessary for augustwenty to run efficiently. Although her overall role began as finance, Jenn’s focus now has pivoted to Human Resources. Jenn finds tremendous balance with her work by diligently practicing yoga and spending time with her family.

Super Power - Optimistic

Angela McManaway

CEO/Co-founder

Why augustwenty?

I wanted to create a place where someone could work and feel like family.

Profile

As the co-founder of augustwenty, Angela is the backbone of the business with over 20 years of Accounting/Finance—specifically in IT since 1999. Focusing on business consulting, mainly finance, Angela has an instinct on how to “fix things.” She can readily access what is and isn’t working allowing her to redirect in order to keep the company growing and building teams. Besides her love of travel, wine, family, and fashion, Angela has a huge heart for augustwenty’s people—seeking to create a place where employees feel safe and valued as individuals.

Super Power - Assertive

DJ Daugherty

CTO/Co-founder

Why augustwenty?

I wanted to build a company that I actually like working for.

Profile

Ever since DJ decided not to pursue a career as a Jedi (age 12), he has been drawn to making things. He is not a left or a right-brain thinker — he uses the whole thing. DJ loves spending time in both the creative and technology worlds. As the CTO of augustwenty, his ability to balance between creative and analytical thinking fits him to a T. DJ’s primary focus is shaping the technical direction and vision of augustwenty’s continued development, with particular attention between culture and growth.

DJ has spent the last (too many to mention) years using his ability to understand a business’ needs and the technology required to deliver on their opportunities. He helps narrow their focus to the most important and valuable ‘thing’, delivering value to the businesses he helps as well as the customers they serve. He has spent time working with a very large, yellow and green, tractor company… adding the ability to ‘drive themselves.’ He has also spent lots of time working on building Autonomous Drive Systems (ADS) for the automotive industry. He also built a testing platform that enables software developers, unfamiliar with the process, to test the interface between hardware and software—quickly and efficiently.

Some notable clients include Enron, John Deere, Ford, Progressive Medical, Gordon Food Services, DriveOhio, Case New Holland, Fiat Chrysler, Alliance Data, 3M, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure/MCVP.

Outside of work, DJ can usually be found on two wheels—bicycling or motorcycling. He spends a lot of his spare time bicycling to cure cancer… Pelotonia. You can also catch him fly fishing in the great outdoors or building autonomous drones.

Superpower: Memory