Monty Hamilton is the CEO and founder of Sparq, formerly known as Rural Sourcing, where he leads the executive team and drives the overall strategy. Sparq is a unique digital engineering company focused on helping its clients realize their digital transformation strategies and creating thousands of technology careers in places where they otherwise would not exist. Monty has helped grow the firm through two private equity investments to become the largest privately held digital engineering firm with colleagues across the US and Latin America. He is a sought-after speaker on the outsourcing and domestic sourcing topic and has recently been featured on CNBC, BBC, NPR radio and at various industry conferences including IAOP, Gartner, Digital Georgia and others. In addition, recent articles depicting Sparq’s innovative outsourcing model have appeared in Business Week, CNN Money magazine, CFO magazine, and CIO magazine.
This is Monty’s second entrepreneurial startup venture after leaving Accenture in 1995. He joined together with four other colleagues to build a consulting firm – Clarkston Consulting. He was instrumental in growing Clarkston into a global strategic and systems integration firm with offices across the US and Europe. After Clarkston’s acquisition of Sparq, he became the CEO in 2009.
Monty is on the Board of Directors for Ventures ATL, a technology company in Atlanta focused on providing careers for adults on the autism spectrum, a member of the Board of Trustees for Millsaps College, and an investor in early stage technology companies.
Monty holds an M.B.A. from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University and a B.B.A. in business from Millsaps College.
As the President of Sparq, Ingrid is responsible for driving collaboration across the organization to deliver industry-focused digital solutions and unique and valuable client and colleague experiences. Ingrid oversees the execution of Sparq’s consulting delivery and drives the future of its services through its new capabilities and acquisition strategy. Her leadership has been pivotal in cementing Sparq’s reputation as a leader in digital engineering and product development, successfully blending
Ingrid’s dedication to fostering a nurturing and inclusive workplace culture is evidenced by her role as the Executive Sponsor of Sparq’s Equity, Inclusion & Diversity (EI&D) efforts. This underscores her commitment to creating an environment of belonging and respect, not just within Sparq but also in its interactions with clients and the broader community.
Prior to joining Sparq, Ingrid defined her skills in technology transformation at Clarkston Consulting, specializing in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors. There, she led global teams, demonstrating her expertise in managing complex, cross-border projects and her ability to drive change in fast-paced, high-stakes environments.
Ingrid is a proud alumna of Babson College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.
As the Chief Operating Officer, Brian oversees Sparq’s global delivery organization, solution practices and the development of new offerings and capabilities. Brian works closely with Sparq’s vertical go-to-market teams to create and deliver solutions tuned to the specific needs of the industries we serve.
Prior to joining Sparq, Brian held a number of positions at leading firms in business and technology consulting. Most recently Brian spent eight years at EPAM Systems as Vice President Technology Solutions focused on developing digital solutions and content practices along with building out a delivery organization for a new business unit. Prior to EPAM, Brian spent fifteen years at Publicis Sapient as a Vice President of Technology serving in multiple roles such as leading the transition to Agile and building a wide variety of market facing practices covering data, cloud, performance, platform engineering and others encompassing thousands of engineers.
As Chief People Officer, Robin provides leadership and guidance for Colleague Services, Talent Acquisition and Learning and Development to support Sparq’s entire colleague lifecycle.
Prior to joining Sparq, Robin served as Chief People Officer for Outmatch, a leader in the hiring experience space. She has also served in HR leadership roles for WestRock, Hitachi Consulting and Delta Air Lines.
Robin earned a Bachelor of General Studies in business, communications and political science from Ohio University.
As the Chief Revenue Officer for Sparq, Jeff is entrusted with a range of responsibilities aimed at driving the company’s growth and success. Central to his role is the development and execution of Sparq’s vertical Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy, carefully crafted to navigate market dynamics and foster sustainable growth. He also works closely with his dedicated strategic verticals sales team to ensure they delight clients and continue to drive growth for the company.
Before joining Sparq, Jeff has held a number of sales leadership roles, each contributing to his expertise in vertical GTM strategies. For eight years, he led sales within the Manufacturing, Logistics, Energy and Utilities organization at Cognizant. He then joined Fujitsu North America as Head of Sales, further deepening his understanding of vertical markets and refining his ability to lead high-performing sales teams towards success. Most recently, Jeff was the Chief Revenue Officer at 3Pillar, where he drove sustainable revenue streams and fostered continued growth.
Jeff has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Accounting from the University of Alberta and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management from Robert Morris University.
As Chief Client Officer for Sparq, Scott is responsible for one of our core values, ‘Change the Experience.’ He and his team are client-facing, colleague-centered and delivery-focused to ensure that our clients are delighted with our services. Scott works across our Sales, Sales Engineering and Delivery teams to ensure common practices and drive rigor that results in excellent outcomes.
With 30+ years of hands-on technology leadership experience, Scott has led high-performing teams, technology groups, and business divisions through dozens of enterprise initiatives, systems development and digital innovation. He has also led organizational transformation initiatives with a recent focus around Agile, DevOps and Cloud transitions driven by rapidly growing digital demands across a number of industries and organizations.
Scott is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science.
Derek Perry is the Chief Technology Officer at Sparq, leading the company’s AI-First strategy and driving innovation through the development of strategic, AI-centric service offerings. In this role, Derek oversees Sparq’s Technology & Solutions Consulting function, ensuring services are tailored to meet clients’ evolving needs and positioning Sparq as a leader in AI-driven transformation.
With over two decades of experience in technology leadership, Derek brings deep expertise in applying advanced solutions to address business challenges, custom application development, and strategic innovation. His professional background includes critical leadership roles, notably Director of Quality Systems Business Solutions at Clarkston Consulting, where he was responsible for delivery excellence, methodology advancement, and service development.
Derek is passionate about harnessing artificial intelligence to optimize business processes, enhance operational efficiency, and deliver measurable business outcomes. He is committed to cultivating technical excellence within his teams, fostering innovation, and advancing Sparq’s vision of delivering transformative AI solutions that benefit Sparq’s clients and colleagues.
Derek holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech.
As Executive Advisor, Alex is focused on the success of some of Sparq’s most strategic accounts. In this role, he will lead Sparq’s Client Management teams for select large enterprise accounts. The outcomes he is charged with center on client retention and overall relationship success and growth, ensuring these strategic clients achieve great outcomes partnering together with Sparq; with this, Alex continues to report directly to Sparq’s CEO.
Prior to moving into the role of Executive Advisor in 2024, Alex joined Sparq in 2016 as Chief Revenue Officer where he led the Go-To-Market (GTM) and client-facing revenue driving teams and strategy for the firm. In doing so, Alex built the GTM Revenue Organization from scratch into a high-performing engine across Sales, Solution Engineering, RevOps, Sales Enablement and Client Success. During this time, Sparq realized tremendous growth across our client-base, capabilities and revenues fueled by two private equity investments.
Additionally, prior to joining Sparq, Alex led the successful sale of his firm in 2014, LEHAN Partners, as Managing Director and Equity Partner to a Strategic, SOLU Technology Partners. Overall, he has 25+ years of GTM and RevOps leadership, sales leadership and P/L leadership experience helping clients successfully build, buy, implement, and operate digital products and solutions, while helping companies drive profitable growth. He has enjoyed roles across high-growth companies including LEHAN Partners/Solu Technology Partners, Experis/Comsys, Daugherty Business Solutions, S1, Ajilon Services, Lanier Worldwide and Continental Airlines.
Alex is a proud Alum of Auburn University, where he earned his undergraduate degree, as well as SMU’s Cox School of Business, where he earned his MBA.
Monty Hamilton is the CEO and founder of Sparq, formerly known as Rural Sourcing, where he leads the executive team and drives the overall strategy. Sparq is a unique digital engineering company focused on helping its clients realize their digital transformation strategies and creating thousands of technology careers in places where they otherwise would not exist. Monty has helped grow the firm through two private equity investments to become the largest privately held digital engineering firm with colleagues across the US and Latin America. He is a sought-after speaker on the outsourcing and domestic sourcing topic and has recently been featured on CNBC, BBC, NPR radio and at various industry conferences including IAOP, Gartner, Digital Georgia and others. In addition, recent articles depicting Sparq’s innovative outsourcing model have appeared in Business Week, CNN Money magazine, CFO magazine, and CIO magazine.
This is Monty’s second entrepreneurial startup venture after leaving Accenture in 1995. He joined together with four other colleagues to build a consulting firm – Clarkston Consulting. He was instrumental in growing Clarkston into a global strategic and systems integration firm with offices across the US and Europe. After Clarkston’s acquisition of Sparq, he became the CEO in 2009.
Monty is on the Board of Directors for Ventures ATL, a technology company in Atlanta focused on providing careers for adults on the autism spectrum, a member of the Board of Trustees for Millsaps College, and an investor in early stage technology companies.
Monty holds an M.B.A. from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University and a B.B.A. in business from Millsaps College.
Susan Penfield is the Chief Technology Officer of Booz Allen Hamilton, a global technology and consulting company and the largest provider of federal AI services.
Over her 30-year career at Booz Allen, Susan has served in various leadership and technology roles driving transformation across the business. As CTO, Susan oversees a scaled global technology team and is charged to accelerate growth and help advance the government’s digital future through emerging technologies and AI implementation, scalable innovations and infrastructures that meet our nation’s most critical mission challenges. Prior to being CTO, she was Booz Allen’s Chief Innovation Officer, responsible for accelerating growth through mission-centric innovation and new business models. She also led the company’s billion-dollar digital business and drove the health account to become the company’s largest and fastest growing business, providing transformational consulting and technology to public and private-sector healthcare clients.
Susan is a dedicated philanthropist. She chairs the board of The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is Secretary of the board for the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a group focused on attracting and developing the tech industry in Virginia and the metro area. She also serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) and the globally recognized social good incubator, SEED SPOT.
She’s is a passionate advocate for the recruitment, retention and the advancement of women in technology and speaks routinely on STEM-related topics.
Anil currently operates as an advisor in the firm he founded – Phase IV Ventures LLC. Leveraging his Board, CIO and consulting experience, he has worked closely with McKinsey & Co, Private Equity and Venture Capital firms in providing advice to banks, technology firms and late-stage growth start-ups.
Anil’s previous positions include Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Cognizant Technology Solutions, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Truist (formerly SunTrust Banks), Vice President/senior partner at IBM Global Business Services and partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). He also served as the White House Presidential Appointee in charge of Technology Transformation Services with the mission of “making the lives of the public better through technology”.
Anil has held several industry and non-profit Board roles such as Chair of the Financial Services Roundtable (Banking Policy Institute) Executive Advisory committee, Technology Business Management Council, InspireCIO Innovation Committee and is a member of several boards such as Oglethorpe University, St Joseph’s Health System, InspireCIO, Gartner’s Research Board and Wall St. Journal CIO Network.
Anil earned his Master of Science and Master of Philosophy Degrees in Management Science and Bachelor of Science in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Imperial College in London, UK.
Justin Lipton is a member of Sparq’s Board of Directors. Justin is a Partner and Co-Head of Harvest Partners Ascend, the lower middle market private equity fund within Harvest Partners. Harvest Partners is a 40-year old private equity fund based in New York and has multiple strategies focused on investing in services companies. Harvest Partners Ascend was launched in 2022 with a focus on partnering with management teams in the Business and Technology Services sectors.
Prior to joining Harvest, Justin was a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of CIP Capital, where he completed a number of private equity transactions in the technology-enabled services sectors. Before CIP Capital, he held several positions at DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, where he focused on middle market private equity and started his career at Credit Suisse in investment banking. Justin is a member of the Harvest Partners Ascend Investment Committee.
Justin has a B.S. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University.
John Josif is a member of Sparq’s Board of Directors. John is a Vice President at Harvest Partners Ascend, the lower middle market private equity fund within Harvest Partners. Harvest Partners is a 40-year old private equity fund based in New York and has multiple strategies focused on investing in services companies. Harvest Partners Ascend was launched in 2022 with a focus on partnering with management teams in the Business and Technology Services sectors.
Prior to joining Harvest, John was a Vice President at CIP Capital, where he focused on private equity investments across technology-enabled services sectors. Prior to CIP Capital, John was an Associate at HIG Capital and he started his career as an Analyst at Jefferies.
John has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
