MEET OUR TEAM
Arianna Rehak
CEO & Founder
Ari is unstoppable. Every day is an opportunity, every idea inspires her, and every new conversation is music to her ears. She fell in love with the association community when running a digital publication and online community for association professionals. She was inspired to found Matchbox because she is absolutely obsessed with connecting people and ideas. Her pet peeve is walking slower than a jog, and her guilty pleasure is slow internet connections because she’s permitted to stop moving.
Kristov Martens
Chief Business Officer & Founder
Kristov brings comprehensive business development experience and a personal style of empathetic, mirthful curiosity to partnership conversations. With a focus on entrepreneurship and strategy, during his MBA he co-founded a medical device company, and afterwards helped launch an exciting multiplayer indie video game. In 2019 he joined in the founding of Matchbox with the goal to create more engaging, sustainable, and accessible ways professional communities to connect, learn, and flourish online.
Paolo Melgarejo
CTO
Paolo truly embodies partnership. He applies his creativity and problem-solving skills into everything he does, he’s the most humble about having the most bad ass track record (he has built dozens of successful products used by the likes of Google and Microsoft!), and he might be one of the funniest people we’ve ever met! His patient listening, insightful action-taking, and top-notch organizational abilities make every project successful.
Michelle Brien
Vice President, Marketing
Michelle is not only a strategic thinker, but her deep empathy gives her a keen understanding of need. Michelle’s curiosity and love of learning drive her to find the best solution for any challenge, and her career experiences in the education industry (from k-12 digital publishing, to higher education, to learning technology for continuing education providers) bring a valuable perspective. She’s a pioneer, a true cheerleader and champion, and just simply so much fun to be around.
Maria Rehakova
Lead Experience Designer
If we had to take a guess, Maria probably gets the most Slack messages from anyone because she is such a connector of our whole ecosystem. She has been with the team before we even had a name, and her innovation was one of the reasons why we launched the company. Her hats range from product management to QA to UX design. Though we try not to let her know it, we enter into a little bit of chaos when she is on vacation.
Nina Blake
Client Success Manager
Nina has a passion for music, linguistics, haikus, and reading tarot cards. Marching to the beat of her own drum, she’ll still always have your back and advocate for what she believes in. She has been involved almost every digital initiative that Matchbox has produced, making her both extremely knowledgeable about what works online, and an absolute ninja at last-minute troubleshooting. Our clients love working with Nina!
Gabriela Gasparini
Professional Services Manager
Gabriela is down to earth, kind, and really silly! In her free time, you’ll find her calling friends to check in, quoting “She’s the Man” for the umpteenth time, editing videos, or talking with her baby nephew over facetime. You’ve never seen someone faster and more on top of her to-do list, and her quiet authority gives extreme confidence that you’re in capable hands.
Matchbox Team
The people behind the initiative...
Our extended team at Matchbox includes some of the most inspiring, insightful, and interesting people we’ve met. We celebrate, support and thrive on diversity and are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect. We’re a fun, energetic, and driven team that’s passionate about what we do.
CONTACT US
Matchbox
5766 Avenue Westminster
Cote Saint-Luc, QC, H4W 2J7
Canada