We recently sat down with Thunder Chief of Technology, Paul Kersey, to learn a little more about our tech titan. Here’s what he had to say!

Q. Paul, tell us a little bit about your role at Thunder.
I’ve joined Thunder as Chief Technology Officer to shape our technology strategy and drive it through innovation, sales, and delivery at scale. I’m hyper focused on our company’s growth by leveraging the great work we’ve already done, bringing some new ideas, and scaling it in a way that truly sets us apart in the eyes of Salesforce, our clients, and key partners.

Right now, my immediate focus is on expanding our Agentforce and MuleSoft practices. I’ll also be working on standing up a cross-capability Architecture team that will establish governance, best practices, and help us deliver seamless, multi-cloud, customer-centric experiences.

Q. What made you want to join the Thundercats?
I have prior history with Thunder. I met Carter a few years ago when we shared a mutual client while I was CTO of Apisero. As a leader of another SI I appreciated the fact that Carter reached out to me just to get to know us and discuss our partnership and focus on our client’s success.

Previously coming from a startup consulting company, I’ve always enjoyed the ability to move fast and innovate without all the red tape you find at larger companies or GSIs. Thunder is at a time where we’re large enough to make an impact, but nimble enough to build, adapt, and grow. That’s what made this opportunity exciting.

Q. As an ecosystem alum of companies like NTT DATA, Apisero, and MuleSoft, you come to Thunder with a wealth of experience. How will you help accelerate innovation?
I am definitely a product of these experiences, and I plan to bring the best of them to Thunder. At MuleSoft, I learned a lot about sales than I ever expected (and maybe wanted to). Back then they put you through a bootcamp where people would literally quit on day one. Getting through that really ended up shaping how I communicate value and drive impact. Salesforce was my client at the time prior to the acquisition and continued working with them ever since.

At Apisero, I saw how a small company could show up like a big one. I launched our Salesforce practice from scratch and created a Thrive program during COV-ID which let us move quickly, meet a real market demand, and grow from under 20 employees to 2500 employees globally.

At NTT DATA, I learned a lot about what it takes to scale globally and win enterprise business. I had the opportunity to provide the technical response to Salesforce’s own managed service RFP and was one of the primary presenters that led us to winning that contract.

Across all of this, I’ve learned how to use speed, relationships, and execution to deliver something new. That’s how I’ll help accelerate innovation, by staying close to the customer, moving fast with purpose, and scaling ideas and the great work Thunder has already done while adding some of my own ideas as well.

Q. As Chief Technology Officer, you will oversee Thunder’s technology strategy, with a focus on delivering scalable, future-proof architectures. Can you tell us a little about your approach?
My approach starts with building clear architectural blueprints that align to our business goals and scale with our growth. I believe in creating a strong foundation through governance (that doesn’t slow us down), reference architectures, and reusable patterns and assets as we deliver more industry-specific, multi-cloud solutions. This helps us move faster without reinventing the wheel and drive consistency in how we design, build, and deliver across teams.

I will focus heavily on customer-centric innovation that means architecting for real-world use cases whether it’s manufacturing, media, or travel and hospitality. My plan is to also leverage my background in integration and data to help us enable these use cases and more at scale.

Q. What’s life like outside the Thunderdome?
My life outside of work normally is spent with my family. My son is 13 and is heavily involved in club soccer and plays on the 1st team for the MLS Real Salt Lake for his age group. My daughter is 11 and plays competitive volleyball so our weekends are normally bussing them around to their games and tournaments.

When and if I have time to myself I typically like doing anything outdoors. I like to camp, hike, fish, you name it. There are plenty of places in Northern Arizona for dispersed camping and it’s nice to beat the heat in the summer and get away for peace and quiet every now and then.

Q. Last one! As a leader at Thunder, what are you most excited about in the near future for the rapidly growing company?
As I mentioned before I have always appreciated the ability to move fast and innovate at smaller companies. Also in my short time here I have been really impressed by the work you all have done so far and all the great ideas already in place.

This is a great foundation and I’m excited to have the opportunity to help scale and grow the Thunder name as a widely recognized and valued Salesforce partner and beyond.