Udemy Appoints Marylou Maco and Debra Chrapaty to its Board of Directors

Learning and DevelopmentHR TechnologyNews

By Business Wire On Dec 4, 2024

Marylou Maco brings more than 30 years of experience in driving revenue growth and expanding market share
Debra Chrapaty brings 20 years of deep expertise in technology leadership and AI-powered innovation

Udemy, a leading online skills marketplace and learning platform, today announced that Avaya Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer, Marylou Maco, and Toast Chief Technology Officer, Debra Chrapaty, have been appointed to its Board of Directors.

“We are excited to welcome two experienced leaders, Marylou Maco and Debra Chrapaty, to our Board,” said Sohaib Abbasi, Chairman of Udemy’s Board of Directors. “Marylou and Debra have impressive track records at high-growth technology companies. Their leadership and expertise will be instrumental in guiding our next phase of growth.”

“The world of work is undergoing rapid transformation, fueled by the widespread adoption of generative AI, and with its focus on meeting customer needs, Udemy is the company best-positioned to help organizations bridge the growing skills gap,” said Maco. “I am excited to work with the Board and Udemy’s leadership team to leverage my experience to help execute their strategic plans and drive value for all stakeholders.”

“Having a strategic approach to learning and development is essential for all companies as the shelf life of technology skills continues to shorten, and the demands of nearly every role across an organization are changing rapidly,” said Chrapaty. “Udemy’s ability to help organizations stay ahead in today’s evolving landscape is unparalleled. I’m excited to bring my experience and insights to support the company’s strategic vision in addressing these critical needs for organizations around the world.”

Chrapaty has served as the Chief Technology Officer of Toast, a restaurant technology and end-to-end cloud platform company, since 2022. At Toast, Chrapaty leads technical planning and operations, architecture, infrastructure, data, AI, and product engineering. Before Toast, Chrapaty served as the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Amazon Alexa from 2020 to 2022, where she led product growth and monetization, third-party skills and devices, and international product expansion. Prior to Amazon, Chrapaty served in multiple leadership roles at Wells Fargo from 2018 to 2020, including Chief Technology Officer, where she led a technology transformation for the third-largest bank in the U.S. From 2014 to 2018, Chrapaty served as Chief Operating Officer at Declara, a transformational learning company that uses AI and machine learning to accelerate skills development. Earlier in her career, Chrapaty also held leadership positions at Cisco, Microsoft, and Zynga. Chrapaty currently serves on the board of Forge Global Holdings, Inc. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Temple University, an MBA in Information Systems from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and participated in the Director’s Consortium, a post-graduate education program for directors serving on public company boards at Stanford University.

Maco has served as Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer at Avaya, a global leader in enterprise CX, since 2023. At Avaya, Maco is responsible for driving go-to-market strategy, sales channels, customer success, and field operations. Prior to this role, Maco served as the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Genesys from 2020 to 2023. Before Genesys, Maco served in several sales executive leadership positions, including at CognitiveScale, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Oracle. Notably, Maco spent more than two decades at Cisco, and while serving as the company’s Vice President of Worldwide Enterprise Software Sales and Global Business Transformation, she spearheaded a multi-year, global transformation that aligned assets and cloud-consumption across a $6 billion portfolio. Maco currently serves on the board of Avaya Holdings Corp. Maco attended Penn State University, where she studied management and related support services.

Read More: Building Skills in the Workforce

[To share your insights with us, please write to psen@itechseries.com ]