Bright named to Savoy’s 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America, Staffing Industry Analysts’ 40 Under 40 List and more
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – July 21, 2022 – Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK), the world’s work marketplace, today announced Chief Product and Experience Officer Sam Bright received several awards recognizing his leadership of the teams powering Upwork’s product and design innovation as well as his strong commitment to customer experience. Bright was most recently named to two prestigious lists – Savoy’s 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) 40 Under 40 List – in addition to being previously awarded a Gold Stevie for Product Executive of the Year by The American Business Association and a position in the Global CPO 20 by Products That Count.
Bright was recognized in a variety of ways:
- Savoy’s 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America - The definitive listing of African American executives, influencers and achievers impacting corporate America, Savoy’s list recognized Bright as an innovative trailblazer who has “led efforts to foster growth for one of the country’s highest-performing companies throughout and beyond the U.S. market.” A selection committee took Bright’s corporate sector influence, scholastic achievement, career growth, community outreach and recognition into account as deciding factors.
- SIA 40 Under 40 List - Celebrating a rising group of leaders making their mark on the workforce solutions ecosystem with both “resilience and vision,” SIA’s list honored Bright for playing a vital role in using customer insights to build products that contribute to Upwork’s recent all-time highs in gross services volume.
- 2022 American Business Awards Product Management/Development Executive of the Year - Awarded a Gold Stevie, the highest distinction within a category, Bright was selected for his visionary leadership helping the company hit significant milestones, including the global launch of Project Catalog™, introduction of Talent Scout™ and Virtual Talent Bench™, improvements to Enterprise Suite offerings, and more integrated ways for clients and talent to collaborate and communicate.
- Products That Count’s Global CPO 20 - Bright was named one of the top 20 chief product officers in the world by Products That Count, a product acceleration platform. Recognized within the ‘Born Digital’ category, Bright has “helped create a benchmark of what C-level success looks like within digital transformation.”
“Propelling the world of work forward with an end-to-end platform and experience that provide both companies and talent more control over their businesses and careers, respectively, has been a passion and mission in my professional endeavors,” said Bright. “I’m grateful to each of these organizations for acknowledging the relentless work and progress of Upwork’s product and experience team and hope to continue our commitment to helping people unlock powerful new ways of working.”
As chief product and experience officer at Upwork, Bright leads a 900-person globally distributed team located in 45 countries across product management, design, user experience and research, talent success, customer experience, community, new businesses, trust and safety, business development and partnerships, and international expansion. During his tenure, Bright has further unified the product and experience (PEX) team at Upwork and cultivated a customer-first culture, with 40% of all Upwork’s 2021 product releases and tests directly influenced by feedback from the organization’s Voice of Customer program. His team also transformed the company from a single product line to multiple product lines in under 12 months.
Over the course of the last quarter, Upwork launched a series of new tools and features to help customers take greater control over their businesses and careers.
For clients, the team enhanced the speed and success with which companies can connect with skilled professionals through updates to Virtual Talent Bench. These streamlined options allow businesses to grow a network of trusted talent and strengthen existing relationships via capabilities to immediately share new jobs with trusted talent and discover new talent to expand existing lists. Additionally, to more quickly make first hires on Upwork, the proposal manager experience has evolved, offering helpful tips through key steps.
For talent, the team launched Upwork Academy, a new interactive learning hub to provide career tips, upskilling opportunities and other educational resources by bolstering greater community connections. Upwork Academy offers pre-determined learning paths with recommended activities and resources, interactive courses that help talent quickly get up-to-speed on a particular topic, cohort coaching on being successful on Upwork, and an Upwork Skills Certification where talent can learn about skills assessments, access test preparation materials and more. Two other new features – Boosted Proposals and the “Available Now” badge – were released to help talent attract and win more opportunities.
For more information on the latest Upwork products, updates and partnerships, visit https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Updates/bg-p/ProductUpdates.
About Upwork
Upwork is the world’s work marketplace. We serve everyone from one-person startups to over 30% of the Fortune 100 with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and talent to work together in new ways that unlock their potential. Our talent community earned over $3.3 billion on Upwork in 2021 across more than 10,000 skills in categories including website & app development, creative & design, customer support, finance & accounting, consulting, and operations. Learn more at upwork.com and join us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
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