Building a great product is only part of the job. The other part is building the company behind it. We wanted to introduce the two leaders helping us get that right.

Dawn Sharifan, former Senior Vice President of People at Slack where she led the company through its $27.7 billion acquisition by Salesforce, joins Laurel as Chief People Officer. Known for building people strategies that scale without losing soul, Dawn brings that same conviction to Laurel, ensuring the culture keeps pace with the company.

After Slack, Dawn founded Positively Selfish, a coaching and consulting practice serving founder and senior leaders at frontier AI labs and leading organizations across AI, biotech, and venture. She also serves as an Executive in Residence at Rippleworks, working with high-growth social ventures around the world.

At Laurel, Dawn is bringing her signature blend of strategic clarity and genuine warmth to the people function. Her focus is on making sure that as Laurel scales, it does so with the kind of intentionality that makes the difference between a company that grows fast and one that grows well. 

Time is truly the only finite resource. Where and who I choose to spend mine with deeply matters.

Jacob Sills, whose career spans investment banking, private equity, and nearly a decade as a founder, joins Laurel as Chief Financial Officer. He oversees Finance, RevOps, and AI Ops, operating at the intersection of capital allocation and execution with a clear goal: deploy resources where they drive the most impact and help the company run faster.

Before Laurel, Jacob built a company that helped over a million low-income individuals avoid jail time for technical violations. After its sale, he advised businesses and funds, including Anthos Capital, where he first connected with Laurel.

At Laurel, finance goes beyond reporting. The team works across the business to allocate capital to the highest-return opportunities and double down on what works. In parallel, AI Ops rethinks traditional BizOps. We don’t just diagnose problems, we build solutions, using AI to automate work and improve systems in production.

I love my scope, but I joined for the people. The talent bar is high, and it shows in the pace and quality of execution across the company.

The Next Chapter

We've always believed that how you build matters as much as what you build. Dawn and Jacob are here to help us live that out. They're leaders who have navigated complexity at the highest levels and who bring both the strategic expertise and the human judgment that this moment demands. We couldn't be more excited for what's ahead.