Dustin Mares

Vendor Relations Manager, Platterz

Chicago

In the short 7 years of my professional career I've worked as a performance coach in the largest Amazon Fulfillment center in the US, I've been a part of 2 landing teams, launched 5 different markets, failed at my 1st attempt in the startup world, worked for a publicly traded tech company where I was a part of a hyper growth office that grew over 750+ employees within two years, and recently joined a fast growing team of entrepreneurs who are keen on disrupting the world of corporate catering!

As a National Co-chair for Yelp's Diversity & Inclusion employee resource group we grew the org from 2 people to 175 active members here in Chicago. Seeing an opportunity to scale D&I across tech in Chicago, I was a part of a founding team made up of members from Google, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Uber, Oracle, Microsoft, and a handful of others now know as the B.E.S.T. Group which stands for Blacks Excelling in Sales & Tech.

Throughout my journey, the one overarching theme that connects all my experiences is the Vennli model. This is a three circled approach that focuses on the customer, the competition, and the your company. Having this mindset has allowed me to leverage myself into being a utility asset in all the different roles throughout my career.