Ling founded Jenzabar in 1998. Prior to Jenzabar, she worked as a consultant at Bain & Company, a leading global business and strategy consulting firm. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master of Liberal Arts in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and an undergraduate degree from Beijing University.

Pat leads all Human Resource initiatives to benefit the associates of Jenzabar and has been with the company for over 30 years. Pat holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Kennedy Western University. She has held a Professional Human Resources (PHR) certification with the Society of Human Resources for over 12 years, and also holds a SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) Certification.

Jay lives in Nashville with his wife, three high school and college-aged children, two golden retrievers and an orange cat. He enjoys outdoor sports and activities, spending time with his family and home improvement. 

Jay has worked in the software industry since 2000, leading sales and operations teams focused on higher education and nonprofit clients. Jay is a servant leader focused on success through collaboration, mutual respect, and accountability. He supports team success and growth with innovative go to market strategies and tireless execution. With 20+ years of market experience at SaaS companies, including Blackbaud and CampusLogic, Jay has a unique combination of leadership creativity, customer insights and market awareness. He has deep domain experience in higher education and understands stakeholder business drivers, as well as institutional procurement processes for making competitive selections for enterprise solutions. 

As the Vice President of Marketing, Carina leads the Marketing team with a focus on driving growth and customer satisfaction. Carina is responsible for the integrated marketing strategy that involves digital marketing and demand generation, corporate communications, product marketing, competitive intelligence, customer advocacy, branding, as well as other strategic programs such as events and advertising. Carina’s approach to marketing incorporates collecting customer and industry insights and crafting effective strategies that solve institutional challenges and address the changing expectations within higher education. 

During her time with Jenzabar, Carina has helped lead the company’s growth initiatives by optimizing and transforming its marketing efforts. She has led advances in public relations and awareness, reshaping Jenzabar’s identity as a visionary and transformative company. Carina has built strong relationships and rapport with key media, analysts, and other industry influencers.

Vice President of Enrollment Marketing, SPARK451

For more than 20 years, Steve worked in enrollment management for Adelphi University, NYU Polytechnic, Hofstra University, and NYIT. In fact, his strategic leadership at NYIT helped raise freshman enrollment by as much as 25 percent. In 2007, Steve transitioned from his campus-based position to become a marketing agency executive. He has been consistently creating award-winning and results-driven strategies for many institutions ever since.

Steve holds a B.S. in banking and money management from Adelphi University, and an MS in human resource management from NYU Tandon. His career-long commitment to helping students navigate the college search process also earned him the Margaret Addis Award for Outstanding Leadership from the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Vice President of Creative and Interactive Services, SPARK451

Michael is a marketing communications professional and educator with more than 25 years of experience. He leverages cross-disciplinary experience to solve a wide-array of challenges for our clients.

In the course of his career as a marketing agency executive, Michael has worked at numerous New York-based agencies and in motion graphics at Disney Television. Michael is also an adjunct professor in the Art Department at Brooklyn College, where he teaches graphic design, 3D and motion graphic design, and website development and at NYU where he teaches digital marketing. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and art from Brooklyn College and an MSM and MBA from New York University.

Irene is the General Counsel of Jenzabar. She leads the Legal Department and is responsible for all legal and compliance matters at the company. Before working at Jenzabar, Irene was the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at a Fortune Global 50 company where she was responsible for North and South American operations, focusing on IT and managed services. As an attorney in the corporate department of a large international law firm and a management consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Irene has advised numerous domestic and international companies on mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment matters, corporate governance, compliance, and other legal issues.

Irene holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Mount Holyoke College (Phi Betta Kappa and magna cum laude), a Master’s Degree from Columbia University (Presidential Scholar), and a Law Degree from the Boston College Law School.

Omer Riaz serves as the Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at Jenzabar. Omer's background includes extensive experience in Education and EdTech, including at Kaplan Inc., where he served in Corporate Strategy and M&A roles.  He's an innovator at heart and has co-founded/been an early team member at multiple startups.

Omer holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor's from Ohio Wesleyan University. In his free time, he likes playing squash and volunteering for social impact projects.

Les is a product leader and visionary with a record of successfully delivering solutions for higher education success.  He started his software development career at Jenzabar as a programmer analyst and has moved up through the company over the last twenty-five years as an application architect/developer, database administrator, and director of product of development.

Before joining Jenzabar, Zimmerman worked as a software engineer at a property-casualty insurance company.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from Bridgewater College.

Our Leadership

Meet our executive team

Ling Chai Maginn

Patricia Barnett

Jay Barrett

Carina Ganias

Steve Kerge

Michael McGetrick

Irene Porokhova

Omer Riaz

Les Zimmerman