Gary Swart

Gary Swart is a Partner at Polaris Partners. He represents Polaris on the boards of Quantcast, SimplyInsured, FloQast, Falkonry, and Qstream.

Gary was the CEO of oDesk, the world’s largest online workplace with more than three million clients and twelve million freelancers. Prior to oDesk, Gary was the Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Intellibank, responsible for building the direct and indirect sales organization and channel development.

Gary joined IBM through the acquisition of Rational Software where he ran Western Field Operations and held many other senior management positions, including Americas Medium Business Leader, Area Manager, District Manager, and Director of Telesales. Prior to Rational, Gary held many sales, management, and leadership positions with Pure Software, subsequently Pure-Atria, which previously merged with Rational. Gary serves as a thought leader on marketplaces, sales leadership, the future of work, how best to hire and manage teams, and on the rise of the “freelance economy.”