Our Mission

Afif is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SOCi, and has been at the forefront of technology for over 25 years.

With a BS in Neuroscience and Genetics from UC San Diego, and a JD from Northwestern University School of Law, Afif has enjoyed a decorated career as a scientist, an attorney, a venture capitalist, and founder of two successful startups—including SOCi, which he has built to a 7-time Inc.5000 Fastest Growing Company in America and G2-ranked Top 5 Marketing Platform in the World.

Afif is now passionate about changing our relationship with software, from a tool to a partner that can be trained to do the work for us. To that end, SOCi has recently released the CoMarketing Cloud, an autonomous data analytics and marketing platform that is changing the martech landscape.

Ben Brownlee brings 25 years of experience in working in post-sale functions, with heavy focus on revenue-generating support and services, account expansion, and customer retention disciplines. He previously served as the Chief Customer Officer at Gong, overseeing the customer journey from point of sale, including monetization of services and renewal and expansion accountabilities. Prior to Gong, Ben worked nearly two decades at Blackbaud, as they scaled from a private $100m company to a $1b+ ARR publicly-traded global organization. In his time there he held various leadership roles, including Vice President of Global Customer Success for a 500+ employee division.

Monica Ho, CMO of SOCi, Inc., has had nearly 20 years of digital marketing, advertising and research experience, including a solid foundation in sales, strategy and data analytics. Prior to SOCi, Monica served as Global CMO at GroundTruth (formerly xAd, Inc), where she helped grow the business from an early stage start-up to an award-winning global brand. In addition to her role at SOCi, Monica serves on the board of the Advanced Digital Marketing and Media Community of Austin (AUSAM), as well as serves on the advisory boards of several digital marketing and technology start-ups within NY, TX and CA.

Gardiner brings over 25 years of experience in the software industry, with a successful track record at both publicly traded and private equity-backed companies, as well as international organizations spanning across 30 countries. Gardiner’s diverse experience includes leading companies through periods of significant growth and transformation. Most recently, Gardiner was the COO and CFO of Pantheon. Prior to this, he was the CFO and chief strategy advisor at Sitecore, and president and CFO of ZoomInfo. During his tenures, these companies have been named to the Inc. 5000 List, Deloitte’s Fast 500, Fortune’s Top 50 Best Places to Work, Inc.’s Best Workplaces, and Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in America.

As SOCi’s CFO, Gardiner focuses on refining operational processes, enhancing customer trust, and driving expansion into new markets. As SOCi continues its global expansion, Gardiner’s vision includes maturing systems and refining pricing and packaging strategies to make it easier for customers to leverage the full suite of SOCi’s offerings.