Monday, September 30, 2013

Welcome Dante, Brian, Kaela, Fish and David!

Wow, this is a big announcement for redditgifts and reddit!  redditgifts has gotten a new office and hired four new people and reddit has hired one.  Five new hires!  I think that's the biggest new hire announcement we've ever done.

Why the new hires you ask?  Well, redditgifts opened a marketplace last December and this year has shown that we are really onto something!  Also, it should come as no surprise that reddit has been growing as well and we've been making some pretty big enhancements to our advertising systems.  Over the next few months (and years), with the help of the new hires below, we're going to be able to make our marketplace, gift exchanges, and advertising a ton better!  We're excited!  Here is a bit from each new hire:

Dante Orpilla (/u/youngluck) - Designer, redditgifts
Hello, reddit. My name is Dante. I am originally from Oakland, California but for the better part of the last decade I have been in Los Angeles, where I paint, make loud noises with instruments, and now design for reddit. I've been a redditor for 4 years, half of which was on paper. I've never lurked. I have one account. I laugh obnoxiously loud, all the time. Sometimes I laugh at how obnoxiously loud I laugh. Every piece of clothing I own is covered in some kind of paint. I love my son. When people ask me what redditgifts is, I tell them it's a manufacturing company. We manufacture good will towards fellow human beings, and provide a platform for people to manufacture more. People we have never met, and probably never will. In this day and age a company built on that foundation is a rarity and I am profoundly grateful to be a part of it. To check out the messes I make, you can follow me at /r/youngluck. Be good to each other.

Brian Holt (/u/aquilaFiera) - Front End Developer, redditgifts
Hey reddit. I'm a Montana native that's been in Salt Lake City for quite a few years and hope to be here for years to come. I've been a redditor for years but only been a non-lurker for a year or so. Definitely excited to be apart of the upcoming Secret Santa and working on the marketplace. Future duties include making redditgifts mobile-friendly, prettified and other /r/HailCorporate activities. When not appeasing the corporate overlords, I enjoy doing any number of outdoor activities in a spectacularly poor fashion and taking any excuse to get out in the beautiful Utah outdoors. My favorite subreddits include /r/mtb, /r/skiing, /r/running, /r/AnimalsBeingJerks, /r/SaltLakeCity, and /r/bearswithbeaks.

Kaela Worthen Gardner (/u/highshelfofsteam) - Marketing, redditgifts
Hello, reddit! I am a self-described grammar nerd and have spent most of my career thus far working as a writer and editor in the magazine industry. I gradually started doing more and more on the marketing side there and found I enjoyed it a lot, and now I'm privileged to be doing full-time marketing for a site I love and promoting the thousands of cool and unique products in the redditgifts marketplace. I originally got my start redditing sitting on the couch beside my husband, and we still enjoy turning the links purple together and sharing our favorite reddit finds with each other. When I'm not really hard at work, I like to spend my time discovering the world through documentaries, books, cooking, travel when possible, and, of course, the wonderful world of the internet. Some of my favorite subreddits are /r/nottheonion, /r/abandonedporn, and /r/writingprompts.

Eric Fish (/u/mrefish) - Back End Developer, redditgifts
Hey reddit! My name is Eric, but here at reddit they call me Fish. I graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in Computer Science. I will be doing back end development for redditgifts predominantly in Python. In my free time I like to learn about microcontrollers, all things open source, cars, and the liquid content of craft beer bottles. Some of my favorite subreddits are /r/HistoryPorn, /r/Python (and most python related subreddits) and /r/linux.

David Ehrmann (/u/dehrmann) - Self-serve Advertising Engineer, reddit
Greetings from San Francisco! After all those times walking by reddit's office, it's hard to believe I'm actually here.  I've been a redditor (under a few accounts) for over six years, and while I've had a few reddit-related adventures, this is probably the craziest. I'm here to work on reddit's self-serve ad platform (those sponsored links you see at the top of the page). It's a cool promotional tool with some pretty unique uses, and I'm excited to see what we can do with it. I've been a software engineer in the valley for seven years, working on a lot of different things—drivers, databases, mobile apps, consumer-facing websites—but a large chunk has been advertising-driven. My life outside reddit’s a bit like /r/random. I (attempt to) play the guitar, work on random tech projects, have done some nifty DIY projects like glassblowing and metal casting, skydived, golfed, surfed, flown an airplane…and enjoyed it all! Aside from /r/random, not surprisingly, I enjoy /r/programming, have to give a shout-out to /r/engineering, am always amazed with what I find in /r/adporn, and never know what I’ll learn next from /r/lifeprotips.

As always, ask us anything in the comments. And of course, thank you for not using Adblock!
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