Instructure Leadership

Mitch Benson

Chief Product Officer

Mitch is Instructure's chief product officer. Before assuming responsibility for all of Instructure's products, he was primarily responsible for the ongoing development of Canvas, ensuring its position as the most modern, scalable, secure, accessible, and easy-to-use learning platform available.

Prior to Instructure, Mitch served in executive roles at Microsoft, Pearson, and in the not-for-profit and public sectors in Washington state. He graduated from the University of Washington, was a fellow at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and earned an M.S. in information systems from Capella University.

Dale Bowen

Chief Financial Officer

Dale Bowen is Instructure’s chief financial officer. He has more than 20 years of experience leading finance teams, acquiring and integrating companies, and driving enterprise value. Most recently Dale served as CFO of Consilio, global leader in eDiscovery services. Dale holds a master's degree in financial economics from American University and a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Utah.

Matt Kaminer

Chief Legal Officer

Matt Kaminer is Instructure's chief legal officer. Before joining Instructure in 2015, Matt served as General Counsel and Secretary of Collective Inc., a video and mobile advertising company. And before that (take a deep breath, this is a mouthful), he served as General Counsel and Secretary of Epocrates, Inc., General Counsel for MediMedia USA, Inc., and Assistant General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at WebMD Health Corp. That’s a lot of counseling, generally.

Matt holds a B.S. in computer science from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from George Washington University.

Melissa Loble

Chief Customer Experience Officer

Melissa Loble serves as the chief customer experience officer for Instructure, leading Instructure's customer success, services, and partnership organizations and serving as the executive sponsor for some of Instructure’s most important customer-focused topics, such as data usage and privacy. Her personal mission is to drive innovation in our customer experience, which she does, in part, by enabling customers to successfully leverage Instructure’s solutions to create highly engaging and effective learning environments for their communities.

Melissa has spent 20 years in the educational technology world, working for a number of technology suppliers and educational institutions as well as teaching leadership courses on managing technology for educational change. Melissa earned her M.A. in educational policy from Teachers’ College, Columbia University, and an M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School.

Frank Maylett

Chief Revenue Officer

As chief revenue officer, Frank is responsible for building a strong, unified sales and marketing culture, overseeing sales and marketing budget development, streamlining marketing programs, and maximizing potential sales volume across regions at Instructure.

Frank brings to this role more than 20 years of experience in leading, selling, and expanding software service organizations. Prior to Instructure, he was the CEO of RizePoint and, prior to that, the executive vice president for global sales, services, and alliances at Workfront. Frank was named CEO of the Year by Utah Business magazine in 2017 and CEO of the Year by the Utah Technology Council in 2016. He also won a Stevie for Executive of the Year in the 2017 American Business Awards. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Phoenix and studied business administration and management at the University of Utah.

Jeff Weber

EVP, People & Places

Jeff Weber is Instructure’s EVP of People & Places; he's been doggedly fixated on bringing even more awesome talent to Instructure since 2013. Previously, Jeff worked at Ancestry.com—the leading online network for connecting families and the largest provider of family-history information, with 2.7 million paying subscriptions—as SVP of People and Places. That meant around 1,300 people (employees) at 10 places (offices). Not bad for a business built around dead people.

Jeff brings years of in-house HR and organizational development experience to Instructure, having worked for companies like Shell Oil Company, Amoco Oil, and Novell. Jeff holds an M.B.A. with an emphasis in organizational behavior from Brigham Young University.

Steve Townsend

SVP, Engineering

Steve Townsend is Instructure’s SVP of engineering. Before joining Instructure in 2015, Steve led several engineering teams over his 20-year career and provided consulting services for technology companies, including Intel, Novell, Veracity Solutions, and inContact. Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an M.B.A from Brigham Young University.

Patricia Molenaar

VP, EMEA

Leading Instructure’s EMEA presence, Patricia has spent more than 27 years working in senior roles at global technology, education and HR organisations, including ADP, Oracle, and Element8. An American, living in France and working across Europe for the past decade, Patricia was awarded a Top Commercial Leader 2019 in France by Action Co Business, the leading Business Magazine of French Business, in part because of her focus on diversity and inclusion in her teams.

Patricia sits on the Board of Directors for United Way France, serves as an EU Delegate for WIT, is a member of Performance Drive Consortium and the Unis Cite Philanthropy for At Risk Children and Immigrant Families across France. With a B.A in both Communications and Performing Arts from Florida Southern College, Patricia is a visiting Professor at Vilnius University in Lithuania.

Joanna Fankhauser

VP Global Revenue Operations & Enablement

Joanna serves as Instructure’s VP of Global Revenue Operations & Enablement. Responsible for optimizing revenue streams, Joanna and her team maintain a competitive advantage in the space by leveraging technology to constantly challenge and accelerate execution on go-to-market strategy. Inspired by never-ending opportunities for learning and growth, she enjoys the challenges that come with a rapidly evolving market and finds energy in helping her team optimize their resources and support their front-line players.

Prior to joining Instructure, she served as Director of Revenue Operations and Analytics for Pluralsight, and also held positions as Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer for several startups in the Greater Salt Lake City area. Joanna received her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Statistics from Brigham Young University followed by a Master of Business Administrator in Finance and Information Systems from the University of Utah.

Will Spendlove

Head of Growth Marketing

Will is Instructure's Head of Growth Marketing, leading our global product marketing, demand generation, and sales enablement functions. Will's experience spans over 25 years in the technology space, serving as a Vice President of Product Marketing at Salesforce, Conga, and InsideView. He also ran Sales Enablement teams at Symantec, OpenText, and Embarcadero Technologies. After spending 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, Will returned to Salt Lake City to join Instructure.

Will holds a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. from the University of Utah.

Michelle Suzuki

Head of Global Brand Marketing

As the Head of Global Brand Marketing for Instructure, Michelle leads strategy and builds high-performance teams responsible for digital experience, content marketing, communications, customer marketing, branding, creative, and events. With 25 years of experience elevating brand engagement and driving revenue, she’s led worldwide marketing initiatives at several global technology companies, including EMC, Ancestry, Novell, and Landesk.

Recognized in the Top 15 Influential Women in B2B Marketing 2020, Michelle serves on the Utah Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and holds a B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University.