Meet The Team

Melissa has worked in the tech industry for over 20 years in roles ranging from Junior Software Engineer to her current role as the Chief Experience Officer at Thynk.Cloud.

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She holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire and an executive certificate in Management and Leadership from MIT.

 

Always driven by her passion to have a positive impact on the decline of women in STEM education and careers, she has volunteered with organizations globally including ChickTech, Everwise, WITI, NH Tech Alliance, Microsoft DigiGirlz, wiseHer, Girl Scouts, and AnitaB.org.

 

She continues to pursue opportunities every day to advocate, educate and encourage women and girls to pursue careers in technology.  Her passion for diversity and inclusion led her to co-found Diversify Thinking, an initiative focused on moving inclusion from conversation to action.

Along with her team, Melissa organizes mentoring programs and creates opportunities for collaboration among diverse thinkers.

Melissa also believes in the power of story telling and connection through her writing and launched her blog at www.melissable.com in January 2019.  

 

She has always lived in the Northeast and now makes her home in Newmarket, New Hampshire with her family.

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Candice Benson, CEO of Benson Consulting Inc., is a certified Change Manager, Project Management Professional and Process Improvement Specialist.  Her 20+ years of experience in project management and people change management has spanned multiple fields including  Academia, Technology, Utilities, Finance, Life Sciences, Manufacturing and Non-Profits.
Candice has been instrumental in successfully leading companies at all levels to greater project success and increased employee adaption of change. She has led highly complex workflow, process, and back-end optimization projects, including several major M&A transactions along with customer facing  implementations.  Her clients have taken her
across the United States and to London, Malaysia, Sydney and Hong Kong to oversee proper implementation of their transformations.
Candice, a true Change Agent, is certified in Change Intelligence (CQ®) and as a Prosci Change Practitioner and Trainer.  She is an experienced PMO Director, Portfolio Manager, Program Manager, and Project Manager. She has been certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP®) from the Project Management Institute and is a Six Sigma/Lean certified leader, mentor, Project Management coach.

A huge believer in the power of inclusivity, Candice co-founded Diversify Thinking, a community focused on broadening conversations and actions around the issues facing organizations and the people who run them. Candice also sits on the Board of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, serving on the Governance Committee. She earned her bachelor’s degree, with a double major, from Rutgers University.  A married mother of three daughters, Candice makes her home in Bedford, New Hampshire.

Cyrena has worked as a meteorologist for over 20 years. A meteorology and mathematics graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, her mission is to educate others by translating the complex world around us in an easy-to-understand way, in order to provide clarity, overcome obstacles, and to make a positive impact on her community.

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She has worked for NASA contractors such as AirDat and SMART-R, then installed weather stations on the remote Alaska tundra for 6 years with McVehil-Monnett Associates, came to New Hampshire as the Director of Summit Operations for the non-profit Mount Washington Observatory and was an NH1 News TV Meteorologist.

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Since then, Cyrena climbed the ranks at Athenium Analytics to Vice President of Customer Success, and is now the Chief Sales Officer for reThought Insurance.  She has done all this while volunteering at STEM events giving presentations and keynote speeches across New England, letting kids know she went from failing math in grade school, to obtaining a meteorology and math degree.

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In 2019, Cyrena was named to the Union Leader's "40 Under 40" and was the NH Tech Alliance's 2019 TechProfessional of the Year. She has also written a children’s book called, “The Weather Story”, and is Mrs. New Hampshire 2022. She resides in southwest New Hampshire with her family.