Sales Training and Professional Development Organization

Dave Mattson is a best-selling author, sales and management thought leader, keynote speaker and leader for sales training seminars around the world. As CEO and President of Sandler Training, Mr. Mattson oversees the corporate direction and strategy for the company’s global operations including sales, marketing, consulting, alliances and support. His key areas of focus are sales leadership, strategy and client satisfaction.

Under Dave Mattson’s leadership, the Sandler organization expanded domestically and internationally to over 230 offices in 30 countries around the world.

After a brief stint in public accounting at Price Waterhouse, Dave spent the next 27 years of his career in marketing and advertising professional solutions- focused specifically on the development of performance creative and content solutions for large enterprise organizations. This experience included 10 years in various account leadership and business development roles within the EuroRSCG organization as well as another 10 years with New Control Direct & Digital. Dave was President & CEO of New Control in 2014 when it was acquired by Merkle where he subsequently led their creative and content service lines until 2021. Dave’s industry and brand experience is quite broad, as he has worked extensively with Sony, Visa, Liberty Mutual, WellPoint, AAA, Allstate, Constellation Energy, Chase, Gap, AstraZeneca, Humana and Citi. In 2022, Dave joined Sandler as Chief Operating Officer before his current role as President, where he remains focused on Sandler’s transformation from sales training services to more holistic sales performance solutions. In 2022, Dave joined Sandler as Chief Operating Officer where he was instrumental during the launch of PerformanceIQ, the company’s innovative solution to help teams identify and grow top talent to accelerate success. As President, he remains focused on Sandler’s transformation from sales training services to more holistic sales performance solutions.

Before joining Sandler, Seth spent the last six years at Forrester advising Go-To-Market executives on how to achieve their growth objectives. Prior to this he was a consultant and senior vice president leading sales operations and marketing organizations for multiple private equity-backed companies ranging in size from $200 million to $1 billion, where he handled customer acquisition, sales execution, and sales enablement.

Before going into private equity, Seth led sales operations for Carl Zeiss Meditec in the United States and held multiple executive sales and service roles at GE Healthcare, including leading sales operations for GE Life Sciences EMEA, building and running a global lean organization for the $3 billion life sciences division of GE Healthcare, and leading sales enablement for the US region (which represented $7 billion of GE Healthcare’s revenue).

Education

Seth received a BA in marketing and a master’s in finance from the University of La Verne, an MBA from the University of Oxford, and an MS in data science from Northwestern University.

DDS brings over three decades of global experience in organizational transformation and people leadership to their role at Trilliad and Sandler.​ A seasoned Chief People Officer and cultural architect, they have built high-performing, scalable talent functions across international markets, guided complex M&A integrations, and shaped people-first cultures that accelerate growth. In their role at Trilliad and Sandler, DDS combines commercial rigor with human-centered leadership to cultivate environments where our people thrive and our organization scales with purpose.

Michael Norton still considers himself a constant student of the game when it comes to performance development and helping organizations meet and exceed their goals. He brings more than 25 years of experience in helping to drive leadership, sales management, and sales success for companies of all sizes.

Michael has developed, delivered, and created reinforcement programs that deliver real ROI while fitting into a company’s culture, processes, daily sales workflow, and budget. Having founded two companies prior to joining Sandler, he is considered one of the earliest pioneers of micro-learning for personal and professional development. Michael is also the former President of the Zig Ziglar Corporation.

Shannon Howell has been practicing law for over 24 years. Prior to joining Sandler in 2006, she was in private practice at a large law firm with her focus on franchise and distribution law. Shannon is head of the Legal Department at Sandler.

Shannon graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, in Government and Politics, and from University of Baltimore School of Law with a Juris Doctor, Magna Cum Laude.

Tina brings over 20 years of sales performance, customer success, and client enablement experience to Sandler. Her passion for driving and delivering the best client experience has helped organizations embrace and sustain the Sandler methodology. With her perspective of starting as a client she is focused on delivering the best experience for both enablement teams and learners.
Tina graduated from Liberty University with a BS in Psychology.

Lisa Ellis is passionate and innovative product leader with over a decade of experience in designing, deploying, and managing transformative learning experiences for revenue operations teams.

With deep expertise in the transformation of more traditional learning methods, Lisa builds learning experiences that successfully bridge the digital-physical divide. Her focus has primarily involved revenue teams, where she has led the design and implementation of training and performance programs that have developed more than 500,000 learners
In addition to her success in supporting sales performance transformation, Lisa holds a M. Ed. In Technology, Innovation and Education from Harvard

Karrie is a seasoned technology executive with more than 30 years of experience shaping, scaling, and modernizing technology organizations. With a strong background in technology training and compliance, Karrie brings a deep understanding of how people, process, and platforms come together to drive meaningful business outcomes.

She spent nearly a decade in consulting, partnering with organizations to integrate learning and training technologies into existing technology infrastructures, ensuring solutions were not only innovative, but practical, secure, and sustainable.

In her role, Karrie leads teams across Learning Technology, CRM, Help Desk, Web Services, and Information Security, guiding a unified technology strategy that supports both operational excellence and long-term growth. Known for her ability to translate complex challenges into clear, actionable solutions, she is a strategic thought leader focused on innovation, integration, and simplification, leveraging technology as a catalyst for progress and organizational impact.

Kristy brings more than 12 years of progressive finance leadership experience across corporate finance, FP&A, commercial finance, and business transformation. She has a proven track record of partnering with executive leadership to drive profitable growth, improve financial performance, and build scalable processes that support long-term success.

As the Head of Finance, Kristy leads Sandler’s finance organization with a focus on strategic planning, operational excellence, and data-driven decision making. Known for building strong cross-functional relationships, she works closely with leaders across the business to align financial strategy with organizational goals while developing high-performing teams that create lasting impact.

Phoebe brings 10+ years of experience owning end-to-end marketing strategy across digital marketing, demand generation, and marketing operations for high-growth organizations. She has held senior marketing leadership roles at Merkle and dentsu, where she built and scaled full-funnel digital marketing programs and demand generation strategies in close partnership with sales. Along the way, she’s built and led high-performing teams, unified marketing technology, and scaled marketing programs that grew alongside the business.

As Head of Marketing at Sandler, Phoebe translates business strategy into marketing priorities, bringing a structured, results-oriented approach to how Sandler builds its market presence and drives demand.