Executive team
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Nirav Tolia
CEO, President, Chairperson of the Board of Directors, and Co-Founder of Nextdoor
Nirav Tolia is the CEO, President, Chairperson of the Board of Directors, and Co-Founder of Nextdoor. Prior to Nextdoor, Nirav was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Benchmark Capital, Chief Operating Officer of Shopping.com, and Co-Founder and CEO of Epinions.com. Nirav also serves as the Non-Executive Chair of Hedosophia and is a co-founding director of the William S. Spears Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership at SMU’s Cox School of Business.
Nirav holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. He resides in Highland Park, Texas, with his wife and three sons. Download Nirav’s photo
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Matt Anderson
Chief Financial Officer
Matt Anderson is Nextdoor’s Chief Financial Officer, overseeing all corporate financial activities, including financial and strategic planning, accounting and reporting, investor relations, internal audit, and treasury and tax functions. Before joining Nextdoor, Matt served in several senior finance roles for Block, Inc. (Square), where he led various finance functions and was responsible for strategic planning and public and private capital raising, including in its initial public offering in 2015.
Matt also brings experience as a principal investor at GI Partners. Matt began his career in investment banking at Barclays and Lehman Brothers. Matt has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Area Studies from UCLA. Matt is from Sacramento, California, and resides in the Bay Area with his wife and three children. Download Matt’s photo
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Kelsey Grady
Chief Global Communications Officer
Kelsey Grady serves as Nextdoor’s Chief Global Communications Officer, overseeing corporate, product, consumer, B2B, and internal communications strategies. She worked at Nextdoor from 2011 to 2017 in various communications functions, including Global Head of Communications, where she led efforts to build the company’s communications strategy from the ground up. Between 2017 to 2024, Kelsey founded a communications consultancy specializing in consumer tech and venture communications.
Kelsey graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications. Kelsey grew up in Southern California and now lives in the Bay Area. Download Kelsey’s photo
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James Kelm
Chief Product Officer
James Kelm is Nextdoor’s Chief Product Officer, overseeing Nextdoor’s product management and research teams. James brings years of product management experience. Prior to Nextdoor, James was VP of Product Management at Twitter. James led multiple product areas at Twitter, including self-service revenue products, organic business features, Twitter for Professionals, and Twitter Shopping.
Before Twitter, James built and scaled native and video ads syndication at Yahoo and led product for Flurry Analytics. James began his product experience as a product planner at Apple before moving into product management at Google, where he worked on Google Shopping and mobile AdSense. James holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and resides in the Bay Area. Download James’ photo
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Sarah Leary
Co-Founder of Nextdoor, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Global Business Operations Officer
Sarah Leary is Nextdoor’s Co-Founder, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Global Business Operations Officer. Sarah started her career at Microsoft before serving in senior leadership at veteran tech organizations, including Epinions and eBay, followed by co-founding Nextdoor in 2011. During her time at Nextdoor, between 2010-2019, Sarah served as Vice President of Product and Marketing, followed by Vice President of Marketing, International, and Operations.
After leaving Nextdoor, Sarah served as a Nextdoor Board Observer and a Venture Partner at Unusual Ventures, with a focus on enterprise and consumer practice. In addition, Sarah is a member of the Board of Directors at Spindrift Beverage Co., Inc. and an advisor and mentor to several startups and founders. Sarah is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard’s Arthur Rock Center, the university where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration. Sarah resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Download Sarah’s photo
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Craig Lisowski
Chief Engineering, Data, Information Systems, and Trust Officer
Craig Lisowski is Nextdoor’s Chief Engineering, Data, Information Systems, and Trust Officer. Craig brings over 20 years of wide-ranging experience in engineering, data analytics, business development, and IT. Before joining Nextdoor, Craig was Head of Business Platform Engineering at Block, Inc. (Square), where he oversaw large-scale data systems to track money movement for all products and led multiple engineering functions for compliance, direct e-commerce sales, customer success, and information technology. Before Block, Inc., Craig held leadership roles at Silicon Graphics, VeriSign, and Oracle.
Craig holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Carleton University. Craig is from Ottawa, Canada, has lived in Switzerland, and now lives in Northern California with his wife and two children. Download Craig’s photo
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Bryan Power
Chief People Officer
Bryan Power serves as Nextdoor’s Chief People Officer. Bryan brings more than 20 years of human resources and talent acquisition experience to Nextdoor. Bryan previously worked as Chief of Human Resources at Yahoo, leading the global People Team, serving over 10,000 employees in 30 offices across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
Before Yahoo, Bryan held a similar role at Block, Inc. (Square), successfully growing the company from 350 to 1600 employees and ramping up employee programs and HR infrastructure ahead of the company’s successful public offering in November 2015. Previous to Square, Bryan spent eight years at Google. He is also a board member of Avenica, a U.S. recruiting firm that focuses on placing recent college graduates into entry-level career-track positions, as well as an advisor to several high-growth tech companies in San Francisco. Bryan is a certified executive coach and has earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Vanderbilt University. Download Bryan’s photo
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Sophia Contreras Schwartz
General Counsel
Sophia Contreras Schwartz is Nextdoor’s General Counsel and oversees the legal function, including product, regulatory compliance, commercial operations, intellectual property, litigation, employment, and corporate matters. Prior to Nextdoor, Sophia was a partner at Donahue Fitzgerald LLP, focusing on corporate transactions and intellectual property law.
Sophia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor from UC Law San Francisco (fka UC Hastings). Sophia is from Sebastopol, California, and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children. Download Sophia’s photo
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Georg Petschnigg
Chief Design Officer
Georg Petschnigg is Nextdoor’s Chief Design Officer, overseeing the teams responsible for design strategy and execution. A staunch believer that technology must serve the human need to create, Georg brings more than two decades of experience to Nextdoor. Most recently, Georg served as Head of Product Design at The New York Times. Prior to that, Georg was Chief Innovation Officer at WeTransfer, CEO and co-founder of FiftyThree, and incubated numerous new consumer businesses at Microsoft.
Georg holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and Economics from Columbia University and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University where he specialized in Computer Graphics and Product Design. He currently resides in Miami, Florida. Download Georg’s photo
