Nextdoor Leadership

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

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.  

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Craig Lisowski

President of Products

Craig Lisowski is Nextdoor’s President of Product. 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 senior 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

Indrajit Ponnambalam

Chief Financial Officer

Indrajit Ponnambalam is Nextdoor's Chief Financial Officer, overseeing all aspects of Nextdoor's finance organization, including financial planning and analysis, accounting, internal audit, tax, treasury, and investor relations. Previously, Indrajit was Chief Financial Officer at Premion, an advertising platform, and was a consultant at Pieces Technologies, a healthcare AI research and development firm. Prior to that, Indrajit was a Strategic Financial Advisor for Fanatics Collectibles, a global digital sports platform, and Chief Administrative Officer and SVP, Finance, of Match Group, an internet and technology company.

Indrajit holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Accounting from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas. Download Indrajit's Photo

Sophia Contreras Schwartz

Chief Legal Officer

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. Download Sophia’s photo

Michael Kiernan

Chief Revenue Officer

Michael Kiernan is Nextdoor’s Chief Revenue Officer, overseeing teams responsible for sales, client services, and operations. Michael is an accomplished go-to-market executive with nearly 20 years in achieving growth and transformations across a diverse mix of leading technology organizations. Michael has served in various GTM leadership roles for companies like X (formerly known as Twitter) and Yahoo!, and has helped lead venture-backed startups like Turn and BrightRoll to successful exits. Throughout his career, Michael has cultivated a proven track record in building, leading, and motivating data-driven teams that consistently deliver on ambitious business goals. His expertise and guidance allow organizations to solve complex challenges and launch new lines of revenue through planning discipline and persistent execution. 

Michael holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he specialized in finance and accounting. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Download Michael’s Photo

Tony Castellanos

Head of People

Tony Castellanos is the Head of Compensation & Talent at Nextdoor. He brings extensive experience in talent acquisition and human resources from leading technology companies, including previous roles as Head of Talent & People at Nuna Inc., Head of Talent at Square, and Sr. Recruiter for Research & Engineering at Google. His career spans nearly two decades of building high-performing teams across the tech industry.

He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Santa Clara University and is based in San Francisco, California.