Jon Potter
President
Jon Potter is responsible for The Alliance’s organizational development, program planning and executing its strategic agenda. He brings to the position more than 30 years of experience in building and managing coalitions; policy advocacy, political consulting, strategic planning and legal issues.
Potter founded the Applications Developers Alliance after 12 years as the executive director of the Digital Media Association, which represented pioneering digital media companies such as Apple, Pandora and Amazon.com, from 1998 to 2009.
Prior to his career in industry associations, Potter was a senior vice president at the government relations consulting and investment advisory firm Columbus Newport LLC. Before that, he was an associate attorney at D.C. law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he specialized in policy and government relations work on issues such as digital copyright. Potter launched his advocacy career while a law student at New York University, managing political and non-profit fundraising from his dorm room.
Potter holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Rochester and a juris doctor degree from New York University School of Law.
Jake Ward
Executive Director
Jake Ward oversees operations and programming for the Application Developers Alliance, including media relations, marketing, membership and corporate partnerships. He has more than 10 years of experience in public relations, marketing and public policy. He has led strategic communications and issue-advocacy campaigns on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, public-interest group and industry associations.
Ward served as a vice president of public affairs at the Washington-based PR firm the David All Group, where he worked with tech industry clients and global brands. He also served as executive director of AMP Summit, an annual forum for influencers in the activist, media and policy spheres. Ward was also a vice president at the PR firm Brodeur Partners and a director at Qorvis Communications, both in Washington D.C. Ward formerly served as press secretary to Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and as communications director to Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif.
Ward holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wheaton College and a master’s degree from Northeastern University.
Tim Sparapani
VP of Law, Policy, and Government Relations
Tim is an expert in privacy, technology and constitutional law and was most recently the first Director of Public Policy at Facebook. Tim was responsible for developing and implementing the company’s interaction with the federal, state, local and international governments and with opinion and policy makers. He managed these roles as the company grew from 150 million to more than 800 million active users and from 400 employees to more than 3,000.
Prior to joining Facebook, Tim was senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, where he helped advance the constitutional principle of the right to privacy, representing the ACLU before Congress, the Executive Branch and before the media. For the more than four years preceding his time at the ACLU, Tim served as an associate at the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro where he helped clients navigate interconnecting constitutional, statutory, political and policy challenges.
Tim holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the law school at the University of Michigan.
Laura Bolos
Director of Membership
Laura Bolos heads up membership for the Alliance. She is responsible for recruiting and maintaining corporate partnerships and developing and delivering great membership benefits.
Prior to joining The Alliance team, Bolos was a staff assistant at Washington D.C.-based public relations firm David All Group, where she provided support to the account teams with client projects and social media advertising. Bolos holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and political science from the University of South Carolina.
Chris Green
Director of Product Development
Chris loves working with developers and the larger tech industry to ensure the Alliance is relevant and providing value for our members. As our lead developer, he keeps the culture within all Alliance operations and ensures we're staying on top of industry issues, nerdy news, and supporting and attending great conferences. Additionally, as a veteran sysadmin and partner on many tech and web projects, Chris oversees the building and scaling of our tech properties including The Alliance Network.
Chris comes to us from the David All Group, serving as director of technology where he oversaw the creation of web sites, apps, social plugins, and tech projects for large trade associations and technology companies. Previously, Chris served as manager of network engineering at Innova Partners, a software development company in Columbus, Ohio, where he supported and hacked on software projects large and small hosted on hand built LAMP clusters and IIS+SQL Server web servers.
Along with shell, Chris is fluent in HTML+CSS, is an avid lover of open source, is an EE and hardware nerd, loves to configure new web servers and work on gold configs, and is currently learning Ruby.
Courtney Lamie
Director of Communications
Courtney Lamie works with Alliance members to ensure their story is told. She is responsible for handling media relations and managing general communications for the Alliance.
Courtney worked for Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) from 2004 to 2010, serving as his communications director during his time as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. Courtney is also a veteran of Virginia political campaigns, leading communications and doing fundraising work for Boucher for Congress and volunteering her time for other candidates. She came to the Alliance from the communications team at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Courtney holds a master’s in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University and a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia.
Chelsea Larson
Director of Marketing
Chelsea Larson is the Director of Marketing and is responsible for event planning, sponsorships, brand enrichment, online marketing and coordinating marketing opportunities for Alliance members. She is an enthusiastic leader who is passionate about enhancing the app ecosystem and connecting the individuals within it.
Before arriving at the Apps Alliance, Chelsea co-founded design3.com, a game development software training portal with thousand of online training tutorials. There she performed all of the marketing functions including digital and social media marketing, partnership building, online advertising, content creation and brand development.
Chelsea earned a master's in Women's Studies (emphasis in multi-cultural education) and a bachelor's in Applied Design (she's creative and can make anything) from San Diego State University.
Jon Bassford
Director of Operations and Business Development
Jon Bassford manages the internal operations of the Alliance, including human resources. He also oversees member services, ensuring that our members get the most out of their membership.
Jon comes to Alliance with six years of association management experience. He worked for Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity as a traveling field representative and then as director of law school chapter operations. During those years, he oversaw component relations, member development, event planning, project management and numerous operational matters with record-breaking success.
Jon obtained his bachelors in Philosophy with a minor in Political Science from Millikin Unviersity and juris doctor degree from Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law.
Casey Noland
Partnership Development
Casey Noland is responsible for developing and implementing new partnerships for the Alliance. Prior to joining the Alliance team, Casey co-founded and ran design3, a company dedicated to delivering educational resources to aspiring game and application developers. Casey holds a bachelor’s degree in digital media production from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Katy Pape
Communications Manager
Katy is the Communications Manager for the Alliance. A Master’s candidate in Georgetown's Communication, Culture and Technology program, she previously interned at NPR and NabeWise.com (since acquired by Airbnb). After graduating from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service with a degree in Culture & Politics, Katy worked as a litigation clerk at a DC law firm, focusing on patent litigation at the International Trade Commission.
Ben Mears
Community Manager
Ben has been drawing, animating objects and pictures, and playing video games for as long as he can remember. Ben attended Humboldt State University where he majored in Studio Art: Graphic Design and minored in Film Production. Those two disciplines merged together, and he discovered a love for animation. After graduating from HSU in 2004, he began studying 3D Computer Animation at DeAnza College. It was there that he learned Maya and other skills that allowed him to land a job at Noesis Interactive in 2006. He worked as Production Lead for Noesis Interactive and then moved with the company to design3 in 2010. He continues to play video games (when he can find the time), as well as work on personal video, graphic, and game projects.
Mike Schwartz
Marketing Manager
Mike Schwartz is the Marketing Manager for the Alliance. Based in San Francisco, Mike is responsible for the development, implementation and management of various marketing programs and strategic initiatives. Mike also heads up the Alliance Evangelist program, helping to spread the mission of the Application Developers Alliance, and all the great support the organization provides for the app ecosystem.
Before joining the Alliance team, Mike was an account executive at a Washington D.C.-based public relations firm David All Group, where he worked with leading brands, Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and advocacy groups. Prior to public relations, Mike assisted in marketing efforts for a few different mobile apps. Schwartz holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and economics from the University of Maryland.
.jpg)
Lauren Smith
Executive Assistant
Lauren is the Executive Assistant to the President and the Senior Vice President, as well as the Administrative Assistant for the Alliance. Prior to joining our team, she interned on Capitol Hill for Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, her home state. Lauren is a graduate of Texas Tech University, where she received a bachelor's degree in International Business with a minor in Spanish. She is very excited to grow with our organization and explore her adopted hometown with her dog, Charlie!
Chelsea Clays
Communications Intern
Chelsea Clays is responsible for maintaining and building high quality engagement in all of the Alliance’s social media channels. She also promotes Alliance members and their services, events, and programming through social media. Chelsea is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Studies with a minor in Marketing at American University’s School of International Service. Before joining the Alliance, she interned with the Communications Team at the British Embassy and the Public Affairs Office of a US military base in the UK, gaining extensive experience in transatlantic relations, social media community management, and event planning. A military brat growing up all over the world, she calls DC her true hometown.
Johnathan Chhabra
Web Development Intern
Johnathan Chhabra is a new developer joining the App Developers Alliance crew. He is self taught in html, css, and ruby and learning more and more everyday. With an interest in all things tech, Johnathan knows his way around a computer. Johnathan is super interested in all sorts of programming and has fooled around with java, javascript, ruby, C#, and C before.
He dreams of beautiful websites and is coming onboard to bring his drive to learn and create to the App Developers Alliance team. Other than personal projects here and there, this is his first big step into the development world and he is ready to make his mark.
When his head isn't stuck in a text editor, he is probably playing some video games. Video games were the thing that got him into coding after fooling around with game modding. Johnathan has been gaming since he was a kid and it's a passion that will never leave him. He has lived in Northern Virginia for his entire life and is very excited to join the team.
Alicia Fischer
Marketing Intern
Alicia Fischer is a pursuing her career in Communications and Marketing with the Alliance. She works with the Marketing Team in San Francisco on promotions and sponsorship, media partnerships, event coordination and outreach. Alicia recently graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a minor in Italian from San Francisco State University.
Before joining the Alliance, Alicia worked at the San Francisco-based tech startup Desks Near Me and at the California Preservation Foundation, where she learned the ins and outs of tech and startup life and fought the good fight for historic preservation throughout the State of California.
She is a photography and social media junkie, aspiring home chef, and strongly believes in the power of music to satisfy any mood. When Alicia isn’t spending her free time traveling to new places, she can be found eating her way through new restaurants in San Francisco or drinking wine in her hometown of Napa Valley.