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Jan Underhill, PhD
Director L&D, Enterprise Programs at Comcast
Professional Background
Jan Underhill, PhD, is a distinguished professional with over 30 years of extensive experience in the cable television industry, specializing in training and development for the past 25 years. Throughout her remarkable career, she has held numerous leadership positions across various organizations, particularly Comcast, where her contributions have had a significant impact on employee development and organizational growth.
Her journey in the cable television sector began with hands-on training roles and rapidly progressed to strategic leadership positions in learning and development (L&D). As the Director of L&D for Enterprise Programs at Comcast, Jan was instrumental in designing and implementing comprehensive training programs that enhanced employee skills and improved service delivery. Her commitment to fostering learning environments led to elevated performance across departments and a culture that prioritizes continuous improvement.
In her various roles at Comcast, Jan transitioned from Sr Manager of Leadership Development to ultimately becoming the Director of Learning and Development. In these positions, she spearheaded initiatives that empowered leaders and nurtured talent through innovative training methodologies. Her ability to identify skill gaps and develop tailored training solutions has made her a sought-after expert in her field.
Before her tenure at Comcast, Jan honed her skills at Media One/AT&T Broadband, where she served as Training Manager for Workforce, Care & Technical operations. Her role involved creating effective training strategies that aligned with organizational goals while ensuring high standards of customer service. Earlier in her career, she started as a Care Training Instructor/Manager at Continental Cablevision, where she laid the groundwork for her passion for employee development and engagement.
Education and Achievements
Jan’s academic background is fortified by her robust education, which includes a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education with a concentration in Performance Improvement from Capella University. Coupled with her PhD, Jan holds an MBA in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University, equipping her with a solid foundation in both educational theory and business acumen. Her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst further complements her profile, enhancing her ability to communicate effectively within organizational frameworks.
Her combination of education and experience in the cable television industry positions her uniquely to address the training and development needs in a rapidly evolving sector. As a thought leader in the industry, Jan has contributed to best practices in training development and has served as a mentor to upcoming professionals in the field.
Achievements
Over the course of her impressive career, Jan Underhill has accomplished several key milestones that underscore her value as a leader in training and development. Her strategic initiatives at Comcast received recognition for significantly improving employee engagement and productivity. Jan's commitment to innovation in learning methodologies has led to the implementation of blended learning approaches, which integrate traditional and digital training techniques to meet the diverse needs of employees.
Jan’s leadership in developing high-performing teams has resulted in numerous awards for training excellence at Comcast; she has been pivotal in ensuring the workforce is equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in a competitive marketplace. Her ability to adapt to new technologies and integrate them into training frameworks has also been a driving force behind successful organizational transformations. Jan has a proven track record of designing impactful leadership development programs that emphasize the importance of effective communication, collaboration, and team dynamics across multiple levels of the organization.
Jan Underhill's Path in Education and Professional Development
Jan Underhill’s dedication to personal and professional growth is evident in her continued pursuit of higher education and professional development. She is not only a practitioner of training methodologies but also an innovator who applies best practices to develop tomorrow’s leaders. Her experience working with various learning styles and her deep understanding of adult learning principles have made her a trusted authority in the field of training and development.
Having spent decades in an industry known for its fast-paced nature and constant change, Jan's adaptability and foresight have been instrumental in shaping the learning culture at Comcast. She fosters an environment where feedback is valued and employees are encouraged to take initiative and lead their own learning journeys. This has not only driven individual development but has also equipped organizations to meet market demands effectively.
Networking and Industry Contribution
Beyond her internal roles, Jan Underhill is active in the industry, frequently participating in professional networks and forums that focus on leadership development and training. Her insights into the cable television industry, coupled with her academic background, make her a valuable contributor at conferences and workshops aimed at elevating the standards of training within this sector. She actively shares her expertise through speaking engagements and professional writing, contributing to thought leadership in her field.
Whether collaborating within organizations or contributing to broader industry discussions, Jan is passionate about advocating for the value of effective training programs that cultivate a workforce capable of meeting future challenges. Her long-standing commitment to training excellence not only shapes individual careers but also ultimately enhances the customer experience within the cable television industry.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.