Ryan McKillen joins the TWG Board

We’re excited to announce Ryan McKillen has joined our Board of Directors. With a unique focus on scaling engineering organizations, Ryan joins at a critical time of growth as the company aims to size up its engineering and product team amid a boating and outdoor boom as Americans look for socially-distanced activities.

Ryan @ Uber

The third employee to be hired at Uber, Ryan is an accomplished engineer of consumer products and marketplaces with experience steeped in Silicon Valley.

During his nearly seven-year tenure at Uber, Ryan grew from software engineer to site director of NYC engineering, finishing with a tour in product in Uber’s autonomous vehicle ops. He impressively scaled Uber’s New York City engineering center from 0–80 employees within 18 months, with responsibility for teams who built the Uber EATS platform, as well as the infrastructure for Uber’s metrics and monitoring used by engineering globally. Uber’s M3 time series database was open-sourced and is now relied upon by leading tech and Fortune 500 companies.

Ryan @ TWG

“As we look to make significant investments in our product software, Ryan’s deep well of knowledge as an engineer, specifically when it comes to scaling a team, is truly an asset,” said Mike Melillo, TWG’s co-founder and CEO. “His love for the water as an avid boater and self-proclaimed ‘obsessed’ sailboat racer aligns perfectly with our company’s mission to help people connect and spend more time outdoors.”

“I’m thrilled that The Wanderlust Group chose me to serve on its board, and I’m looking forward to working in the trenches with the team,” Ryan added. “Mike is a fiery entrepreneur and working with him gives me flashbacks to Uber. We’ve found a great match of my experiences in engineering and consumer marketplaces, with TWG’s disruption of the boating industry by connecting marinas with boaters.”

Welcome, Ryan! 🙌