Executive Management

Matt Meeker is the co-founder, CEO, and Executive Chairman of BARK, the company behind BarkBox. He served as CEO of the company from its foundation until September 2020 and resumed the role of CEO in January 2022.

Since launching with the monthly subscription service BarkBox in 2012, BARK has experienced rapid growth through product enhancement and revenue diversification. Matt led the company to design and create unique, dog-first products, experiences and content, carrying the success of BARK’s subscription model into new distribution channels, including e-commerce and retail.

Prior to BARK, Matt was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at DogPatch Labs, a startup incubator run by Polaris Ventures. He is an integral component of the New York startup community acting as board member or advisor to multiple early-stage companies. He currently serves as a Venture Partner at Resolute VC. In 2002, Matt co-founded Meetup, the largest network of local communities that meet offline about shared interests and passions.

Henrik Werdelin is the co-founder of BARK, where he oversees strategy, brand and M&A. He is also founding partner of Prehype, a venture development firm headquartered in New York with offices in London and Copenhagen. Across all his endeavors, Werdelin has made tactics to make large companies entrepreneurial, methods to help entrepreneurs build ventures, and products that make people (and dogs) happy.

Werdelin’s experience – centered on solving problems at scale in creative ways – ranges from being Entrepreneur in Residence at Index Ventures to helping invest, advise and start many successful ventures. Before becoming an entrepreneur and angel (the investing kind, not the flying kind), Werdelin was Vice President of Product Development and Strategy for MTV Networks International, where he spearheaded the development of many of MTV's award-winning products.

Werdelin is the author of The Acorn Method: How Companies Get Growing Again (Lioncrest). He teaches his approach to venture building at leading universities and is often quoted in the press on subjects such as corporate innovation, product design, entrepreneurship, and his dog’s favorite parks. He has been named in the Top 100 Most Creative by Fast Company and Silicon Alley Insider’s '100 People in Tech’. Henrik is Danish but lives in Brooklyn with his family and very spoiled dog, Molly.

Carly Strife is the co-founder of BARK. Carly has managed and scaled the complex business operations behind each of BARK's businesses starting with BarkBox in 2012 and now spanning several distribution channels and product lines. Today she leads strategic BARK initiatives, including BARK Eats, the company’s new personalized food blend offering.

Prior to BARK, Carly was an early employee at Uber, hired to help launch the company’s New York operation. She started her career in the Financial Advisory practice at Deloitte where she was responsible for the valuation of real estate, property, and business assets. She also co-founded Ambush Capital, investing in and advising early stage founders.

Carly has been featured on the ‘30 Under 30’ lists of both Forbes and Inc. magazines. She has a mechanical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Carly lives in Brooklyn with her dogs Cooper, a very hungry puggle, and Reginald, an adventurous rescue terrier. On weekends she can be found riding or rebuilding motorcycles.

Zahir Ibrahim brings nearly three decades of financial leadership experience scaling high-growth, direct-to-consumer brands. Prior to BARK, Zahir served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of Do Good Foods LLC, a startup focused on upcycling surplus grocery food into nutritious animal feed to create sustainable animal protein.

Prior to that, he served as Chief Financial Officer of KIND LLC, a healthy snacks company, where he helped drive the company’s strategy and build its infrastructure, enabling significant growth and international expansion. In addition, he led KIND through M&A transactions, as well as the sale of the business to Mars in 2020. Before KIND, Zahir served as Chief Financial Officer at Annie’s Inc. (NYSE: BNNY), a widely recognized natural and organic food company, where he led the business through organic and inorganic growth, and managed the sale and transition of the business to General Mills. Previously, Zahir held several roles at Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP), culminating with Vice President, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer.

Earlier in his career, Zahir served in senior financial positions at CML Innovative Technologies, Elementis Specialties, and Pirelli Tires, and trained as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG LLP. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Financial Management, Economics, and Accounting from the University of Sheffield and an MBA from the University of Warwick.

Zahir resides in Connecticut, with his wife Nicole and their beloved Golden, Oscar, who has been enjoying his introduction to BARK toys, treats and toppers!

Allison Koehler has over 20 years of public company legal experience in securities law compliance and disclosure, the corporate secretary function and all areas of board and committee management, M&A and strategic investments, capital markets transactions, stock administration, global subsidiary management, overseeing all other corporate matters, litigation, commercial contracts and intellectual property, developing enterprise risk management and compliance programs, and creating environmental, social and governance (ESG) and investor outreach programs. Previously, Allison was Deputy General Counsel at The RealReal, Inc., a company that went public in June 2019. Before that, Allison was at eBay Inc. (also PayPal, Inc. prior to its spin-off in 2015) as Associate General Counsel, head of Global M&A, Securities and Corporate. Before that, she was in the US Group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Frankfurt, Germany and London, England after starting her career at Gray Cary in Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom.

Allison's life is run by Gizmo, a rescue puppy who may be part Papillon and part Pomeranian, but is definitely mostly attitude. Allison and Gizmo currently live on a ranch in the foothills east of Sacramento with a pack of cousin and rescue dogs, three cats, three of their five horses, deer, wild turkeys, geese and various other wildlife. Allison and Gizmo are excited to begin their New York life and watch those small town blues melt away.

Aarti Sharma brings over 20 years of leadership experience in human resources and people strategy and has supported the development of numerous high-growth, global technology companies. Most recently, Aarti served for nine years as the Head of Human Resources at Cambium Networks where she built the human resources infrastructure globally and tripled the organization’s size.

As part of Cambium Networks’ executive team, she was also instrumental in preparing the Company for its IPO in 2019. Prior to Cambium Networks, Aarti has worked in multinational companies including Stryker Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Wipro Technologies. She holds an undergraduate degree in Statistics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi and an MBA in Human Resources from Symbiosis International University.

Aarti resides in Chicago with her husband, two boys and her Portuguese water dog, Kulfi who keeps the entire family delightfully active.

Nari Sitaraman has over 20 years of retail and consulting experience across technology strategy, engineering, and product management. Prior to BARK, Nari was the CTO at Crate & Barrel, where he oversaw all aspects of technology and helped evolve the digital business to be greater than 65% of the overall revenues. Before that, he was the CTO at The Shade Store, where he helped the business become a leader in their space, with a focus on omni-channel service and an unmatched customer experience. Prior to The Shade Store, he led technology teams at Williams-Sonoma and other global brands through digital transformations by fostering a tech and data driven culture focused on customer experience and innovation.

Nari received an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a Masters of Science from Penn State University, and an M.B.A from University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Nari and his wife Sri have twins - a girl and a boy - with whom they share a passion for history and nature, and enjoy spending time building models, playing board games, camping, and visiting museums and aquariums.

Suzanne McDonnell brings over 25 years of leadership and C-suite experience spanning commercial sales, partnerships, and marketing. Since joining BARK in 2015, Suzanne has led the Company's retail, partnership, and licensing business. She is also responsible for BARK's global marketing and advertising function.

Prior to BARK, Suzanne served as SVP of Discovery Networks where she was head of revenue for Discovery Digital, leading national ad sales, marketing, and key account partnerships. Prior to Discovery, Suzanne ran an in-house innovations team at Viacom Digital where she drove media and marketing experiences across MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon and registered advertising patents to her name. Suzanne has been awarded the IAB's award for Sales Excellence. She has also sat on the Board of the IAB. Earlier in her career, Suzanne held leadership roles at Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, and within the WPP network, driving business for blue chip brands across automotive, CPG, and service industries.

Suzanne received her undergraduate degree from Colgate University. She resides in New York City with her husband and beloved cockapoo, Ryder Cup.