Jonathan Marek

About Jonathan Marek

As Chief Operations Officer at Guild, I advance our mission to unlock opportunity for America’s workforce, leading Guild\'s consumer-facing teams and marketplace operations. Prior to this role, I led the teams managing Guild’s customer relationships, working with leading enterprises to invest in their employees while driving ROI across the talent lifecycle and supporting employees on their learning journeys.With 30 years of experience spanning go-to-market, operations, and cultural leadership in companies from 20 to people, I thrive at the intersection of strategy and execution, building resilient teams, and solving complex challenges.Beyond my work at Guild, I selectively advise growth-stage SaaS, B2B2C, and marketplace businesses that:• Serve enterprise customers and have achieved initial product-market fit.• Are led by executives “in it, not above it” with their teams—leaders who embrace learning, truth-seeking, integrity, and collaborative problem-solving.My sweet spot includes scaling go-to-market functions (Sales, CS, and Operations), cutting through complexity, and mentoring rising stars. I am most valuable to leaders who approach me with topics of the form:\"I don\'t know who to turn to with this question/idea.\".I write eclectic longer form pieces at Culture & Compass on Substack: https://substack.com/@cultureandcompass.

Experience

1. Advisor

   Opus Training

   Oct 2024 — Present

   Advisor to Founder/CEO

Education

• Yale School of Management

  Executive Education Certificate, Negotiation Strategies

• Stanford University

  BS/AB, Mathematics and Philosophy

  1991 — 1995