Testimonials
from those who have worked with Founder Mary McAfoose
Your program/project partner
Elizabeth Katcoff, Director, AWS
“Mary consistently demonstrated a rare combination of technical expertise, exceptional communication skills, and unwavering dedication to delivering results… You will get more value from Mary in a part-time capacity than from many employees working full-time. She brings focus, creativity, and a relentless drive to meet and exceed expectations.”
Julian Merschen, Chief Technology Officer, Varsity Tutors
“Her ability to drive clarity, manage risk, escalate where appropriate, communicate exceptionally clearly, and maintain momentum across complex initiatives was invaluable… Mary is a rare combination of strategic thinker and operational executor. Any organization would be fortunate to have her leadership, technical acumen, and program management discipline.”
Kai Ory, Chief Marketplace Operations Officer, Varsity Tutors
“Grounded, direct, and trusted by everyone from execs to engineers… If you’re looking for someone who can bring order to complexity, align teams around the right priorities, and drive meaningful business results—Mary’s one of the best I’ve worked with.””
Chris Mackay, Executive Director, West Seattle Junction Association
“Mary is one of the most capable, organized, and genuinely caring professionals I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. Her presence has brought both clarity and calm to our team, and her contributions have had a lasting impact.”
Simplify and execute
“Mary also has the ability to simplify complex or ambiguous requests into their parts, making them tangible and realistic for executing teams to take bite-size pieces of and react to appropriately.”
Scott Solomon, Director, AWS
“Mary excels at turning ambiguity into action. She has a rare ability to translate high-level business goals into clear roadmaps—defining scope, milestones, ownership, and measures of success. She brings discipline to cross-functional work by identifying and resolving blockers early, coordinating across Engineering, Product, Ops, Finance, and other teams as necessary, and ensuring that risks are surfaced and mitigated before they become issues. On more than one occasion, Mary helped reframe messy or misaligned initiatives and got them back on track with a clear plan and stakeholder alignment.”
Kai Ory, Chief Marketplace Operations Officer, Varsity Tutors
Technical Depth & Breadth
“Her technical depth set her apart—she not only understood complex engineering designs but also proactively managed technical risks, from ensuring system redundancy and minimizing downtime to making certain all facilities had the necessary monitoring in place. She navigated construction project timelines with ease, working closely with controls and operations teams during deployment and through handoff.”
Oliver Palmer, Director, Microsoft
“Mary's expertise in data center operations is extensive... She possesses an impressive ability to navigate complex construction processes, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned and that timelines are met.”
Brian Dressler, Principal Controls Engineer, AWS
“Mary has specific expertise in deploying and operating SCADA systems at scale in cloud environments, juggling multiple deliverables with competing priorities.”
Ken Macfarlane, CIO, AWS
Effective Communication
“She has a rare talent for clearly communicating complex issues to executives, partners, and engineers… Her status updates were consistently concise, accurate, and focused on driving solutions rather than simply reporting status. She brought stakeholders into alignment and maintained momentum on every initiative she touched. Even under pressure, she remained cool headed and collaborative.”
Oliver Palmer, Director, Microsoft
“Mary is concise, calm, and clear when presenting to senior leadership. Whether she’s walking through a multi-month roadmap or flagging a high-risk dependency, she brings the right level of detail to the conversation and always ties it back to business impact. She makes it easy for leaders to make decisions.”
Kai Ory, Chief Marketplace Operations Officer, Varsity Tutors
