Meet the Referential Team: Ryan Quackenbush
If you were to rewind the clock on Ryan Quackenbush (pictured right), you’d find him jumping off stages at rock concerts and singing loudly in equally loud bands. Go back a bit further, and you’ll find a young – Keanu Reeves-looking – man aspiring to write the next great American novel while studying beatniks and black mountain poets and earning a degree in literature and creative writing from an Upstate New York (NY) college. Fast forward to today, and you’ll find an established Senior Advocacy Consultant with a track record of success in the high-tech industry and experience that he draws on to guide his clients to success.
Taking the background as a stage performer with him today, Ryan has spoken at various tech and advocacy events on the programs he’s created. You’ll also find him on occasion attending advocacy-focused get-togethers in the New England area. He’s built internal advocacy programs for mid-sized startups, global enterprises, as well as global, open-sourced tech communities. His experience is varied, as is his approach.
Born in upstate NY, Ryan lives in the Albany, NY area with his wife and daughters, Luna (pictured left) and Willa, and is gradually becoming accustomed to all the challenges that fatherhood provides; he admits, though, that yes everything is different but he’s genuinely surprised at how quickly he’s become used to everything being altered.
If you’re looking for a few fun facts about Ryan to breakout at a dinner party, he loves to cook, he feverishly roots for the NY Mets, he plays 5 instruments and has co-written and performed on over a dozen different albums. His vinyl collection boasts over 1300 records to date, his favorite book and TV series is without a doubt Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, he’s a “big time space nerd” and, more than anything, he wants to stand on every continent before he dies.
Ryan loves a challenge and meeting new people; he joined Referential in May of 2019, having most recently come over from Oracle. Having the opportunity to learn from Helen and everyone at Referential, frankly, was too good an opportunity for him to pass up!
