Leadership
Chris Sullens is the CentralReach CEO and is leading the company in its mission to provide the leading software and services platform to help children and adults diagnosed with autism and related IDDs - and those who serve them - unlock potential, achieve better outcomes, and live more independent lives. Sullens brings decades of experience to the company and has a proven track record of building strong company cultures and taking customer-centric technology companies, like CentralReach, to the next level. Since he joined, CentralReach has won 40+ awards including Deloitte Technology Fast 500, NJBIZ Fast 50, Silver Stevie for Most Innovative Company of the Year, NJBIZ Best Places to Work, and Best in Biz Company of the Year - demonstrating the positive effects of the investments the company is making in its people, process, systems and client satisfaction initiatives.
Prior to CentralReach, Sullens spent 10 years as President and CEO of WorkWave, a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for the field service and last mile logistics industries, which was recently acquired by IFS, an EQT-backed, global enterprise software provider based in Sweden. Sullens was responsible for developing the vision, setting the strategy and driving the execution for the company since joining in 2008. During his time there, Sullens transformed WorkWave through significant investment and 11 strategic acquisitions from a single product, single market, predominantly on-premise company, to a multi-product and multi-market SaaS company that is now the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for the field service and last mile logistics industries. Sullens grew employee count from 38 to almost 300 and increased revenue by 800% while maintaining double-digit EBITDA margins, creating an award-winning culture and building a world class SaaS leadership team.
During his tenure, the company was a seven-time winner of NJ Best Places to Work, named an Inc. Best Place to Work and a five-time Inc. 5000 fastest growth award winner among other awards. Sullens was also named 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year in NJ for Software Services and won a Stevie award for People-Focused CEO of the Year in 2017. Sullens also sits on the board of directors for CentralReach along with a few other organizations including Fulfill of Monmouth and Ocean County, CultureIQ, TechUnited and the Monmouth's School of Education Dean's Council. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an M.B.A. with Honors in Finance, Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.