Litera: AI-Powered Connectivity for Every Stage of Legal Work 

Appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Litera in October 2024, Avaneesh Marwaha is responsible for leading the company through the next chapter of integration and innovation. Marwaha previously served as Litera’s Chairman of the Board from 2022 to 2024 and CEO from 2016 to 2022. 
 
For nearly a decade, Marwaha, a former lawyer and entrepreneur, has collaborated with Global CIOs to develop the building blocks of today's legal technology. His industry expertise and passion for driving best-in-class customer experience are key assets in Litera’s next chapter of growth as the company concentrates on transforming the legal experience. As CEO, Marwaha focuses on optimizing legal workflows with enterprise-grade solutions, further integrating GenAI into Litera’s trusted product ecosystem, accelerating user adoption, and securing a foundation of innovation.  
 
Avaneesh is responsible for bringing Litera Draft, formerly Litera Desktop, to the market along with developing the Practice of Law segment with acquisitions including Kira, Transact and the Business of Law segment with acquisitions such as Foundation and Clocktimizer. He drove the team to deliver cutting-edge solutions for customers while driving a strong culture of accountability, innovation, and growth from $16M to ~$250M in Revenue. 
 
Avaneesh previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Nexonia (now Emburse). During his tenure, he was instrumental in the company’s expansion to become a multinational corporation, while increasing customer focus and streamlining product development. Previously, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of Keno Kozie, where he oversaw significant growth in the help desk, engineering and managed services offerings for some of the largest law firms in the world. Avaneesh earned his JD degree from the Valparaiso University School of Law and completed a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bradley University. 

As Chief Customer Officer, Chris Arellano is responsible for Customer Success, Professional Services, and Customer Support to ensure customers have a superior experience and can fully maximize the value of the solutions and services provided.

Chris has over 20 years of experience in executive leadership, operations, customer success, and continuous improvement. She has a proven track record as an exceptional leader and process expert in the industry, holding key leadership roles at Upserve, McKesson, American Express, FedEx Ground, Motorola, and Acoustic. She has successfully led global teams responsible for managing over $1 billion in annual revenue across 50,000+ customers.

Chris has a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from ASU and an MBA with an emphasis in Leadership from Grand Canyon University. She is also a Six Sigma Master Blackbelt.

Jessica Castillo joins Litera as our Chief Transformation Officer, bringing 20 years of experience in transformation and organizational improvement. She began her career at McKinsey & Company, followed by roles at Vista Equity Partners and most recently as an Operating Partner at Sovereign’s Capital, where she led strategic planning and value creation initiatives. Jessica holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M and an MBA from Stanford. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two children and enjoys baking, cooking, and playing tennis in her free time. 

Cynthia brings over 20 years of experience in technology marketing and executive leadership. Most recently, she served nearly six years as chief marketing officer at SmartBear, where she helped lead the company through sustained years of growth and profitability, a sale transaction, and multiple industry accolades. She led large-scale positioning and brand transformation efforts resulting in a unified, market-leading portfolio.

Prior to SmartBear, Cynthia held marketing leadership roles at CA Technologies (now Broadcom) and Dell, as well as at fast-growing private technology companies, including in the legaltech market. Known for blending her engineering and quantitative expertise with her business acumen and creative vision, Cynthia has a passion for products that empower customers and deliver tangible value. She brings a unique, multidisciplinary approach to driving business results and inspiring teams.

Cynthia holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from MIT, a master’s degree from Tufts University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

As Chief Technology Officer, Greg Ingino is responsible for leading the engineering, dev ops, architecture, R&D operations, QA, IT, and Security teams across the company.

Greg brings more than 17 years of senior management experience in both PE backed and public companies, primarily focused on high growth, highly acquisitive, software companies across several different industries. Before Litera, Greg was CTO of WebPT, Greg was responsible for rebuilding and transforming the technology organization of the largest outpatient software provider in the industry to achieve enterprise scale through the integration of several acquisitions, delivering new enterprise platform capabilities, launching the companies first enterprise data offering, and improving overall scalability of the company’s technology assets. Prior to WebPT he served as the CTO of Vertafore, the largest provider of software to independent insurance agents, helping the company scale to $600M+ in revenue which led to a sale of the company to Roper Technologies for $5.35B. 

Greg holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University Northridge and an MBA from UCLA.

As Chief People Officer (CPeO), Michelle leads the People management team, which includes talent acquisition, Talent Management, Learning & Development, DE&I, and People Operations.

Michelle completed her undergrad work at Alma College in Michigan and attended the University of Alabama for law school. She was in private practice, specializing in employment law, for over a decade then moved into Human Resources. Michelle began her HR career with LexisNexis, later moving to Verint Systems (a B2B Enterprise software company) both highly acquisitive and rapidly growing organizations. 

Her most recent role was Chief People Officer with ServiceMaster Brands, a $4B franchise company where she was responsible for both the internal Human Resources organization and the customer-facing HR consulting and training groups.

As Chief Sales Officer, Sean is a seasoned sales professional with a stellar reputation for accelerating sales growth and cultivating dynamic teams that exceed expectations. His expertise in strategic sales initiatives and his passion for innovation make him the ideal leader to drive our sales operations to success.

As Chief of Staff, Rachael Rekart is responsible for ensuring effective communication and alignment across all departments and focusing on bridging cross functional initiatives looking for quick wins to drive continued growth.

Rachael has over 15 years of experience in the software industry, playing pivotal roles in sales, customer success, finance, and operations for various companies, including publicly traded, VC-backed, and PE-backed organizations. She is an expert in digital transformations, with a wealth of experience incorporating AI deployments and cross-functional strategic initiatives to optimize operations. Rachael has been featured in Vogue Australia and the Wall Street Journal for her work in AI and was named one of San Francisco Business Times’ ‘Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.’ She is an evangelist of human-machine augmentation and has spoken on the topic world-wide.

Rachael has a Master’s in Psychology from Pepperdine University, along with a Bachelors’ in Marketing and Supply Chain Management from Arizona State University. 

Adam is a seasoned product and innovation leader with a proven track record in driving growth and delivering successful products. With over 18 years in the legal and tech industry, Adam has been at the forefront of driving product management and innovation in legaltech. He has a law and computer science background and was the Chief Legal Innovation Officer at Freshfields before joining Litera.