Leadership

David Bywater is the CEO of Vivint Smart Home and serves on the company’s board of directors. David was named Vivint Smart Home CEO in 2021 after serving for four years as the CEO of Vivint Solar, which SunRun acquired in 2020 for $3.2 billion. He also served on the board of directors for SunRun.

Previously, David served as chief operating officer for Vivint Smart Home where he was responsible for customer operations, human resources, field service, and supply chain. Before Vivint, David spent 10 years at Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) where he was responsible for the management of several business units, encapsulating more than 60 different companies. He has also served as an executive vice president and corporate officer for Xerox and was the chief operating officer for its State Government Services business. Before Xerox, David worked as senior manager at Bain & Company where he worked with global clients, primarily in the technology, transportation, and data information industries.

David has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ron Davies leads all aspects of Vivint's smart insurance business, including the development of its marketing strategy. Ron has more than two decades of experience in the insurance industry. Most recently, he was the President, CEO, and Director of Safe Auto Insurance Group, where over the course of his nine years he transformed the business from a founder-led company to a technology-driven industry leader. By incorporating data analytics that provided insights into customer acquisition and retention, the profitable company grew into an capable franchise under his watch, leading to its acquisition by Allstate in 2021.

Prior to his time at Safe Auto, Ron held a variety of executive and leadership positions with leading insurance brands, including Allstate and Progressive Insurance, as well as smaller more specialized companies. Ron graduated from the United States Military Academy West Point with a Bachelor of Science in both Economics and Finance, and later received his Master of Business from Harvard Business School.

Starr sets the people vision and strategy for more than 10,000 employees at Vivint. She oversees all talent acquisition and development, compensation and benefits, health and safety, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement and corporate communications.

Before joining Vivint, Starr was a director at Boart Longyear, the world’s leading provider of drilling services and products for the mining industry. She reported directly to the CEO, and with ongoing interaction and directives from the Board of Directors was responsible for leading enterprise-wide organizational change initiatives. She also served in several regional and global roles, including director of human resources, Asia Pacific, and director of human resources, Global Products, where she created talent management and leadership development programs. Earlier in her career, Starr served in HR positions at Honeywell and AMEC.

Starr was named to the Utah Business list of “30 Women to Watch” in 2017. Forbes named Vivint one of “America’s Best Employers” in 2015 and 2018, as well as one of “American’s Best Employers for Diversity” in 2019 and 2020.

Starr holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Idaho and an MBA in organizational behavior from Brigham Young University.

Daniel leads the efforts of Vivint’s compliance program and its related activities nationwide.

He joined Vivint from DLA Piper, where he was a partner responsible for developing best-in-class compliance and risk management strategies at public and private companies around the world. He has also held senior compliance officer positions with Danaher, Wright Medical, Siemens Corporation and Bayer Healthcare.

Garen earned a Juris Doctor and a Master of Laws from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Federal Supreme Court Bar and the bar for Illinois and the District of Columbia.

Dale R. Gerard serves as the chief financial officer. Since 2010, Gerard has led finance, investor relations and treasury at Vivint Smart Home.

Dale has had more than 25 years of experience in financial management, investor relations and treasury. Before Vivint, Gerard worked as the assistant treasurer and director of finance at American Commercial Lines where he was responsible for capital markets and treasury operations. He was also the senior treasury and financial analyst at Wabash National Corporation where he supported the company’s risk management, treasury operations and financial planning and analysis. Gerard earned his bachelor’s degree in Accounting and his MBA from Purdue University. He is also a Certified Treasury Professional.

As the Chief Technology Officer at Vivint Smart Home, JT oversees the Vivint Innovation Center, which encompasses all of the company’s technology and product operations. JT drives growth and business opportunities and oversees the creation of new products and services.

In his previous role as Chief Engineering Officer, JT was responsible for all engineering development and processes, including hardware and software development, embedded software, storage, wireless technology and mobile apps. He also led the development of the company’s backend cloud infrastructure that supports more than a million smart home customers and handles millions of events a day.

JT also served as Chief Information Officer for Vivint Smart Home where he created a fully integrated and automated IT infrastructure that combined the company’s ERP and CRM systems, as well as a dozen other applications. He executed a successful SAP HANA implementation in eight months. He also created a real-time scheduling system to enable same-day installs for new customers.

Before joining Vivint in 2008, JT worked at Hewlett-Packard and was the Chief Architect at Netezza, which was later acquired by IBM for $1.7 billion. He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.

Pat Kelliher has served as Chief Accounting Officer at Vivint Inc. February 2014. In this role, Pat is responsible for all the company’s accounting activities, including external financial reporting, customer billing, payroll, taxes and accounts payable. Pat joined Vivint in March 2012 as Vice President of Finance and Controller.

Before joining Vivint, Pat was the Vice President of Finance and Controller for Omniture Inc. and helped expand the company’s annual revenues from $43 million to $350 million in just five years. He developed Omniture’s accounting infrastructure and played an integral role in the company’s IPO, which was the most successful tech IPO in 2006. After Omniture was acquired by Adobe Inc. in 2009, Pat was named the Senior Director of Finance and Controller of Adobe’s Digital Marketing Business Unit.

Pat was also the VP of Finance and Assistant Corporate Controller at Cadence Design Systems, a $1.1 billion software company, based in the Silicon Valley. He led the transition of Cadence’s back-office accounting functions from San Jose to Utah, which was completed in less than two months. He then ran the Utah office locally and managed an organization of more than 50 employees.

Prior to Cadence, Pat held a number of senior finance roles with various technology growth companies. He began his career in public accounting, in the Chicago office of Coopers and Lybrand.

Pat holds a Bachelors of Science in accounting and finance from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, with a concentration in corporate finance and international business. He is also a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Illinois and a Certified Management Accountant.

Garner Meads serves as the Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Vivint. Having been a member of the Vivint team for several years, Garner has a wealth of knowledge about the Company and its business overall. Meads has helped manage the Company’s strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and SEC compliance and reporting initiatives. His contributions have helped lay the legal foundation to achieve some of the Company’s most important objectives, including Vivint Smart Home’s SPAC merger to become a public company in January of 2020. Additionally, Meads was a recent recipient of a 2021 Utah Business Corporate Counsel Award, which recognizes exceptional in-house counselors who serve Utah’s businesses, nonprofits and other private-sector organizations.

Until his appointment as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, Meads served as interim General Counsel of Vivint Smart Home, a position he was appointed to on July 1, 2021. Previously, Meads served as Associate General Counsel and assistant secretary of Vivint Smart Home since July of 2016 after serving as senior corporate counsel at Vivint Solar, Inc., which he joined in January of 2015. Meads also has prior experience as an attorney for Vinson & Elkins LLP and Sidley Austin LLP.

Meads attended the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, where he earned a juris doctorate (JD) degree.

Jim is responsible for the company’s product strategy, including product market positioning, new product go-to-market initiatives, product research and development, and the management of product-related partnerships.

Prior to his role as Chief Product Officer, Jim served as Vice President of Product Development at Vivint, where he helped pioneer and bring to market many security and smart home innovations, including the first fully integrated smart home panel to integrate cellular connectivity and touchscreen technologies. Jim also led the strategy and development of Vivint’s video camera line, including the Vivint Doorbell Camera and other video products. Jim holds more than 50 patents for security and smart home technology innovations.

Before Vivint, Jim served as a program manager at Northrop Grumman, where he managed security upgrade initiatives for missile defense systems.

Jim received a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Colorado.

Rasesh Patel oversees the company’s operations as well as its technology and product platform. Prior to Vivint, Rasesh spent the previous seven years of his career at AT&T where he served in various executive leadership roles before being named chief product and platform officer for AT&T Business. In that capacity, Rasesh was responsible for a P&L with $35 billion of annual revenue, as well as its integrated platforms, products and solutions including fiber, 5G, Edge, IoT, cybersecurity, collaboration and cloud connectivity.

Prior to its acquisition by AT&T, Rasesh served as senior vice president of customer experience for DIRECTV. Through his focus on developing a seamless omni-channel customer experience, DIRECTV’s NPS position improved from third to first in the industry while simultaneously driving significant operating efficiencies. Rasesh received an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.

Dana Russell is responsible for all corporate finance and accounting functions, including treasury, tax, risk management, consumer financing, operations planning and analysis (OP&A), corporate controllership, and investor relations. Most recently, Dana served as the CFO of Vivint Solar where he helped take the company public in October of 2014 and ushered it through its acquisition by Sunrun in October of 2020 in a transaction valued at $5.4 billion at the time of closing.

Dana has more than 25 years of finance and operational expertise, most of which has been spent with technology and service businesses. He started his career as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and later joined Novell, a publicly traded software and services company that was ultimately acquired by The Attachmate Group in 2011. During his 12-year tenure at Novell, he held various positions including vice president of finance, treasurer and corporate controller before being named its chief financial officer.

As Chief Revenue Officer, Todd leads the company’s sales and marketing initiatives, including the direct-to-home and inside sales teams, business partnerships and the development of new distribution channels.

Before joining Vivint in 2013, Todd was President and Chief Executive Officer of 2GIG Technologies. 2GIG was a pioneer in the smart home industry, creating the first home automation platform for the mass market. While at 2GIG, Todd developed a network of more than 2,000 dealers throughout North America. Todd’s leadership was instrumental in the company’s acquisition by Blackstone in 2012 and then Nortek in 2013.

Todd received a bachelor's degree in English from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.