Our Leadership
Merry Korn, MSW Chief Executive Officer
Merry Korn, an experienced businessperson, with a master’s degree in social work, founded Pearl Interactive Network, a social enterprise that blends a for-profit business with a social mission that provides work opportunities to the people with barriers to employment.
Through Merry’s leadership, the company employs over 1,100 employees, and is registered for business in 31states. Pearl gained traction among the world’s largest federal and commercial BPOs and positioned the company as a contact center with specialties in health care and beneficiary services. Pearl provides BPOs with mandated certifications such as small business, WOSBE, and HUBZone while meeting drivers for ESG, environmental, social governance, goals.
During Merry’s spare time, she enjoys reading, gardening, yoga, golf, and is a board member for NASWASI, a for profit liability insurance arm of the National Association of Social Workers. She is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners Public Policy Committee, the Ohio Women’s Coalition, and a volunteer with the Women’s Small Business Accelerator (WSBA) and held a board position with SocialVentures, a nonprofit that assisted nascent social enterprises with business plans and funding.
Click here to watch a video detailing Merry's background and why she started Pearl.
Jim Caldwell, CFO
Jim Caldwell, a CPA, has over 30 years of financial management experience in a variety of industries including professional services, higher education, distribution, logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing. He also has experience in human resource management, benefit administration, information systems implementation and integration, risk management, business valuation and physical plant operations. Jim has an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Xavier University and a BSBA in Accounting from Franklin University where he served as an accounting adjunct faculty member for the last 15 years.
Through his association with Pearl, Jim’s acquired an expertise in government accounting, pricing structures and contracts. Jim is the chair of the Kairos Prison Ministry Advisory Board at North Central Correctional Complex, discussion leader of Bible Study Fellowship and is a member of the Westerville Sunrise Rotary Club. In his spare time Jim enjoys biking, reading, and traveling to historic sites and places of natural beauty.
Brenda Wingert, VP Operations
Brenda Wingert has over 20 years of commercial and government contact center management experience. The scope of her responsibilities include budget, facilities, talent acquisition, IT, and project management. Brenda successfully implemented multiple government virtual and bricks and mortar contact center operations ranging from 400 to 800 seats. Included in the cadre of contact center experience is oversight of construction of a multi- million-dollar bricks and mortar contact center on time and within budget. Wingert assembled a team of expertly skilled contact center professionals charged with managing day to day contact center operations and talent acquisition.
Brenda tenured with Pearl as a financial analyst on a 400 + seat, multi-year federal contact center contract. Drawing from her previous operational experience in contact centers, Wingert progressed to site program manager prior to assuming the position of Vice President of Operations at Pearl. Brenda honed her extensive government budget analysis experience through engagements with large federal contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. In addition to leading Pearl’s operations, Brenda enjoys, golf, quilting, crocheting, and cooking.
Jean Murphy, VP Federal Business Development
Jean Murphy, Vice President, Business Development, brings over 30 years of proven performance in Business Development, Capture Management and Program Operations for industry leading commercial Business Processing and Contact Center Providers and Federal Contractors.
She has hands-on experience with winning capture efforts of multi-million-dollar contracts the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, Department of Labor, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Internal Revenue Service, Department of State, General Services Administration, Housing and Urban Development, Office of Personnel Management, Department of Defense, the US Senate, and the State of California. During Jean’s tenure with Pearl she has led sales efforts resulting in a 3-fold growth in revenue.
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