The Virtuance Team

With his extensive experience in all facets of real estate including development, brokerage, marketing, and property management, Jeff brings a highly refined understanding of the real estate and vacation rental industries to bear on the strategic and operational aspects of the company. Jeff grew up watching his mother, an architectural photographer, excel at her craft. He soon realized, though, that technology offered incredible opportunities to combine the art of photography with the science of image processing to market properties with unprecedented efficiency and efficacy. Jeff is responsible for establishing and executing on the company’s growth strategy and ensuring that the company maintains its high standards across all operational levels. Immediately before co-founding Virtuance, Jeff served for four years as Acquisitions and Development Manager at a Colorado-based real estate investment firm. He also previously worked in acquisitions for a private real estate investment trust. Prior to entering the real estate industry, he began his career as an investigative journalist, working with John Stossel and Barbara Walters at ABC News and later as a political and economic development reporter for an ABC news affiliate in Missouri. If you want to hear some wild stories…ask Jeff about his ‘reporter days.’ When Jeff isn’t at the office, you’ll find him outdoors – climbing one of Colorado’s ‘Fourteeners’, skiing, mountain biking, or sailing…(yes there is some sailing in Colorado, but Jeff wishes there were an ocean too). Jeff has a Master’s Degree from the University of Denver in Real Estate Development and Finance and a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis in political science and business.

Igor is a leading expert in signal process engineering and systems engineering. He is responsible for developing the core algorithms and processes that power our current image processing technologies, as well as designing and building the core functionality for many of the company’s proprietary software applications. Prior to joining Virtuance, Igor was the first employee at VoiceSignal, a groundbreaking voice recognition technology company founded in 1997. He spent ten years serving as Chief Scientist and oversaw a team of fifty engineers. Under Igor’s technical leadership, VoiceSignal developed voice recognition technology that has become the industry standard and is currently used on nearly 60 percent of all of the world’s mobile phones, including Apple’s iPhone. Prior to VoiceSignal, Igor worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratories as a signal processing engineer engaged by the government to work on government imaging projects. Most recently, Igor was a founding partner of Color Leap, the creator of an automated image processing application designed to be used on smartphones.

Michael is our VP of Marketing and is the chief architect of our awareness, acquisition, and retention efforts. Before joining our team, Mike worked for a growing company and helped build their marketing department from the ground up. Mike brings a “jack-of-all-trades” skill set that will help build Virtuance’s presence in new and existing markets. After spending eight years in Chicago, Mike and his family moved to Denver after his wife got an unbelievable job opportunity. He enjoys watching Cubs/Blackhawks/Husker games with his son, paddle boarding, experimenting with wacky diets, and 90’s culture (ask him about his POG collection and Tecmo Super Bowl skills).

Ollie was born and raised in Cambridge, UK. Pursuing the arts throughout his education, he was formally introduced to the joy of photography while documenting his sculpture work, and was an instant convert. After dedicating his studies to the photographic medium and graduating from the Cambridge School of Art with a Bachelor’s Degree in Photographic and Digital Media, Ollie has gone on to work in various areas of the photographic industry. Doing everything from professional equipment sales with Nikon through to photography and retouching for the tailors to the Queen has really given him the chance to work out what part of photography he loves the most. It’s safe to say that post-production comes out on top, and there’s nowhere he’d rather be using those skills than here in the Image Production Department! Photography and retouching are certainly Ollie‘s favorite pastimes, but somewhere along the lines he still makes time for the other important things in life; hiking, riding (and rebuilding) enduro motorcycles, and spending hours in the kitchen trying to expand his culinary repertoire.

Stephanie was born and raised in Kalispell, Montana, and was lucky enough to have Glacier National Park as her backyard growing up. She has worked for many years in the tourism and hotel industry and 8 years in Construction. Her motto is, work hard, and play even harder. On her time off, you will find her outside mountain biking, dirt biking, running, camping, boating, skiing...anything outside with her husband, kids, and best friends. Her family lives the saying, "those that play together, stay together". Stephanie also has a boutique event company that she started over 10 years ago, that solely operates as a pro bono to help non-profits start a new event or enhance an existing event. She is super excited to join the Virtuance team and become part of this amazing company.

Jill spent most of her life in the Midwest, near the lakeshore of West Michigan. There she completed a BA in psychology before joining a private detective agency as a field investigator for 10 years. Jill has had an interest in photography since she was a child, and in 2008 started her own studio and wedding photography business. After moving to Colorado, she dove headfirst into the customer service field and has been helping people ever since! Outside of the office, Jill enjoys hiking with her pup, kayaking, playing the piano, and watching movies.

Contact Information Phone: 847-440-5017 Email  

Kristin recently moved to the Denver area from Montana. While she misses the wide open spaces of Big Sky Country and the absence of traffic she is excited about all the possibilities Denver has to offer! Kristin has already hiked her first fourteener and is looking forward to trying skiing this winter! (In theory anyway, her one attempt at snowboarding was disastrous, so here’s hoping skiing will be better ? Kristin is excited about the growth Virtuance is experiencing and is looking forward to contributing to such an amazing company!

Janelle moved to Colorado to attend the University of Denver where she earned a BSBA in Management in 2018. Spreadsheets, improving processes, and reducing costs are some of Janelle’s specialties. Minnesota born and raised had her on ice skates when she was the age of three but could be found later doing back flips on a 4-inch-wide beam with the local gymnastics team. Janelle found that Colorado was a great place to explore her interests which include skiing, hiking, and overall health and fitness.

Before joining Virtuance, Meaghan received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Idaho and then pivoted from applying to medical school to enrolling in a graduate creative writing program at Texas State University. She writes fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is involved in the literary community in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with two dogs, two cats, and her partner (named Meg!). Meaghan has a literary agent and is in the process of trying to sell her very first novel! In her free time, Meaghan likes hiking with her dogs, watching every Bravo reality show, and taste-testing chicken fingers.

Born and raised in the Buckeye State, Rachel earned her Bachelor’s in Urban Planning from the University of Cincinnati and has worked as an urban planning consultant for government jurisdictions (aka map making!). From there, she decided to pack up her bags and move across the country in search of the West Coast sunshine and new experiences. She has since gathered and built her expertise in the events, marketing, and real estate industries, hosting events for Olympic basketball teams, spending time as a Marketing Director for TEDxCincinnati, and working towards her real estate license. Alongside whipping up only the best content for the Virtuance community, you can catch Rachel rollerblading down the California beach fronts, drinking way too much coffee, or incessantly listening to a variety of TED Talks.

Bio Coming Soon!

Born in New York and raised in Virginia, Cassandra spent 6 years in Los Angeles before moving to Denver. In Virginia, she received her B.A. from James Madison University in Media Arts and Design with a minor in Photography. Her background includes an eclectic variety ranging from managing a celebrity photography studio in the Hollywood Hills to owning her own photography business to spearheading the QA department at a high-end design agency in Washington D.C. In her free time, she enjoys aerial arts, live music, singing a cappella, and adventuring around Colorado.

Randy grew up on a horse ranch in Texas and studied computer science at the University of North Texas. Before joining the Virtuance team, he worked for ten years at a defense contractor in Dallas, where he wrote image analysis tools for the Intelligence Community. In his free time, Randy enjoys spending time with his wife and their two Boston Terriers, playing video games, and trying new foods. He’s also looking forward to exploring the Colorado outdoors.

Bio Coming Soon!

Sean is a web developer at Virtuance. He was born in San Diego, CA, where he spent two decades taking the perfect weather for granted. He moved to Denton, TX in 2004 to attend the University of North Texas, majoring in Business Computer Information Systems. After graduating, he began his career in Dallas, working in the automotive sales and online textbook industries for several years before relocating to Denver in the summer of 2017 with his girlfriend. In his free time, Sean is a guitarist, a collector of weird punk records and a comic book nerd who enjoys scuba diving, video games and being okay at bar trivia. He and his girlfriend recently purchased a house that they share with their cats, Sadie and Pants, who hate each other.

Haley has spent most of her life in Texas. She grew up around the DFW area, and then moved to San Antonio, TX where she attended school. She received her bachelors of business and pursued a career in sales during, and after college. After 2 years of working with Virtuance as a sales and marketing consultant in both San Antonio and Austin, Texas, she accepted the position as the National Sales Trainer. In this role, she gets to train and coach our new sales reps and also continue to develop the skills of our existing sales team. This new position at Virtuance is what brought her to Denver, CO. She misses the warm weather, but has a new found appreciation for the mountains and the snow! Haley has a passion for traveling, being near the water, drinking wine, and hanging out with her pup, Bentley.

Claire is originally from the beautiful Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania but has spent the last 7 years living in Brooklyn, N.Y. She graduated from Marywood University with a BFA in Photography. Claire is also a wedding photographer and loves photographing her clients throughout the year. In her spare time, you can find her wandering around New York City exploring with her film camera! She is also a proud plant mom to her ever-growing plant collection!

Heidi is a rural Pennsylvania native, with a heart for the western lifestyle. She graduated with a degree in Specialized Technology in Photography from Antonelli Institute. Heidi is also a wedding, elopement, and portrait photographer.  In her spare time, you can find her enjoying her love for the great outdoors via hiking, running, and traveling with her camera in tow! She also enjoys some quiet time while doing DIY projects.

Alan grew up in Mexico, where the tacos are plentiful and the churros are just better. He eventually moved to Colorado, where he now works at the intersection of (get this) Mexico Ave and Colorado Blvd. You can’t make this stuff up. Alan is a drummer, guitarist, and sound engineer. He loves pizza and video games and has an unreasonably large movie collection — 549, at the time of writing. He knows he has a problem and is working to fix it.

Crio’s journey into photography began in his high school graphic design class. Once he discovered photoshop he was immediately hooked and determined it would turn into a career. Born and raised in Denver, Crio attended Colorado Film School and majored in Film and Video Post Production. After only a few months of school he began working at a production company as a retoucher and video editor. Retouching is basically Crio’s entire life but in his free time he enjoys shooting his own photography, even more retouching, and competitive gaming.

Paul is a Colorado native, who spent much of his childhood playing Sega, and not understanding everyone’s obsession with hiking— it’s just walking uphill. He graduated from the Art Institute of Colorado with his degree in Photography, including specialties in fashion and post-production work. Since graduating college, Paul has spent time working in Commercial Photo and Video Studios, where he learned that he is really good at carrying heavy stuff. After spending a year as a photographer for Virtuance, he is excited to move into the office as an image processing specialist. In his free time, he enjoys discovering unusual music, using his camera as much as possible, and trying to learn something new every day.

Beth grew up in rural southern Colorado, and spent most of her childhood either reading books or climbing trees. Her first fascination with photography was with her grandfather’s Viewmaster slides, which she still thinks are a magical lost technology. Her interest led to a degree in photography from the Art Institute of Colorado, where she concentrated on product and still life images. She enjoys post-production editing as much as the planning and shooting stages. In her free time she runs a small handmade jewelry company and loves exploring Denver on her bicycle, tinkering with the bicycle while watching shows on Netflix, and pretty much anything crafty.

Darren grew up in Northern Minnesota where in his childhood enjoyed camping and being in the outdoors. These fond memories of nature were the catalyst for his passion to explore new wilderness places and photograph them. After Graduating from the University of Minnesota with a BFA in Graphic Design and a studio emphasis in Photography; he move to Colorado and his passion for the outdoors and photography grew as he began exploring Colorado’s mountains and Utah’s desert. When not shooting photos or processing images Darren enjoys hiking, camping, mountain biking, skiing, climbing mountains, and canyoneering.

Before joining Virtuance, Carla worked as a photojournalist for more than 18 years in Puerto Rico. She also developed as a manager and audiovisual editor in print and digital platforms of three national newspapers on the island. Carla and her family moved to Orlando, Florida, in 2014. She enjoys the beach whenever she can as it brings her peace and reminds her of her beautiful island of Puerto Rico.

Cody is a passionate Photographer and Digital Tech who specializes in Fashion Portraiture, Real Estate, and Product Photography. Before joining Virtuance, Cody has creatively collaborated with E-Commerce companies such as Amazon, Nordstrom, and Lexus in Indianapolis, Indiana and Los Angeles, California. Outside of work, he has a very green thumb for plants and a knack for decorating. Having an interest in retro aesthetics, Cody enjoys collecting vinyl records and cassette tapes, thrift shopping, and photographing on polaroid film. 

Mattie grew up in a tiny town in upstate New York. She later attended College at Ithaca where she received her BS in Photography. Before Virtuance she worked as a Photo Editor for an entertainment website. Wanting a change in scenery she packed up and journeyed to Colorado. She enjoys the nature Colorado brings, but sitting around watching tv and movies is truthfully what she’s all about.

Rae is a surrealist/fine art photographer, a North Carolina native and a Colorado nomad. She graduated with a BFA in Photography from The Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham. Prior to working at Virtuance, Rae was an art teacher by day and bartender by night. At Virtuance, Rae is very much fulfilled by her work as an image processor, really flexing her muscles in the area of photography that she loves best; editing! In her spare time, Rae enjoys spending time with her husband and two cats, yoga, urban exploration and simply being outside in any capacity.

Emily was born and raised in Minneapolis. She ventured her way to Bluffton, South Carolina for 6 years where she completed a degree in communications, had three beautiful children and began her business in photography. She then spent two years in the Memphis area before finally making her way to beautiful Denver. Emily loves to travel, eat and cook, photograph (landscapes, people, you name it), and engulf herself in DIY projects! Along with her already hectic life, she works alongside her significant other; together they raise their 6 kids Brady Bunch style.

Alaina graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Kinesiology. Prior to the real estate industry, she worked in the travel industry and the fitness/ sports performance industry. Alaina plays rugby for Denver’s Glendale Merlins. She enjoys cooking, travel and hiking with her 3-year-old Australian Sheperd/Blue Heeler, Niko.

Michael Paul Franklin has been a photographer and photo editor for three decades. As an award-winning photographer for The San Diego Union-Tribune, he covered a wide variety of assignments from The Pope's visit to the plight of the Mexican Farm Workers. That training helped shape his creative eye.

As a photo editor and Director of Photography, Michael worked to inspire and motivate a staff of very talented photographers and was honored with awards from organizations like the National Press Photographers Association, Society for News Design and Pictures of the Year.

Michael has been a judge for The Red Bull Illume action photography contest, Best of Photojournalism,