About Us

Wildsparq is a powerful, online leadership development tool built for companies that care about their people, their legacy, and the impact they will make in the world.

Meet our Team

Cord Sachs

President & CEO

Justin Harris

Chief Operating Officer

Josh Etress

Sr. Director, Sales & Client Experience

Matt Heard

Director of Finance

Ben Woodall

Director of Customer Success

Josh Swing

Account Executive

Emerson Paton

Client Success Leader

Shane Ludwick

Sales Development Leader

Billy Ivey

Director of Content & Story

Cord Sachs

President & CEO

As president, CEO and chief inspiration officer of Wildsparq and FireSeeds, Cord’s number one goal each and every day is to guard the cultures he has worked hard to help create, hire and inspire the best of the best to help grow the companies, and drive bottom-line profit of the two organizations. Cord is a graduate of Samford University where he majored in Business and learned very early that he wanted to create an organization to serve and grow leaders. “I have always had a passion for great leadership and I’ve had so many great mentors and leaders in my own life,” Cord says. “I knew that I wanted to try and help replicate that passion and those leadership lessons in others.” Leading two thriving businesses is not Cord’s greatest accomplishment, however. He and his beautiful wife, Heather, have six incredible children: Jeremiah, Ellie, Saddler, Judson, Josiah, and Gideon. Cord spends his spare time — yeah, right — snow skiing, horseback riding, boating, and doing just about anything else you can do on the water at Lake Guntersville. He also enjoys serving as an Elder at his church, and coaching his kids in baseball, soccer, and flag football among other things.

Favorite Team War Eagle!

Favorite Book Good to Great - Jim Collins

Guilty Pleasure Bacon

Favorite Movie Braveheart

Favorite Food My momma's french toast

Justin Harris

Chief Operating Officer

Justin is the get-things-done guy around here. His passion is helping our teams stay focused and on-track, and that passion graciously carries over to our partners and friends. A graduate of Samford University with a degree in Physical Education, Justin is always searching for ways to rally the troops and encourage our teams to push toward excellence. He and his wife, Aimee (with two “e’s”), have three kids: Caed, Vivian, and Verity, and they are both highly involved in their church as well as their kids’ extracurricular activities. In fact, Justin says that one of his favorite accomplishments in life was coaching his son’s flag football team to a YMCA Championship last year. How sweet is that? Seriously. One of the greatest accomplishments in your life is coaching your son in flag football? That’s like next-level-sugary-sweet awesomeness right there. Anyway, when Justin’s not busy with his COO duties at FireSeeds and Wildsparq, he enjoys watching (his kids’) sports, working out, cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs, reading the next, great leadership book, or taking his dog out to potty.

Favorite Team Georgia Bulldogs

Favorite Book Total Truth, by Nancy Pearcey

Guilty Pleasure Guns-N-Roses

Superpower Invincibility

Favorite Movie Avengers (the first one)

Josh Etress

Sr. Director, Sales & Client Experience

Josh Etress is the Wildsparq sales guru. If you’ve got a question, he’s your guy. Need a quick business tip? He’s got a million of ‘em. His greatest joy is connecting with the right people at the right companies through the right channels at the right times and helping them to succeed in business and in life. His answer was a little less long-winded than that, but we liked the alliteration (or whatever you call it). “There are few things I enjoy more than providing our partners with a simple, easy to use system, to help them develop the next generation of leaders,” he says. Josh is a graduate of Berry College in Rome, Georgia, where he studied Business Management, and he has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of West Georgia. An accomplished sales and business leader, Josh says his greatest accomplishment in life was getting his wife, Shelby, to say “I do,” and I'd have to say that's probably true. She's super-cool and an extremely gifted visual artist. Anyway, they have two boys, Chamberlain and Ace, and when he’s not following up on phone calls or dishing out words of wisdom, you can usually catch him at Birmingham’s Railroad park, BIGSPOON creamery, or his local Chick-fil-A. Josh loves to read, write, and play pick-up basketball, and he is a proud member of Leadership Hoover, Aspire Movement, and the Urban Hope Leadership Initiative.

Favorite Food Nachos

Favorite Book Unshakeable Faith

Favorite Vacation Spot New York City

Superpower Teleportation

Favorite Movie Inception

Matt Heard

Director of Finance

Around these parts, Matt Heard is known as the go-to-guy. "For what," you might ask? And the answer is “everything.” He started at FireSeeds, when the company was just a a couple of guys and an idea in Cord Sachs' basement, and he now manages the whole team. He also splits time managing the finances for FireSeeds and Wildsparq, as well as serving our FireSeeds partners on new recruitment searches. Matt graduated from the University of West Georgia with a degree in Accounting and Finance, and then moved to Birmingham where he met and married his lovely wife, Anna. The couple now have a son, Carter, and that little guy keeps the happy couple on their toes day in and day out. In his spare time, Matt likes to play golf, go to Georgia football and basketball games, and spend time serving as a deacon at his church.

Favorite Team University of Georgia

Favorite Vacation Spot Destin, FL

Favorite Food Blue Cheese Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? Professional Golfer

Favorite Movie Remember the Titans

Ben Woodall

Director of Customer Success

Ben Woodall. Mr. Wildsparq. His title says it all: Director of Customer Success. Ben is in charge of all partner relationships once they begin the Wildsparq platform, and he ensures each and every individual is getting the most out of his or her experience. He is a Samford University graduate, but hails from the great state of Tennessee, where he learned and excelled at the great game of lacrosse, or LAX as they say in the biz. Get it? "La" as in Lacrosse, and "X" as in crosse? Actually, that's makes no sense at all. But, whatever. We like Ben and he evidently used to be pretty good at the LAX-thing. In fact, when he is not spending as much time as possible trying to woo his beautiful wife, Kristen, Ben likes to coach young people in what he calls “the greatest sport ever created.” Ben is also an exercise enthusiast, burgeoning chef, podcast junkie, and all-around geterdone handy man.

When I Grow Up NFL referee

Favorite Hair Band Def Leppard

Superpower To have the perfect sound track play at any moment.

Favorite Movie Forrest Gump

Josh Swing

Account Executive

Josh Swing is tall. Like, really tall. That’s neither here nor there, but it’s worth mentioning, because it’s true. It is also a fact that Josh is a remarkable Account Executive at Wildsparq. Each and every day, Josh helps fulfill the mission of Wildsparq by empowering organizations to create multiplying movements of multiplying leaders within their culture and for the good of their business. Always smiling, always willing to learn and then share his newfound wisdom with others, Josh helps to round out a powerhouse team of caring, compassionate, impassioned, and, frankly, very impressive individuals who want nothing more than to serve our clients well. Josh graduated from Bethel University with a Business Management degree, and uses very bit of that great education to help lead our team at Wildsparq. Josh and his wife, Erin, have what they call their “fur-baby,” Piper, but there’s another actual human-baby on the way! He enjoys playing basketball (duh!), and getting outside to hike, run, swim, or “just be.” He is also passionate about coaching, and helps serve different youth leagues as a basketball coach in his free time.

Favorite Food Pizza

Favorite Book Hunger Games

Favorite Vacation Spot The beach

Superpower The ability to control time

Favorite Movie Hoosiers, The Dark Knight, Anchorman

Emerson Paton

Client Success Leader

“Hey, Emerson, what’s a client success leader?” I asked. “Great question,” she said. “Thanks,” I said. “My pleasure,” she said. And we went on like that for a few minutes, but then she told me that a Client Success Leader’s primary responsibility is to serve any and all clients, individuals or internal team members who need to know just about anything about everything Wildsparq. "Interesting!" I said. "I know, right?" she said, and then she went on and on. Basically, once a company moves forward with Wildsparq, Emerson helps get teams set up and running on the platform and then continues as the go-to for inquiries large and small. Born and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, and a proud graduate of Mississippi State University, Emerson has known how to properly spell her home state with the appropriate number of crooked letters and humpbacks almost her entire life. When she’s not at Wildsparq serving as the source of all knowledge, she likes to exercise, draw, paint (ladybugs are her specialty), and spend time with her husband, Connor.

Favorite Book The Power of Positive Thinking

Guilty Pleasure Chocolate chip cookies

Favorite Vacation Spot Santorini, Greece!

Favorite Movie The Harry Potter Series

Favorite Food Also chocolate chip cookies

Shane Ludwick

Sales Development Leader

Shane Ludwick comes to us from the great state of Tennessee, where he lived but a stone’s throw from the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. We’re not sure how that pertains to, well, anything, really, but it’s a fact that you now know. At Wildsparq, Shane is first and foremost responsible for pursuing new partnership opportunities and serving our account leads with prospective contacts, but he also serves in helping to develop best practices and the roadmap for our future Sales Development team. As a not-so-long-ago graduate of Covenant College with a degree in business, Shane brings a wealth of knowledge and fresh perspective to our growing team. He and his wife, Rebekah, are proud parents of Chip, the dog, and are expecting their first human baby in early 2019. When he’s not working hard with the Wildsparq team, Shane can usually be found watching and/or cheering for the Atlanta Braves (#ChopOn), the Carolina Panthers (#Dab), or the Auburn War Eagles (#RollTide) (#JustKidding).

Greatest Accomplishment Marrying Bekah and becoming a (soon-to-be) father

Favorite Book Game of Thrones

Guilty Pleasure Taylor Swift

Favorite Food Ribeye, medium-rare

Favorite Team Carolina Panthers

Billy Ivey

Director of Content & Story

Billy Ivey is a longtime copywriter and brand strategist with more than 20 years experience working with brands like Chick-fil-A, Home Depot, Valvoline, and Major League Baseball. At Wildsparq, Billy serves as writer, creative director and chief content producer for the platform, and serves many of our clients through brand strategy and story development. Billy earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from Samford University, and is about a semester away from holding a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Don’t hold your breath on that one, though. He stopped going to class in 1997. Billy prides himself as “probably the only true Vanderbilt fan you’ll ever really meet,” and can often be found screaming obscenities at his television if the Commodores happen to be on. Billy and his child bride, Bethany (not really, but she looks really great), have five better-than-average-looking children, the oldest of which is already in college, which means Billy is a lot older than he looks.

Favorite Team Atlanta Braves

Favorite Book He’s writing it now.

Guilty Pleasure Rap music

Favorite Food Burgers (plural)

Favorite Movie A Few Good Men or Dead Poet’s Society or Good Will Hunting or, nah, it’s Good Will Hunting. But sometimes the other two.