Team
Katherine Frey Rochlin, Founder
An obsessive analyzer of human behavior at multiple scales, Katherine Frey Rochlin has been detailing in her mind every aspect of The Construct for nearly a decade. Informed by her extensive experience bringing objects and spaces into being in the physical, social, and transformative realms, The Construct is an iteration of this lifelong work.
Katherine spent the early 2000s running a real estate development firm, and the 2010s participating in The Esalen Institute and producing various cultural projects in New York and California.
She holds degrees from NYU and Emory University, and her studies have included philosophies of mind and consciousness; economics and economic history; linguistics and cognitive structures; mythological and ecological systems theories; design and history of art; as well as theological and medical sciences.
Originally from Cambridge, MA, Katherine leads The Construct team from her home in Big Sur.
Diana Montalion
With 20 years experience engineering and architecting software systems as well as consulting on enterprise strategy for major international knowledge organizations, Diana Montalion’s deepest calling is, and has always been, learning together and improving the way we think.
She is a keynote speaker at leading tech conferences worldwide and is the author of the seminal O’Reilly book, Learning Systems Thinking: Essential Nonlinear Skills & Practices for Software Professionals.
Before learning to code, Diana was an actor and freelance writer, selected for the Stonecoast Writers Conference, trained in creative nonfiction, and published in print and digital products. She returned to university in mid-life to study media and computer science. Her clients have included: Stanford University, The Gates Foundation, and Teach for All and she has served as Principal Systems Architect for The Economist and The Wikimedia Foundation.
Robb Lee
Robb Lee comes to The Construct with more than three decades of experience in marketing, user experience, and technical program leadership. He has spent many years studying leadership development and communication strategies - deepening his skills in listening for and integrating multiple viewpoints.
Robb’s professional career started in traditional advertising and brand strategy, and later shifted into web and software design. In the agency world, Robb has directed marketing efforts and led operations and engineering teams. His work has included business strategy, focus group research, messaging, UX and graphic design, end-user training and leadership for a range of organizations from startups to multinational corporations.
He holds a BA from Westmont College in Santa Barbara where he studied English Literature, European History, and Music.
Stepan Melnyk
Stepan Melnyk is a Solutions Architect and full stack software engineer.
His career started with qualifications in automation and technical engineering and he holds a Masters Degree from the Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas in Ukraine.
He went on to advance quickly, working and leading teams in software development and is particularly interested in developing private cloud networks and solutions.
Clare Sudbery
Clare Sudbery has more than 22 years of software engineering experience, specializing in TDD, refactoring and other XP practices. She has given talks and run workshops all over the world on engineering as well as technical leadership.
Twelve years ago Clare abandoned IT to retrain as a high school math teacher… but quickly returned to software, gaining new energy via Extreme Programming. Her professional experience includes roles with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, LateRooms.com, and ThoughtWorks. Up until very recently she co-ran Made Tech’s academy program, coaching inexperienced engineers to learn on the job.
Clare has a BSc in Mathematics and Philosophy and a Masters in Computer Science from The University of Manchester.
Chad Tomkiss
Chad Tomkiss is a senior full stack software engineer with 15 years experience building software applications at companies like Stark, Made Tech and The Bot Platform.