KEYNOTE
A Fireside Chat with Jason McCann of Vari
FACILITATOR
Philip Silvestri
President & Publisher
Local Profile
Local Profile is a media company whose mission is to connect communities, while providing its clients with marketing that works.
Local Profile, formerly Plano Profile, was acquired in 2015 and rebranded in 2019, with a vision to better serve the Collin County communities. Today, Local Profile reaches a growing targeted monthly engaged audience of over 700k leveraging the combined power of print, digital and in-person events.
Philip earned a B.A. from Babson College and is an alum of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. Currently Philip sits on the Board of Directors of the North Texas Business Council for the Arts, where he chairs the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee, as well as the Collin County committees.
Driven to connect people and strengthen communities, Philip has also invested time and resources to support numerous non-profit organizations, as well as serving in various governing or advisory positions, including:
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses – Alumni Ambassador, 2020 – Present
- North Texas Business Council for the Arts – Board Member, 2016 – Present
- Junior League of Collin County – Community Advisory Panel, 2018 – 2020
- American Heart Association – Executive Leadership Team, 2016 & 2017
- Babson Alumni Association, DFW – Advisory Member, 2015 – Present
- La Romana Bayahibe Tourism Cluster – Board of Directors, 2012 – 2015
- Babson Alumni Association, Dominican Republic – Founding Member, 2000 – 2015
Philip lives in Plano, Texas with his wife—and business partner—and their two children
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SPEAKER
Jason McCann
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Vari®
As a founder and the CEO of Vari, Jason McCann’s mission is to help companies create environments that elevate people.
A lifelong entrepreneur, Jason has more than 30 years of experience building and running successful companies. He learned the importance of putting the customer first early-on while working in his mother’s hair salon as a child.
Jason co-founded VariDesk in 2013, and the brand quickly became synonymous with sit-stand desks. Under his leadership, the company grew at an incredible pace and expanded its product and service offerings significantly, calling for it’s new, more inclusive name – Vari.
Today, the company has grown into a workspace innovation company that provides everything high-growth businesses need to unlock the potential of their workforce – from a full suite of office furniture to the workspaces themselves, offering space-as-a-service with VariSpace. A multi-tenant campus ideation lab designed to elevate the way businesses approach office, VariSpace offers first-class amenities, fully furnished offices, and flexible lease terms to enterprise-level clients.
Jason accepted the award for 2016’s fastest growing company in the Dallas area at the annual SMU Cox Dallas 100™ Awards Ceremony, and in 2017 he was honored with EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year award alongside his co-founder and longtime business partner. In 2021, D CEO Magazine named Jason CEO of the Year.
Jason has spoken at industry events including Dreamforce, The C-Suite Conference, and Startup Grind. In 2018, Jason was interviewed by CNN Money on the NYSE floor, and he spoke at Australia’s Parliament in 2015 regarding workspace innovations and their effects on public health. He has been published by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and more.
Jason lives in Coppell, Texas with his wife of 25 years and their three children. He is a board member at the Texas Real Estate Council and a member of Eric’s Club, a distinguished and select group of University of Houston’s Hilton College that build a legacy of student inspiration.
Jason earned both his B.S. and MBA from the University of Houston.