Qventus’ Clara Barton Awards celebrate employees who embody our core values, recognizing excellence, impact, and peer-nominated success.
By: Julie McCorkle
Qventus launched the Clara Barton Awards in 2019, and today it’s one of our company’s most honored and meaningful traditions. It’s named for Clara Barton, the nurse and humanitarian who founded the Red Cross. She was relentless and driven in her quest to make a difference in the world, and we chose to name the awards after her because we believe her actions align with our founding principles and company culture.
At QConnect 2025, our annual all-employee onsite event, our CEO and Co-Founder, Mudit Garg, said that even with our tremendous growth, he still considers us a start-up, and that we will continue to proudly wear that title moving forward. He emphasized that being a start-up is a mindset that means we are driven, passionate, and savvy with our decisions. The Clara Barton Awards are a key part of our culture as a start-up, and one that will continue in the years to come.
Honoring company values
This annual award ceremony celebrates our six company values:
- Accountability and Ownership
- Customer Empathy
- Help Others Succeed
- Plan, Do, Learn, Improve
- Simplicity
- Total Honesty Delivered Respectfully
At the ceremony, seven awards are handed out—one for each of the six values, plus the overall Clara Barton Award. That recipient embodies all six of these values in their actions and contributions to the company.
Winning one of the awards means you have a significant positive impact on your colleagues and our clients. It also means your hard work has paid off, and the whole company gets to celebrate your success.
Recognition from peers
One of the really special aspects of the Clara Barton Awards is that recipients are nominated and selected by their peers. While there are other opportunities for the leadership team to recognize employees’ achievements, these awards are all about hearing what your peers appreciate about you. When the nomination process begins, employees across Qventus are invited to make a nomination. The selection committee is made up of representatives from the entire organization, including previous award recipients.
The number of Qventus team members has increased significantly this year, and we saw an increase in nominations to match—to the tune of 50%. And it’s not just the winners who receive praise from their peers. After the award ceremony, nominees who did not win get to see what their coworkers said about them during the nomination process.
The 2025 winners
This year, the Awards were held at our annual QConnect conference in Phoenix, where Qventus employees from around the world gathered to collaborate. Award recipients received a plaque and a bonus check, and each award was presented by either a past recipient or a person who nominated the winner.
We had seven incredible recipients, and for the first time, two of them were international team members. Read on to see what their peers value about them.
Accountability and Ownership: Brody Lundquist, 2 years at Qventus
“They show accountability and ownership through their willingness to go above and beyond to satisfy not only the client stakeholders, but the partner stakeholders as well—and they often have diametrically opposed goals. When a seemingly unsolvable problem arises, they find a way to solve it thoughtfully. And if they say they’ve got something covered, you never have to worry—not only is it covered, but it will be executed with the highest quality and with the client in mind.”
Customer Empathy: Client Success Partner, 1 year at Qventus
“What truly sets them apart is the way they connect with clients emotionally—they not only listen to their feedback but also truly hear their underlying needs. Their fierce dedication to their clients’ success is balanced by their authentic passion for building long-term, trusting relationships. If they make a promise, they deliver. If a client is dissatisfied, they listen with genuine intent. If they offer suggestions, they adapt quickly to ensure their voices are heard.”
Help Others Succeed: Michael Ruddy, 3 years at Qventus
“They are the embodiment of this award, consistently going above and beyond to support, mentor, and empower their colleagues. Their approachable demeanor, coupled with their background in education, makes them an outstanding coach and mentor. They have helped me—and many others—understand complex AI and ML concepts more effectively than anyone else at the company.”
Plan, Do, Learn, Improve: Taylor Kennedy, 1 year at Qventus
“They are an exceptional technical implementation partner—they not only handle customers with ease, but they also look at how we can streamline our internal operations. We can always depend on them to provide a well-thought-out solution for any challenge.”
Simplicity: Fran Ordoñez, 1 year at Qventus
“This person embodies simplicity, particularly from a technical perspective, by consistently seeking ways to reduce complexity and improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. Whether it’s simplifying technical requirements, streamlining queries, or optimizing data models, they are always focused on saving time, resources, and reducing operational overhead.”
Total Honesty Delivered Respectfully: Peter Kriss, 6 years at Qventus
“This person has mastered many of the crucial elements of delivering feedback so that it’s constructive: timely, with context, clear direction, and compassion. It’s always clear that they do it with the person’s best interest in mind. They always make others feel empowered and help them learn from their mistakes, regardless of how public they are.”
The Clara Barton Award: Alan Panuccio, 1 year at Qventus
“They are the rare breed that combines the engineer’s desire to optimize everything with product’s urge to completely capture business needs. By blending the two, they have found the elusive middle ground of: ‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.’ ”
