Planera Appoints Three Industry Veterans to Advisory Board

Bruce Chizen, Sameer Merchant, and Waheed Qureshi join advisory team to provide key leadership for new "digital whiteboard" platform that revolutionizes pre-construction planning and scheduling

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Planera, a visual scheduling and planning solution that helps construction companies build, analyze, and optimize schedules to increase profitability, today announced the addition of three new members to its advisory board. Industry veterans Bruce Chizen, Sameer Merchant, and Waheed Qureshi will bring over 50 years of combined experience in executive positions at companies including Oracle, Adobe, Microsoft, Autodesk, Plangrid, and Zenprise.

Bruce Chizen is a widely recognized technology executive. He served as CEO of Adobe Systems from 2000 to 2007, working to facilitate the transformation of Adobe from a graphics and publishing software developer to a leading provider of media, design, and business tools. Throughout his career, he has held roles with coveted companies including Mattel and Microsoft. In addition to his advisory role with Planera, he is currently a board member of Oracle Corporation, ChargePoint, Informatica, McAfee, Synopsys, Nexthink, Mirakl and FullStory. He also sits on or advises boards of nonprofit organizations such as the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

Sameer Merchant is Chief Technology Officer of Wheel, a health tech company powering the next generation of healthcare. He has spent the last 20+ years developing tech platforms and leading high-growth from early-stage startups to public companies in several industries. Before joining Wheel, he was CTO of Plangrid, a construction productivity software designed for onsite construction workers, which he helped to scale to an $850M exit. After Plangrid was acquired by Autodesk, Merchant served as VP and Global Head of Product Development, helping to lead a team of 900+ product and engineering experts to drive platform growth and product integration strategy. Previously, he also co-founded, launched and scaled AdMarvel, a premiere mobile advertising platform that was later acquired by Opera Software.

Waheed Qureshi is an entrepreneur, investor, mentor and executive. He founded and served as CTO of Zenprise, a leader in the mobile device management and security space that was acquired by Citrix in 2012. Currently, he is founder and CEO of WMQ Investments, where he advises and invests in startups utilizing multi-cloud security and AI-driven superclouds. Qureshi was also founder and CEO of Mesmer as well as a member of Hathway's board of advisors. He is a professor at the University of Southern California.

"We are very pleased to welcome these three accomplished individuals to our advisory board," said Nitin Bhandari, CEO and founder of Planera. "Their combined industry expertise and knowledge of the tech space and scaling companies will be an asset to Planera as we continue to grow and change the way construction planning and scheduling is approached throughout the industry."

This announcement closely follows Planera's launch from stealth and $5.4M seed funding announcement in May 2023. These new advisors will continue to drive the company's mission to revolutionize construction scheduling by simplifying the ability to establish an accurate scope of work, create estimates and bids, and develop a timeline for project completion. 

"Planera's capabilities presents the opportunity to do for construction planning what companies like Figma did for digital design and Miro did for whiteboard collaboration," said Sameer Merchant. "There is a massive need for innovative construction technology in today's market. By simplifying and consolidating all the resources and tools necessary to complete the pre-construction planning process, Planera has the ability to promote record levels of productivity, efficiency, and profitability."

"One of the biggest challenges in construction planning is to drive alignment amongst all the stakeholders," said Bruce Chizen. "Planera's simplicity and collaboration is a game changer and is driving better business outcomes for customers around the country."

The trio will join Planera's advisory team as they prepare for upcoming partnerships, funding rounds, and product enhancements that will continue to drive company growth.

For more information, visit www.planera.io.

About Planera
Planera is a digital whiteboard tool that helps companies in the construction industry more accurately layout their scope of work, develop estimates and bids, and create a timeline for project completion. By combining the complex capabilities and innovation of legacy programs with the simplicity of spreadsheets, Planera serves as a comprehensive workflow management solution for contractors and other construction companies in both the residential and commercial sectors. With features that replicate the physical drawing board that these companies often utilize to map out their projects in a digital whiteboard format, Planera incorporates the visual nature of construction planning into a seamless dashboard with a plethora of other critical tools.

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SOURCE Planera