Glen's NetworkInnovate! Inc.

Mark Filpus

Salesforce Architect at Innovate! Inc. Villanova University. Certified Administrator and App Builder. The person you called when the EPA Program Plan needed to be rebuilt from the architecture up.

Villanova UniversitySalesforce Certified

The Arc

Mark Filpus is a Salesforce Architect. Not the kind who puts “architect” in their title because it sounds better than “senior developer” — the kind who actually thinks about systems at the architectural level. How do the pieces fit together? What happens when the requirements change in six months? Where are the failure points? That's how Mark thinks.

At Innovate! Inc., Mark worked on EPA Salesforce implementations — the kind of complex, multi-year government projects where getting the architecture wrong means years of technical debt. He was central to the Program Plan Rebuild, working alongside Glen and Larry Spackman to restructure the system when it had outgrown its original design. That's the hardest kind of work in software: rebuilding the plane while it's flying.

He's a Villanova grad with Salesforce Administrator and App Builder certifications. After Innovate, he founded Visao, an AI and software solutions company — taking the systems thinking he honed on government Salesforce projects and applying it to the next generation of technology. The arc makes sense: from architect to founder, from solving someone else's design problems to building his own solutions.

Career Timeline

Villanova University

Education

Villanova, PA

Studied at Villanova University. The kind of school that produces people who show up prepared, do the work, and don't need to tell you about it afterward.

Innovate! Inc.

Salesforce Architect

EPA & Government Projects

Worked as a Salesforce Architect at Innovate! Inc. on EPA implementations. Built and maintained Salesforce solutions for federal program offices. Played a central role in the Program Plan Rebuild — the kind of architectural rethink that happens when a system has grown beyond its original design and needs someone who can see the whole picture to restructure it.

Innovate! Inc.

Team Lead & Non-Profit CRM Design

Salesforce Implementation

Led a team analyzing a non-profit's business needs to design and implement a Salesforce CRM system. Translated organizational requirements into platform architecture — the kind of work where you have to understand both the technology and the mission.

Post-Innovate

Founder — Visao

AI & Software Solutions

Founded Visao, an AI and software solutions company. Helping businesses build smarter, faster, and stronger with emerging technologies. A natural evolution from Salesforce architecture into broader solutions design — taking the systems thinking he developed at Innovate and applying it to the next wave of technology.

What Mark Brings

Salesforce Architecture

Certified Salesforce Administrator and App Builder. Mark doesn't just configure Salesforce — he architects it. The difference is that an architect thinks about how the system will need to change two years from now, not just what it needs to do today.

EPA & Government Salesforce

Deep experience building Salesforce solutions for EPA program offices. Government implementations have unique constraints — compliance, security, multi-stakeholder approval processes — and Mark navigated all of them.

Program Plan Architecture

Central to the EPA Program Plan Rebuild at Innovate. When a system needs to be restructured from the ground up while still running in production, that's architectural work at its most demanding. Mark was the person Glen and Larry turned to for that work.

Solutions Design & AI

Founded Visao to help businesses leverage AI and emerging technologies. The ability to see a business problem and design a software solution around it — that's the through-line from his Salesforce architecture work to his current venture.

Team Leadership

Led teams through complex implementations, from non-profit CRM design to federal program rebuilds. The kind of leader who earns trust by being the most prepared person in the room and the last one to leave.

How I Know Mark

Innovate! Inc. — EPA Salesforce projects, in the trenches together

Mark and I worked together at Innovate! Inc. on EPA Salesforce projects. When Jordon Schulman talks about the people at Innovate who “get things done,” Mark is on that list. He was one of the people you wanted in the room when the conversation shifted from “what do we need to build?” to “how do we actually build it?”

The calendar event that says it all: “Glen + Larry + Mark connect Program Plan Rebuild — Loop in Catherine?” That was the meeting where we were restructuring the EPA Program Plan from the architecture level. Not a small task. Not something you bring just anyone into. Mark was there because he was the person who could see the whole system and figure out how to rebuild it without breaking everything that depended on it.

Working at Innovate alongside Josh Long, Catherine Nolan, Jordon Schulman, Larry Spackman, Matt Brumberger, Stacey Cogswell, Tom Perkowitz, and the rest of that team — that was something special. Mark was part of what made it work. The quiet architect who didn't need to be the loudest person in the room because the quality of his thinking spoke for itself.

Now he's building Visao, bringing AI and software solutions to businesses. That tracks. Once you've been the architect on a federal program rebuild, starting your own thing is just the next logical step.

Why He Matters

There's a difference between someone who can build a Salesforce solution and someone who can architect one. Builders solve the problem in front of them. Architects solve the problem in front of them while also solving the three problems that will come after it. Mark is an architect.

The EPA Program Plan Rebuild wasn't a new build — it was a restructure. That's harder. You have to understand what exists, why it was built that way, what changed, and how to get from where you are to where you need to be without losing anything along the way. That requires genuine architectural thinking, and Mark brought it.

Villanova. Salesforce certifications. EPA government work. Innovate! Inc. Now Visao. Every step builds on the last. The kind of career that makes sense when you look at it as a whole — a builder becoming an architect, and an architect becoming a founder.

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