Former Sarasota Jackson Hewitt exec counts new gig

Danamichele Brennen, the former top executive for a 150-employee Jackson Hewitt call center in Sarasota, landed a job with a Boca Raton firm that provides loyalty-marketing programs for small businesses.

Brennen, according to a release, was named chief operating officer of Boca Raton-based SpringBig. “I am absolutely thrilled to be back in the vibrant and exciting technology culture of South Florida,” Brennen says in the release. “Bringing meaningful and impactful technology-based solutions to small businesses has long been a passion of mine and I can't wait to help more and more small businesses feel the power of SpringBig.”

Brennen was chief technology officer for Jackson Hewitt, the Parsippany, N.J.-based national tax preparation giant, from 2007 to 2011. A former executive in the travel and hospitality industries, where she developed patented software and other computer-based products, Brennen helped reshape the Sarasota Jackson Hewitt office. She brought back more than 25 seasonal jobs that had previously been outsourced to the Philippines. Brennen also led implementation of a $1 million software system upgrade for Jackson Hewitt's Sarasota office, which provides technology and call center support for the firm's national network of 6,000 tax preparers.

Brennen left Jackson Hewitt in 2011 to work for suburban Philadelphia-based home-shopping network QVC, where she was a vice president of technology for two years. In addition to her new role at SpringBig, Brennen remains on the advisory board for the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee College of Business. She was appointed to the board in 2009.

Founded in 2012, SpringBig allows small businesses to set up secure customer loyalty programs and track the activity in real-time, according to the release. Rewards can be based on points, purchases or visits.