Corey Snow has been awarded with MVP status by Salesforce in September 2017 for his outstanding contribution to Salesforce community in sharing knowledge, leadership skills, and showing creativity within the Salesforce Community. Here is his journey to MVP status in his own words!
Brief Intro about yourself? What do you do?
I serve as CRM Strategist and Solution Architect at Harvard University. I partner with 40+ trailblazing Salesforce teams spanning 7 Schools to foster cross-campus collaboration and promote shared success with the Salesforce platform and ecosystem. I am grateful to have been immersed in technology for my entire career, acting as a technologist in diverse sectors including healthcare, marketing systems, data storage, pharmaceuticals, publishing, and non-profit.
My current lofty mission statement is: To enable Higher Ed Institutions to thrive into an era of renewed relevancy by courageously embracing and leveraging the power of human-centric technology.
When I am not performing my day job, I strive to help folks from other organizations, institutions, and non-profits power up their missions with CRM Technology through User Groups, Sprints, Hackathons, learning events, partnerships, and direct collaboration.
In October, I had the great honor of being elected to serve on the Salesforce.org Higher Ed Advisory Council, an incredible assembly of change agents who are passionate about helping our Higher Ed Ohana unleash the potential of CRM technology on the business of Higher Education. Everyone on the council has been incredibly generous in helping me get started in Higher Ed, and I look forward to paying this debt of gratitude forward.
In recent months, I have been fortunate to have opportunities to help younger grade 7-12 students and college students learn more about the Salesforce platform, and inspire them to seek careers in technology, which is incredibly rewarding!
In partnership with Salesforce.org, Salesforce.com, and trailblazers from our Higher Ed Ohana, 3 weeks ago we launched the first ever regional Higher Ed User groups! This is a really important milestone for our industry. I am looking forward to all of goodness to flow forth from these new collaborations!
When not working on CRM technology, I coach an amazing FIRST Tech Challenge youth robotics team (Team Unlimited 0001). These Middle and High School students inspire me with their inventions everyday, and give us all hope for a bright future!
How do you feel being a new MVP?
To quote Susan Boyle, I was gobsmacked! When the message came in at 11pm on the night before the announcements, I recall emitting a childish squeal with a mix of delight and surprise. Knowing so many amazing MVPs, I also feel a deep sense of “imposter syndrome”, and aspire to become worthy of the honor.
What was your motivation to become a MVP? Insipration?
So many MVPs have helped me over these many years on the Salesforce platform!
Special shout out to Judi Sohn, the first MVP I ever encountered (now with Salesforce.org), who taught me most of what I know about the platform, and Marc Baizman (now with Salesforce.org) who as UGL and MVP, first taught me about the multiplying power of the community around the technology. Without their patient encouragement, and all of the introductions and doors they opened, I would not be working in the Salesforce ecosystem today!
So many MVPs to thank!
From my NFP Ohana: Bonny Hinners, Justin Barss, Katie McFadden, Caroline Renard, , Beth Breisnes, Ryan Ozimek, Megan Himan, Vered Meir, Michelle Regal, Ashima Saigal, Adam Kramer, Tal Frankfurt
New MVPs Joanna Iturbe and Colleen Whelan, plus longtime MVPs Kalman Sweetwine, Nicholas Zinser, Buyan Thyagarajan, and Kathleen Lueckeman have all done so much to help me navigate this alien Higher Ed landscape
Steve Molis, Shell Black, Doug Ayers, Dan Appleman, Andrew Fawcett did so much to help educate me long before there was any Trailhead!
Inspired: Benjamin Bolopue, Daniel Peter, Eric Dreshfield, David Giller, Enrico Murru, Adam Olshansky, Amy Oplinger, Garry Polmateer and Cheryl Felman constantly inspire me to do and be more.
Community Contributors: Kartik Viswanadha, Jeff May, Sharon Klardie, Jitendra Zaa and Jennifer Lee contribute so much to our community around the Boston area, and I can only hope to add something worthy to their efforts.
Plus I have to thank the many empowerers from SFDO including Jason Belland, Dave Perry, Nathalie Mainland, Cheryl Porro, Mark Sirois, Chris Coppa, Jace Bryan, Pat McQueen, Ryan Upton, Chase Schults, Josue Estrada, Amy Pannu, Paul Malenke, Suzanne Veiga, Kelly Hardebeck, Kevin Bromer, Carlos Ramírez Martínez-Eiroa, Jim Stroka, Marc Beaulieu, Joy Bausemer, Selina Suarez, Kelly Hardebeck, Traci Depuy, Tracy Kronzak, Grant Miller, Brent Wege, and so many more!
Huge inspirers from SFDC include: Phil Komarny, Vala Afshar, Bruce Richardson, Peter Coffee, Karen Mangia, Kristen Engelhardt, Kavindra Patel, Shawna Wolverton, John Taschek, Robert DeSisto, Tony Prophet, Josh Aranoff, Holly Firestone, Charlie Isaacs, and so many more!
Message for future MVP aspirants?
There is clearly no secret formula or prescribed path to MVP, and I am certainly the wrong person to ask, though there are a few things I know to be true.
The power behind the Force is the community! There is nothing like our #Ohana around any other technology platform (before or since).
All of the MVPs I have met have this in common: they excel at paying forward what they have gained in unique and remarkable ways.
Be the person you needed when you were struggling to learn the platform and finding your way around the community. Whether this results in MVP or not, you will be increasing the net goodness in the world! All gifts come first from giving.
sfdcFanBoy:
Thank you Corey for sharing your story with all of us in detail. You truly are a great inspiration yourself to each and every one of us.
Read Abhilasha Singh’s interview, the leader of Salesforce India Women In Tech
Read Amit Chaudhary’s incredible contribution to the Salesforce Developer forum in his own words
Read Pritam Shekhawat’s Interview about how he loves doing everything for #Ohana
Another MVP from Japan this Summer 17 class – Read Sadahiro Suzuki’s Interview with sfdcFanBoy
Read Misty Jones’s Interview with sfdcFanBoy about how she is uniquely herself.
Read Amy’s formula for becoming an MVP.
sfdcFanBoy 
One Reply to “New MVP – Corey Snow shares his journey”