Ando Appoints Industry Leaders to Advisory Group to Strengthen Mission to Transform Hourly Work

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ando, the company building the world's first AI infrastructure for the global hourly workforce, today announced the formation of a powerhouse advisory group made up of leaders who have shaped some of the most iconic brands, technologies, and labor innovations in the world.

Strategic advisors include:

• Niren Chaudhary — former Chairman & CEO of Panera Brands and COO President for Krispy Kreme and President International KFC
  
  
• Jim Messina — CEO of The Messina Group, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and senior strategist behind President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign.
  
  
• Loni Mahanta — Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at HopSkipDrive and former VP of Future of Work at Lyft. She brings deep expertise in labor policy, workforce mobility, and the systems that shape how people work today.
  
  
• Andy Mutz — Global CTO of Customer Experience at Microsoft and former technology executive at SAP and Salesforce, who was also an early leader in multiple startups with one IPO and two acquisition exits.
  
  
• Adam Sah — Early Google engineering leader, multiple-patent inventor, and investor with experience across three IPOs and deep expertise in building and scaling AI driven infrastructure.

The advisors bring decades of experience across hospitality, artificial intelligence, labor policy, and high growth operations. Their expertise will help accelerate Ando's mission to transform one of the most persistent challenges in the hourly economy: aligning staffing with real demand in a system long overdue for modernization.

In the United States alone, more than 80 million hourly workers collectively work over 140 billion hours every year, yet the systems meant to match workers to the right shifts remain fundamentally outdated. Today, there are 3 million more job openings than workers, turnover regularly exceeds 150 percent, and each departure costs businesses more than $5,800 in replacement and training. Stores often lose thousands of dollars per week simply because they do not have the staff they need at the moments customers walk in.

These challenges show up daily in unpredictable schedules, constant turnover, stressed out managers, and workers juggling multiple jobs without consistent hours. Employers often build schedules with spreadsheets, apps, and text chains, while workers are forced to choose between taking needed shifts and managing basic responsibilities like school pickup or second jobs.

"Ando exists because this system is failing both sides," said Paul Wellons, Founder and CEO of Ando. "AI is reshaping every part of operations, but the frontline workforce has been left behind. Ando uses AI to create stability for workers and precision for operators. Our goal is simple: give workers schedules they can depend on and give operators the clarity they need to run their businesses. Our excellent team of advisors brings the global policy understanding, operational depth, and technical expertise required to guide this next generation of workforce technology."

About Ando
Ando is building the world's first AI infrastructure for the global hourly workforce, addressing one of the largest challenges in the hourly economy: matching the right people to the right shifts at the right time. By providing highly accurate demand forecasting and intelligent staffing tools, Ando helps businesses reduce turnover, eliminate labor waste, and give workers schedules they can depend on. Ando is purpose-built for the hourly W2 workforce, supporting employees and the managers who schedule them.

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SOURCE Ando