Speaker Index:

Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman

Conference Chairman

Rick Chapman is the managing editor and publisher of Softletter, the industry's premier business publication. Rick has worked in the software industry for over 24 years with such firms as MicroPro and Ashton-Tate. He is the author of The Product Marketing Handbook for Software (Aegis Resources) and In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters. (back to top/index)

 

 
Jeremy Aber

Owner, Aber Law Firm

Jeremy Aber is the owner of the Aber Law Firm, a firm that focuses on representing information technology companies. Jeremy is also a Senior Advisor to OpenView Venture Partners, an IT venture capital firm based in Boston. Jeremy has over 18 years experience in technology and corporate law. He previously served as General Counsel and Vice President to ScriptLogic Corporation, a Windows software tools vendor; and the Head of US Licensing for BMC Software, a Fortune 500 enterprise software vendor. In addition, Jeremy began his career as a Corporate and Finance Associate Attorney at Mayer Brown, a global law firm.
 
Jeremy received his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center, where he graduated Cum Laude and served as an Associate Editor on the Houston Law Review. Jeremy has a B.B.A in Accounting from The University of Texas, at Austin, and has passed all sections of the Certified Public Accountants' Examination.  (back to top/index)
  

Merritt Alberti

Director, Human Resource Capital, Deloitte LLP

Merritt Alberti is a Director in the Human Capital practice at Deloitte LLP, the world’s largest professional services organization.  Merritt has 20+ years of sales, marketing and technology management experience, with the last 15+ years spent in consulting and professional services, helping companies in the areas of software implementation, sales compensation and sales operations.  Most recently, Merritt served at Callidus Software, Inc (NASDAQ:  CALD) as Senior Vice President, Global Client Services.  He led the professional services team through the company’s recent transformation from a traditional license software company to a SaaS provider.
Prior to Callidus, Mr. Alberti was co-founder and Vice President at Compensation Technologies, a consulting and hosting services organization specializing in the design, implementation, and support of incentive compensation management programs.
  
Before  Compensation Technologies, Mr. Alberti spent 5+ years at as the director of technology services at The Alexander Group, Inc, a consulting organization specializing in sales force effectiveness, and held various professional service positions at other software companies including CGI (GIB: NYSE), Savantage, and Aristotle Software, supporting both corporate and government clients. Mr. Alberti holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a M.S. in information systems, and a MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. (back to top/index) 

Jan Aleman

CEO, Servoy, B.V.

Jan Aleman is the CEO of Servoy, B.V. - an application development and deployment software that specializes in assisting ISVs move their products to SaaS while maintaining their on-premises clients. Prior to helping found Servoy, Mr. Aleman was an owner of Professional Data Management (PDM) -- an IT company specializing in building data-oriented solutions. Besides custom solutions, PDM developed a number of innovative products for Internet and Database solutions, like plug-ins. More than 20,000 users are currently employing these products worldwide in companies such as: Apple, Sony, Genentech, Endemol, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Time, USA today and others. Mr. Aleman is a sought after speaker about SaaS and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) presents at conferences and conferences across Europe, South America and the USA.  His keynote sessions at ServoyWorld are always highly anticipated.  (back to top/index).

Eileen Boerger

President, Agilis Solutions

Eileen Boerger is President of Agilis Solutions (www.agilissolutions.com) and its parent company, CorSource Technology Group. Most recently, Eileen was Executive Vice President and General Manager of Agilis Solutions and has been responsible for the delivery of our outsourced software development services and technical staffing services.  Eileen has extensive experience in the development and maintenance of software products, including both on-premise and on-demand product development. She also has managed the outsourcing of software development and maintenance projects to several countries, including Vietnam, India and New Zealand.
Prior to joining the company, Eileen was Vice President of Operations at QualityLogic, where she was responsible for delivering Quality Assurance services. She has also held a variety of management positions at Mentor Graphics Corporation and Unisys Corporation.  Eileen is currently a member of the Oregon Engineering and Technology Industry Council (ETIC), a public sector - private industry partnership focused on growing the capacity and excellence of Oregon's engineering and technology programs. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) and the Women in Technology International (WITI) Foundation. Eileen has been recognized by Open Computing magazine as one of the "Top 100 Women in Computing".  (back to top/index)
 

Ward Carter 

Chairman, The Corum Group

Ward Carter is  the Chairman  and past President of the Corum Group, a  leading M&A firm representing sellers of software and related technology companies worldwide.  Corum has done landmark transactions with many of the leaders in the Software, IT and SaaS field including Microsoft, Salesforce.com and Google.  Ward has personally been at the vanguard of the SaaS revolution, leading significant transactions and running many of the leading valuation and negotiation forums.   His technology background includes a variety of field and management positions with the Burroughs Corporation (later Unisys) over eight years. Later, as vice president of a Wall Street investment firm and as principal in a regional private equity firm, Mr. Carter funded ventures in computer hardware, software, and biotechnology. As an executive for a Seattle-based document management company he attracted venture capital and assisted with the eventual sale of the company to a competitor. As president of InfoMatrix, and later Discovery Sales + Marketing, Mr. Carter provided strategic consulting support to emerging software companies prior to joining the Corum Group in 1997.  He graduated with Honors from Seattle University with a BA in Business. (back to top/index)
 

Larry Cates

President/CEO of Bancroft Technology Group

Mr. Cates is President/CEO of Bancroft Technology Group, Inc. (BTG), along with its subsidiaries KeyStone Learning Systems LLC and Global Learning Systems LLC.   He actively works with the company’s clients and industry partners to provide software adoption strategies through integrated training, e-learning and performance support solutions across their enterprise environments.  The company utilizes its proprietary software, KeyStone OnDemand (“KOD”), a training and self-help SaaS platform that helps SaaS vendors increase adoption, loyalty and improve customer retention of their software applications/product offerings with end-users.  

Prior to joining BTG, Mr. Cates also held executive positions in both corporate finance, development and operations with leading national public homebuilders, including The Ryland Group, Inc. and NVR, Inc.  He has over twenty years of experience in strategic planning, operations, corporate development, investor relations and mergers and acquisitions.  Mr. Cates is a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. (back to top/index) 

Adam Cohen

Business Development Manager, Information Builders

Adam Cohen – Business Development Manager, Information Builders, is responsible for building alliances for the software company.  Previously, he worked at Thomson Financial, the American Institute of Physics, and Simon & Schuster.  Cohen is a graduate of New York University and Bennington College and occasionally runs marathons. (back to top/index)

Chris Couch

COO of Transverse

Chris Couch, founder and COO of Transverse, LLC, has spent 17 years in the billing world. Prior to Transverse, Chris served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at ACE*COMM Corp. (NASD:ACEC), a leading provider of wireless OSS, BSS and value-add services platforms. Prior to ACE*COMM, Chris was the Chief Technology Officer at RateIntegration, Inc., a Virginia-based software company that develops, distributes and installs value-add services software for wireless service providers. Chris also led consulting practices at American Management Systems and Logica, where he oversaw or participated in the ground-up launch of several wireless carriers around the world. (back to top/index)

Chuck DeVita

President, Growth Process Group
 

Chuck DeVita founded and leads GPG. He has over thirty years experience in Sales and Marketing management. He has developed regional and worldwide sales forces and has extensive international background. His experience spans Enterprise SaaS Solutions, infrastructure, business intelligence, manufacturing software, supply chain, EDA, software development, energy technology and semiconductors. As an officer, he led the initial growth of two startups and drove the turnaround of Consilium (acquired by Applied Materials), a public company. As a consultant, he has helped numerous enterprise software and SaaS solution companies in the U.S. and Europe including serving as interim VP Sales & Marketing.  (back to top/index)

Greg Evans

CEO, Ligatt Security.com.COM

Innovator, author, industry leader, and recognized expert are only a few words that describe Gregory Evans. Providing a helpful service to the public has always been at the forefront of Mr. Evans’s mind. It was this passion that led him to create LIGATT Security (www.LIGATTSECURITY.com) 6 years ago. LIGATT Security employs over 65 computer security experts, and has conducted more security penetration tests than any other company in the nation. The company’s client list includes the FBI and other government agencies, banks, and even entertainers such as Jim Carey and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges.

Before embarking and starting LIGATT Security, Mr. Evans was the founder of a publicly traded computer security company called, The Cyber Group Network Corporation, which specialized in stolen computer recovery. While at the helm of The Cyber Group Network, Mr. Evans was the first African American to write a computer encryption program called, Password Protection Information Retrieval Technology (PPIRT). This program was sold in all major computer retail stores such as Fry’s, Radio Shack, and CompUSA. PPIRT is the first security software of its kind, which includes a 2,048-bit encryption program, and computer recovery technology. PPIRT has the ability to track stolen computers over the Internet and across landline telephones.

Mr. Evans’s expertise is frequently featured in a variety of media outlets including, The History Channel’s “Modern Marvels”. On the program, he demonstrated the capabilities of computer surveillance and the destruction of cyber terrorism, as well as discussed how spyware works and taught viewers how to protect their wireless networks. Evans has also been consulted on the highly rated, NBC’s Dateline “To Catch a Predator”.  He has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines including the Wall Street Journal, Sun Newspaper, LA Times, USA Today, Black Enterprise, Wells Fargo Business Journal, and JET magazine, to name a few. In 2010, Evans was featured in the book, Who’s Who in Black Atlanta, in addition to being awarded a Certified Master Anti-Terrorism Specialist certificate by the Anti Terrorism Accreditation Board.

In the year 2000, Mr. Evans produced and co-hosted one of the first radio talk shows addressing hi-tech crimes. Cyber Crime Radio was broadcasted on KIEV in Los Angeles, California, which is the second largest radio market in the country. Furthermore, Mr. Evans had a daily show called the Cyber Security Minute on KNX 1070 that gave advice to listeners on how to protect themselves from becoming victims of hi-tech crimes. Not only has Mr. Evans spoken on his own radio shows, he has also been a guest on the very popular, syndicated, Tom Joyner Show and the Michael Baisden Show, discussing the highly controversial topic of identity theft. (back to top/index) 
 

Patrick Fetterman

Vice President, Plex Systems, Inc.

Patrick Fetterman is vice president of marketing of Plex Systems, Inc, developers of Plex Online ™ on-demand software for the manufacturing enterprise, Plex Online combines the capabilities of enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), shop floor integration, quality management, and much more. Prior to joining Plex, Fetterman was with New York City-based Mi8 Corp., where he served as vice president of marketing and products from 2000 to 2005, and as president from 2005 to 2006. During Fetterman’s tenure with Mi8, the company built a reputation as a trailblazer in the software as a service (SaaS) market, and earned a position as the premium quality provider in the highly competitive market for on demand Microsoft solutions. (back to top/index)

  Ted Finch

CEO, Chanimal.com

Ted Finch, aka Chanimal (short for Channel Animal), is one of the top channel experts in the high-tech industry, having launched over 500 products into the channel for over 200 vendors (including Microsoft, HP, Adobe, Corel, Intel, Aldus, Epson, AOL, WordPerfect, Novel, Autodesk, Citrix, IBM, Sony, Disney, Mitsubishi, Lotus, DCA, Netscape, plus over 50 SaaS products).
 
Mr. Finch is a former VP of Sales and Marketing with TAC (now called MarketStar), VP at Goldmine Software, VP at Harcourt, Sr. VP at Motorola, VP at GE, and CEO of Chanimal.com. In addition, he helped form Red Storm Entertainment with Tom Clancy, and led the marketing team that published AOL and Netscape Navigator, the #1 best-selling software in the world at the time.
 
Mr. Finch sits on the board of advisors of several high-tech start-ups, on the Channel Advisory Council, has spoken at dozens of industry conferences and has been quoted by over 100 publications including PC Magazine, Retail Week, Computer Reseller News, Entrepreneur Magazine, Channel Advocate, Newsweek, & Fortune.  (back to top/index)

Jim Geisman

President, Software Pricing
 

Jim has helped emerging and established software companies solve some of their thorniest pricing problems including how to transition to the on-demand (SaaS) pricing model. He has written extensively on software pricing and is widely quoted in the trade press. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and trade conferences and has consulted internationally on issues of software pricing and deal structuring. Jim has been a co-founder, director, advisor or mentor to early stage companies. He sits on the Board of the Professional Pricing Society and is an advisor to the Entreprenuerial Leadership Program at Tufts University.  (back to top/index)  

Jay Greenwald

Managing Partnert, International Revenue Acceleration

Jay is an internationally acclaimed expert on enterprise software distribution outside the United States with more than 20 years’ experience working within all functions of a software company. His particular expertise is with SaaS and Cloud software vendors.He is managing partner of International Revenue ACCELERATION, a consultancy focused on helping on-premise enterprise, SaaS and Cloud software vendors expand their sales, channels and go-to-market capabilities outside their home countries.

Jay worked at Sterling Software—a $1+ billion NYSE-listed enterprise software vendor that was acquired by to CA Technologies and AT&T for more than $8 billion—for 10 years, where his career progressed in product, marketing, business development and general management roles. His final job at Sterling was Division President, Emerging Markets Division, where he ran a $40 million sales division spanning 55 countries: Japan, S. Korea, Greater China, Southeast Asia, India, Southern and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

Another example of the major influence he exerted upon an organization was at OpenLink Financial, the leading enterprise trading and risk management software vendor with products targeted at the largest capital market and energy/commodity traders in the world. There, he built their Asian Operations in Singapore from scratch and “jump-started” sales personally. His efforts resulted in a multi-million deal at the largest energy company in SE Asia.

He has physically worked in 41 countries selling software, managing channels and rationalizing international sales organizations. He has managed sales and product across 65 countries and understands the sales and technological drivers that enable the sales of software and technology services. Jay has lived in London, Paris and Singapore for a total of 6 years and he earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. When not traveling internationally, he resides in beautiful Denver, CO, USA with his wife, who is the founder of The SolutionPR, his 3 teenage daughters and 2 dogs.  (back to top/index)

Robert Jurkowski

CEO, OnDemand Advisors
 

Robert Jurkowski is a Founding Partner of On Demand Advisors, a strategic consulting firm dedicated to the success of CEOs and business leaders. For the past 25 years Robert has built and scaled 9 software and services companies as an operating “hands-on” leader at every stage of revenue growth from “start up” to public companies. He is a former public and private software company CEO and an accomplished speaker at industry forums and events.  Some of these companies include Intacct, a leader in the SaaS market, Selectica, Oracle, ADP, Dun & Bradstreet, Aurum Software and Siicon Energy. Robert co-founded the IBM Software as Service Partner Council and has served a SIIA Software Division Board member. He has built an extensive network of business leaders and is passionate about serving CEOs and business leaders to assist with their success, personally and professionally.  (back to top/index)
  

Sharon Mertz

Gartner Research Director, SaaS, CRM and Russian Software Markets

Sharon Mertz is a director in Gartner Research, where she is focused on customer relationship management (CRM), software as a service (SaaS) and the software markets in Russia. Ms. Mertz is an international business professional with more than 25 years of experience in strategic consulting and management directed toward the introduction and impact of emerging technologies in the marketplace.

Prior to joining Gartner, Ms. Mertz was an associate partner at IBM, working with the global research organizations to evaluate emerging business opportunities. She held an international assignment as practice leader for IBM's strategic consulting organization in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ms. Mertz also held management roles at KPMG, HP, Bull Worldwide Information Systems and Digital Equipment. She is an accomplished speaker and has addressed audiences at conferences and events internationally. Ms. Mertz is also a member of the faculty at the Graduate School of Business, Southern New Hampshire University.

"I enjoy analyzing the implications of global market forces and IT industry trends on our clients' strategic business models. Emerging technologies have significantly altered the international business landscape and have transformed the globalization process. Anticipating the impact of these forces on the market and extrapolating from them to form actionable strategies and opportunities for our clients is an exciting and ongoing challenge." She has a Doctorate in Business Administration from Sourthern New Hampshire University, a C.S.S. C.S.S., Administration and Management, Harvard University, Class Marshal, and a B.A., Art History and German Literature, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi. (back to top/index)
 

Brian Magierski

Co-CEO & President, Appconomy

Brian Magierski is the President and Co-CEO of Appconomy, a startup based in Austin, Texas that produces commerce and community cloud services and is backed by True Ventures. For the past 14 years, Mr. Magierski has served large enterprises and businesses with application software and web services offerings.

Prior to Appconomy, he co-founded Moxie Software and iMark.com. He served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Moxie. Moxie (fka nGenera), raised over $50 Million from Foundation Capital and Oak Investment Partners and in less than 4 years grew to over $30 Million in revenue. Mr. Magierski was also the co-founder and CEO of iMark.com, a business-to-business web marketplace for trading surplus goods that was sold to then publicly-traded FreeMarkets (currently Ariba, NASDAQ: ARBA) in March 2000 for $340 million.
 
Brian was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Austin, TX in 2000. Brian started his career at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, OH, and also worked in a leadership role at Trilogy Software.

Currently, Brian serves as a member of the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship@Cornell, Cornell University’s university-wide entrepreneurship program, and the board of directors of ADRevolution. His educational background includes an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Engineering from Cornell University. back to top/index

Jerry Morgan

CEO, ProjecTools

Jerry Morgan is the founder and CEO of ProjecTools, a Texas based SaaS company serving primarily the oil and gas engineering and construction industry. ProjecTools provides an integrated project management solution to manage large oil and gas engineering and construction projects in the areas of Document Management, Engineering & Commissioning, Procurement and Cost Control to international users in over 50 countries. In the past 11 years, ProjecTools has been used to manage over 17 billion dollars worth of oil and gas projects.

ProjecTools is a 100% SaaS company that has grown from Jerry’s vision in 2001 of how global projects could be managed, to a profitable and rapidly growing company in 2012 - without outside investment or venture capital. ProjecTools offices are located on their 11 acre campus with 17,000 sq. ft. of office space in Bellville, TX which is about 1 hour outside of Houston and 1.5 hours from Austin.

Jerry brought over 20 years of oil and gas industry experience to ProjecTools in 2001. He began his career as an engineer and project manager with Texaco in 1979. In 1994 he founded an engineering and consulting  company providing traditional engineering services to the oil and gas industry. This firm transitioned in 2001 to what is today ProjecTools.

Jerry is a 1978 graduate of Louisiana State University with a B.S in Electrical Engineering. back to top/index

 Dina Moskowitz

CEO, SaaSMAX

Dina Moskowitz has been leading and/or consulting to cloud-based, SaaS, and other technology companies throughout her career.  As Founder and CEO of SaasMAX, Inc., Dina is building a SaaS Channel Management Platform and Marketplace, www.SaasMAX.com, to facilitate, improve and increase the SaaS sales value chain.   Most recently, Dina was CEO and founder of Critical Digital Data, Inc. (CDIX), a company that develops cloud-based online data storage solutions.  She successfully took CDIX public and exited, providing shareholders with a solid return on their investments. Dina remains CEO of the privately held spin-off, Critical Digital Data Solutions, Inc.  She is also the founding Principal of Corporate Business Plan Associates, providing business plan and strategic consulting services for more than 15 years.   Dina is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.S. of Economics degree in Finance   Dina presently resides in La Jolla, California with her family. back to top/index

Kevin O'Brien

Senior Director, ISV & SaaS Strategy for Worldwide Alliances and Channels, Oracle Corporation

Kevin O’Brien is Senior Director of ISV & SaaS Strategy for Worldwide Alliances & Channels at Oracle Corporation. He is responsible for ongoing development and execution of Oracle’s ISV programs and strategies, including SaaS, Oracle Exastack and Oracle Validated Integration. Prior to this role, Mr. O’Brien worked in Oracle’s Technology Channel Program Office, launching high growth initiatives targeted at mid-sized businesses. Before that, Mr. O’Brien led go-to-market activities with ISV and channel partners in the North America division. He received his BA in Government from Colby College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.  (back to top/index)

Paul Ressler

Paul Ressler, Principal, The Cirrostratus Group

Paul Ressler is a consultant specializing in service delivery for SaaS, Cloud Computing, and Managed Services.  As the principal of The Cirrostratus Group, Paul provides the management and oversight on all services and is actively involved in all engagements.  Paul has worked in an executive role in general management, operations, service delivery, and professional services within the SaaS, Cloud Computing, and Managed Services industries including Unica, Harte Hanks, and Genuity.

Paul has a BS in Computer Science from MIT and an MBA from Northeastern University. back to top/index

Laura Roach

Director, Blackbaud

20 years of extensive experience in Sales Operations, HR and compensation consulting focused primarily in the area of Sales Performance Management, compensation design and SaaS solutions. Known as an expert in compensation strategies including base, variable and long term incentives, as well as, helping companies transform to a SaaS delivery model.  Ms. Roach has worked on various projects both with traditional software to pure SaaS solutions across multiple industries including High Tech, Financial Services, Health Care, and Telecommunications. 

Ms. Roach holds a B.S. Public Administration with a focus in Decision Sciences from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and has completed post graduate MBA work from Keller Graduate School.  She is an active member of World at Work since 1995 and is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP),  an active editor on multiple publications from World at Work, as well as, an active member of PSVillage where she co-leads an executive forum quarterly with top professional services executives in Austin, Texas.

Currently, Ms. Roach is the Director, SaaS Services for Blackbaud, Inc. responsible for all customer and service delivery aspects to the SaaS products for the General Markets Business Unit.  Prior to Blackbaud, Ms. Roach held various senior management positions including responsibility for product development, sales and service delivery at various stages of growth and transformation to SaaS at the leading Sales Performance Management companies including Varicent Software, Xactly Corporation and Callidus Software.  Other work experience includes positions in Compensation and Telecommunications Industry where she successfully designed and delivered worldwide sales compensation plans, recognition programs and custom applications for streamlining sales processes and commissions. back to top/index

Ken Rutsky

President, KJR Associates

Ken Rutsky is a Product and Service Marketing Consultant, and has spent 20+ years in the industry, launching his first Internet services while at Netscape from 1995-99. Since then, he has been CMO at several start-ups and ran Network Security Marketing at McAfee.

Ken launched McAfee's Secure Web Protection Service, and his time as a consultant has included the launch of Nimsoft's Nimsoft On Demand service. Today, as the Founder and President of KJR Associates, Inc,  he is laser-focused on helping ISVs and SaaS start-ups understand how to bridge from the world of products to SaaS Services with their mindset, organization and go-to-market tactics. Follow him on Twitter @jayrutz, on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenrutsky, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/KJR-Associates/224894750772 (back to top/index)

Roger Sippl

Chairman, Elastic Intelligence

Roger Sippl is a Silicon Valley software pioneer, entrepreneur and innovator. His 30 years of contributions have helped shape the enterprise software technology landscape of today. In 1980 he founded Informix Software, and was CEO for 10 years, taking it public in 1986. Under his leadership, Informix pioneered SQL relational databases, report generators, screen data entry packages, 4GL application development tools, and scalable OLTP database technology. It is now a part of IBM, after peaking at a $4B market cap as an independent public company. 

Sippl was also co-founder and Chairman of The Vantive Corporation. Vantive became a leader in CRM, went public in 1995, peaked at a $1B market cap, and is now a part of PeopleSoft/Oracle. In 1993, he founded and was CEO of Visigenic Software, helping pioneer distributed object computing and the concept of the application server (based on CORBA, prior to the J2EE standard). Visigenic went public in 1998. After the Visigenic IPO Mr. Sippl earned the “Golden Hat Trick Award” from Cristina Morgan at JP Morgan/Hambrecht and Quist for three Silicon Valley IPOs.

In the mid-nineties, Sippl became a founding partner of Sippl Macdonald Ventures. He invested in several successful software companies, including Illustra (acquired by Informix), Broadvision (IPO), SupportSoft (board seat and IPO) and Red Pepper (acquired by PeopleSoft). In 2002, Sippl founded Above All Software, a composite application platform that used web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Other investments included Talarian, a messaging company (IPO, now part of Tibco), TimesTen, a main memory DBMS company (now part of Oracle) and Cloudscape, the first all-Java DBMS (acquired by Informix). 

In 2008 he founded Elastic Intelligence specifically to provide a hosted and scalable Connection Cloud, a report writer and other business intelligence modules to SaaS companies and users. The Connection Cloud makes all structured data on the web appear as if it is one giant relational database. The Report Cloud is available to SaaS companies that would like to add report writing to their offering without having to implement it themselves, but rather, just link to it and provide the functionality to users as if it were part of their application. 

Mr. Sippl has been on over a dozen boards of directors of for profit corporations, public and private, and has also served on several non-profit boards. He was the representative of the software industry on the X/OPEN board of directors, and was a founding board member of /usr/group and the Uniform Unix trade association in the 1980’s. Mr. Sippl has also been the Chairman of the Stanford Cancer Council for over 20 years, as well as serving on three school boards. He currently serves on the boards of Elastic Intelligence (private), Filtini (private) and SolarWinds (public SWI). 

Roger Sippl studied Biochemistry, Immunology and Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, earning a BS degree in Computer Science in 1977. (back to top/index) 

 Michael L. Whitener

Lead Counsel, Clearspire Law
 

Michael Whitener is Lead Counsel, Technology & Communications with Clearspire Law Co., PLLC, an international law firm dedicated to reengineering the practice of law.  Michael's legal practice focuses on helping software and other technology companies address issues regarding data security and privacy, licensing, distribution, intellectual property and cloud computing. He also advises clients regarding compliance with global anti-corruption laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

Before joining Clearspire, Michael was a co-founder and principal of the law firm VistaLaw International.  Michael also served as Group Counsel - International at BearingPoint, a global management and technology consulting firm, supervising a team of in-house lawyers and outside counsel in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Previously, Michael was based in Singapore as Managing Director and General Counsel of WorldSpace Asia, a subsidiary of a U.S.-based global satellite communications company. 

Michael was in private practice with the law firms of Sidley Austin (New York and Washington, D.C.) and Hogan Lovells (Washington, D.C.). Michael also spent two years with the U.S. Department of Commerce as a trade adviser, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Tokyo, Japan. 

Michael is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. He is certified as a CIPP (Certified Information Privacy Professional), with a speciality in U.S. government privacy laws and policies (CIPP/G), by the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He is the author of Creating Software Alliances (2007) and co-author of Corporate Governance for New Directors (2008).  (back to top/index) 

 Stephen Williams

Chief Technologist, Enterprise Software Portfolio Strategy, Hewlett-Packard

Stephen Williams is a high-performance enterprise SaaS visionary with more than 20 years of industry experience.  He has held strategic technology roles with leading companies such as HP, FICO, and SAIC, as well as cutting-edge SaaS startups like First Virtual, MessageMedia and EWI.  At HP, Stephen co-founded the 48Upper business unit to deliver a disruptive Enterprise 2.0 SaaS solution for IT operations and applications management, and he currently drives the SaaS strategy for the enterprise IT management software portfolio. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.A. in Computer Science.  (back to top/index)  

 Karl Wirth

CEO, Apptegic

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