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)

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).

Frank Bruno

Manager of Intellectual Property, Iron Mountain
 

Frank Bruno consults with developers, corporations and intellectual property law professionals throughout the United States on IP management best practices for Iron Mountain. He specializes in assisting SaaS companies develop escrow and verification agreements and integrating these into large and enterprise sales cycles. Frank's area of expertise covers IP Protection (Strategy, Process & Management) as it relates to technology development, technology acquisitions, software asset management, and managing Domain Name portfolios to Iron Mountain’s clientele. Prior to joining Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management, he was a Director of Business Development for The META Group, a leading Information Technology Research Consultancy. Frank has been a featured expert speaker on technology and intellectual property protection at many professional and industry events.  (back to top/index)

Patrick Bultema

CEO, Codebaby

Patrick Bultema is CEO of CodeBaby, a new media, internet software company providing innovations for online customer experience and conversion metrics. Throughout his career, Patrick Bultema has been recognized as an industry and company maker. He has served as an executive, venture investor, board member, and advisor to tens of venture-financed startups.  He was most recently a Venture Partner with vSpring Capital. He was CEO of XAware, and CEO of FrontRange Solutions, a global CRM software company. He was founder and Executive Chairman of Knowlix, and was Chairman and General Manager of the Help Desk Institute, then a Ziff-Davis company.

A noted author and speaker, Patrick is recognized as one of leading experts in the customer industry ...bringing together technology and customer experience.  He was founding Executive Editor of Customer Support Management Magazine, and has been an thought leader in the CRM space.  Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree fromCalifornia State University and a Master’s from Princeton.   (back to top/index)

Ward Carter

Chairman, Corum Group

Ward Carter is Chairman of the Corum Group, the leading seller of software and related technology companies.  Corum has done landmark SaaS transactions with many of the leaders in the SaaS field including Salesforce.com and Concur.  Ward has personally been at the vanguard of the SaaS revolution, running many of the leading valuation and negotiation forums.  He was also a contributor for nearly five years with Softletter as an expert on topics related to M&A. (back to top/index)

Peter Coffee 

Director of Platform Intelligence, salesforce.com

Peter Coffee is director of Platform Intelligence at salesforce.com. He was formerly the Technology Editor at eWEEK, a national multimedia center of expertise in enterprise infrastructure technology and practice. He has 23 years' experience in advancing and evaluating information technologies and practices as a developer, manager, consultant, educator, and internationally published author and industry analyst.

Based near Los Angeles, Coffee has written product reviews, technical analyses and opinion columns concerning disruptive forces in IT tools and practices; he has appeared on CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, and PBS newscasts addressing Internet security, the Microsoft antitrust case, wireless telecom policies, and other business issues. His two books to date are the Ziff Davis Press tutorial "How to Program Java" in 1996 and "Peter Coffee Teaches PCs."

Coffee holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University, and has taught in the department of computer science at UCLA and at Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Chapman College School of Business.  (back to top/index)
 

Chuck DeVita

President, Growth Process Group
 

Chuck DeVita is Founder & President of Growth Process Group, a strategic sales outsource and consulting practice focused on early to mid-stage technology companies. Growth Process Group helps established companies grow revenues, profits and predictability. It assists emerging companies in securing funding and offers an outsourced reference customer acquisition program. The firm also provides interim “C” level executive services to get its’ clients through transitions.

Chuck has over thirty years experience in Sales and Marketing management of enterprise technology suppliers. He has developed regional and worldwide sales forces. He has extensive international sales management experience. He has built direct and indirect channels as well as major account sales organizations.  (back to top/index)

Michael Dunham

Vice President, SCIO Consuilting

Michael Dunham is a dynamic speaker and thought leader on the subject of the technology and business issues in Software as a Service and Cloud-Computing.  In his career as a consultant, he has worked with many of the Global Fortune 500, including HP, IBM, Software AG, Amazon, and Yahoo and with many smaller ventures as they moved into the On-Demand business model.

Mr. Dunham´s focus is the intersection of business and technology. He provides strategic planning, product development, and technology planning in the context of attaining business value. He has over 20 years of experience in enterprise-level consulting, professional services, writing, and speaking in the field.
In addition to serving as an advisor to many ventures, Mike is the Vice President for Service Engineering and Principal Consultant for Scio Consulting. In that capacity, he leads service engagements for developing SaaS products for Scio customers and the development of service products for Scio itself.   (back to top/index)

Siamak Farah

CEO, InfoStreet

Siamak Farah is the founder and CEO of InfoStreet, a leading provider of Small Business Software as a Service (SaaS). Active in its day-to-day management, Siamak has assembled and leads a seasoned team of industry professionals at InfoStreet. Widely regarded as a SaaS pioneer, as early as 1994, InfoStreet began shaping a vision, a team and a technology which is now transforming the way business gets done.

Prior to founding InfoStreet in 1994, Siamak worked at NeXT Computer, side-by-side with industry visionaries. During his six years at NeXT, his responsibilities grew from technical sales and marketing to district sales management. Before joining NeXT, Siamak was the Chief Operating Officer of Microstat Development Corporation. During that time, he was responsible for the day-to-day operation of this publicly listed R&D firm. Siamak began his career at Vertigo Systems International. During his time at Vertigo, he was instrumental in its growth from a start up with just six people to a full-fledged business employing over 70 individuals.

A member of the Society of Industry Leaders, Siamak is a frequent speaker at conferences that focus on the Internet and SaaS such as ISPCON, INBOX: The Messaging Industry Event, the Layered Technologies Pact conference, SoftLetter’s SaaS University and more.  (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
 

President, Chanimal
 

During my career I have been a Senior VP of Marketing (GM, MarCom, Channel Marketing, Events, Product Management and Strategic Alliances) and Sales/GM background (managing from 17 to 350 marketing and sales people) that has worked in the entertainment industry (competing with Disney), high-tech publishing, software and hardware industry in packaged goods consumer retail applications, educational software, Fortune 100 enterprise and semiconductor markets.

I have helped execute the launch of over 400 products from over 150 vendors including Lotus, Microsoft (multiple divisions), DCA/Attachmate, Adobe, Aldus, WordPerfect, HP, Xerox, IBM, Corel, Sony, Delrina, Generic Cadd, Compaq, Ashton Tate, AOL, Delta Point, Autodesk, GoldMine, Disney, Creative Labs, Ingram Micro, Canon, Mitsubishi, Epson, Novel, Intel and wrote the strategic marketing plan and lead the marketing team that published the world's #1 best selling software product at the time, Netscape Navigator.

On the accomplishment side, I have gone through five acquisitions, helped one of my previous companies to be acquired by Motorola, with profits and revenue at the prior companies reaching a record high with annual growth at each previous company/division of 2,300%, 610%, 280% and 490%.  (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 Howell
 

BDO Seidman Partner and Regional Technical Director
 

With over 20 years of experience in auditing, accounting and business consulting, Jay is the Regional Technical Director for BDO Seidman’s Northern California region. In this role, Jay oversees regional technical accounting, auditing and risk management matters, and works with BDO’s client service teams to assist clients with their financial reporting responsibilities, including consultations on technical accounting, auditing and reporting matters, assistance with SEC registrations, periodic filings, internal control reporting matters and responding to SEC comment letters. Clients Jay works with are particularly concentrated in the technology and software industries.

Jay is also the firm’s leader in the area of software and technology revenue recognition and consults with clients and colleagues across the country on the topic. In addition, Jay oversees BDO’s revenue recognition related training programs and regularly teaches courses on the subject.

Jay previously spent 12 years with two Big Four accounting firms prior to joining BDO in 2001, primarily working with public and pre-public technology company clients. Jay is a member of the AICPA and holds a bachelor of arts degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  (back to top/index)

Randal J. Hujar

Editor and VP of Research Publications for Softletter

Mr. Hujar’s background includes over 25 years experience with companies ranging from self-funded and venture backed start-up’s to Fortune 100 companies in the areas of enterprise, software as a service, entertainment and productivity software for Internet and PC to mainframe platforms, as well as biometric security, computer, and gaming controller hardware. Mr. Hujar has been a successful entrepreneur having built and sold three companies during his career.
 

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)

Shankar Krishnamoorthy

CTO, Aspire Systems
 

Shankar is one of the co-founders of Aspire Systems and currently serves as its CTO.  In this position, he is primarily responsible for the technology direction and product engineering excellence at Aspire. Shankar has 13+ years of experience in building software products for various customers.  With the help of his Advanced Technology Group and other key players at Aspire, Shankar is focused on spearheading Aspire's ProducteeringTM initiatives.

Earlier, Shankar played several vital roles ranging from hands-on product development and project management to delivery and engagement management stints at Aspire. He has nurtured and grown several key customer relationships, and most recently led Aspire’s complete delivery operations before taking up the CTO role. Shankar’s varied exposure provides him an ideal platform from which to drive initiatives to make software development better and faster.

Prior to Aspire, Shankar gained extensive software development experience building CAD/CAM softwares (AutoCAD and CADDS) and customer interaction experience while working at Neil Automation and ComputerVision, Inc. (Parametric Technology Corporation).  Shankar has a Master's in Computer Integrated Manufacturing from Bharathiar University, India and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Pondicherry University, India.  (back to top/index)

Rick McEachern
 

EVP Sales and Business Development  Rick leads the LongJump Sales, Channel and Business Development organizations. As an experienced senior executive and entrepreneur with over 22 years of Silicon Valley experience, Rick has a proven track record of building differentiated and successful hardware, software, and services companies. Rick’s expertise includes strategic marketing, business development, product management, channel development, communications and branding.

Prior to LongJump, Rick was Chief Marketing Officer at NES Financial – a leading financial intermediary for the nation’s largest banks. Previously, that, Rick was Chief Marketing Officer at Cendura an application configuration management company (acquired by Computer Associates), Chief Executive Offer and Cofounder at Verbatix, a server discovery and provisioning company, Chief Marketing Officer of Jareva Technologies, a datacenter automation and management company (acquired by Veritas), and President and Chief Operating Officer at Exclaim Technologies, a retail supply chain automation company. Before that, while at Apple Computer for over 11 years, Rick led marketing and product management teams that launched numerous innovative and award-winning products.

Rick holds a BBA and MBA from Baylor University  (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)

Richard Nucci
 

Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Boomi
 

Rick is the Co-founder and CTO of Boomi where he is responsible for product management and engineering. He is considered an industry expert on SaaS & Cloud integration , multi-tenant architecture, and API design and best practices. Boomi has a patent pending for Rick’s innovative Atom technology that powers Boomi AtomSphere, the company’s software-as-a-service offering. In his role at Boomi, Rick is constantly engaged with customers and partners to ensure alignment between business needs and Boomi’s product strategy.

Prior to founding Boomi, Rick worked for EXE Technologies, a market leading supply chain execution software company, in the areas of product development and implementation. It was in this role that Nucci learned first-hand the cost and complexity of integrating disparate applications and business partners. With over 10 years of experience in application and data integration, Rick applies this experience to deliver the company's integration solutions.  (back to top/index)

 
James O'Gara
 

Vice President of Business Development, Position2
 

Jim is a 25+ year veteran of the IT Industry having held executive sales,alliances and business development positions at Apple, DEC (now HP),Informix (now IBM), AltaVista (now Yahoo), FrontRange Solutions and now atPosition2.  Jim's introduction to the SaaS market came early in his career when he was a part owner of a privately held timesharing company, the precursor to the SaaS industry.  At both AltaVista and Position2, Jim has been involved in sales and business development of SaaS based solution.  (back to top/index)

Jeffrey Saling
 

Vice President of Callidus On-Demand
 

Jeffrey Saling has more than 20 years experience in starting, building, and operating successful businesses in the technology arena. In his current role, Jeff is responsible for the Callidus On-Demand line of
business, since its start-up in 2006.

Prior to leading Callidus On-Demand, Jeff managed one of the company’s successful professional services lines of business. Before joining Callidus Software, Jeff worked for Chordiant Software, where he served as Americas Vice President of Field Operations, leading professional services, sales engineering, and sales operations activities in the Americas. Before Chordiant, Jeff held senior management positions with Accenture, and served as Vice President, and Director of Operations for call center and Internet-based start-ups Vehicle Information Network and Consumer’s Car Club. He also held various sales, IT management, and operations management positions between 1983 and 1991.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, Production & Operations Management, from California State University, Hayward (East Bay).  (back to top/index)

 
 Reuben Swartz

Founder and President of Mimiran
 

Reuben is the founder and president of Mimiran, a SaaS company whose software helps companies sell and price more profitably.  Reuben brings over 10 years of pricing experience with companies in North America, Europe and Asia.  He has helped companies in industries such as software, metals, semiconductors, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and financial services to improve pricing performance.  He is an expert at improving pricing results through the appropriate combination of strategy, business processes, and technology.

He presents papers and presentations for Professional Pricing Society publications, webinars, and conferences, the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, the FeaturePlan webinar and podcast series and has been quoted in Inc and Business Week on pricing topics.  He is the author of "Dollars and Sense: The Pricing Blog."

Mr. Swartz earned a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Princeton University.  (back to top/index)

Samuel J. Sweet

Sr. Manager Strategic Client Servces, NCC Group, Inc.

Samuel Sweet joined NCC Group in 2008. As the Senior Manager for Strategic Client Services, his responsibilities include thought leadership on IP Protection, consulting with key NCC Group clients, and developing forward-looking solutions to address IP Governance & Compliance concerns for both government and private entities. Prior to joining NCC Group, he worked for Dell. With over 18 years of experience in the technology sector with roles spanning Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service, he understands the challenges organizations face when addressing Enterprise Risk Management issues surrounding Information Technology. (back to top/index)

  
Michael L. Whitener

Principal and co-founder of VistaLaw International LLC
 

Michael Whitener is a principal and co-founder of the law firm VistaLaw International LLC, with offices in Paris, London and Washington, D.C. Michael’s legal practice focuses on assisting software and other technology companies with licensing, distribution and intellectual property issues. He is the author of Creating Software Alliances (2007) and Corporate Governance for New Directors (2008).

Before co-founding VistaLaw, Michael was International Law Counsel at BearingPoint, a global management and technology consulting firm. He also served as trade adviser to the International Trade Administration. Michael was previously in private practice with the law firms of Sidley Austin and Hogan & Hartson.

Michael is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. He received a Fulbright Fellowship to study Japanese law in Tokyo.  (back to top/index)

Brian Wolff

CoFounder and Vice President of Sales and Marketing, BlueLock
 

Brian co-founded BlueLock and currently serves as their Vice President of Sales & Marketing.  Indianapolis-based BlueLock was founded in 2006 as a provider of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) via its Virtual Cloud Computing Platform.  His day to day responsibilities include executing the company’s sales, business development and brand strategy.

Prior to starting BlueLock he worked for IMS Health (RX:NYSE), the global leader in market intelligence in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, where he held positions of increasing responsibility within sales and consulting.

Prior to IMS he served as the director of sales and marketing for General Systems Design, Inc. where he developed and implemented an ASP platform for its billing software package.

Prior to GSD he held positions of increasing responsibility in sales and sales management with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ:NYSE).

Brian holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and is a licensed private pilot.  (back to top/index)

Need to learn more? Interested in speaking at future conferences?
E-mail Softletter editor Rick Chapman  rickchapman@softletter.com