SAAS AND CLOUD UNIVERSITY ONLINE INSTRUCTORS

Read about the talent behind the instructors of our SaaS and Cloud Online Unversity.

SaaS UNIVERSITY ANALYTICS AND COMMUNITY

Jim Bak

VP of Marketing, Inrix

Jim Bak’s responsibilities at Inrix include providing cutting edge corporate, technology and product communications strategies and acting as the spokesman for Inrix’s rapidly growing traffic and driving information and intelligence. Jim has run PR campaigns for INRIX’s annual report on traffic in America driving more than 200 stories annually in top tier national news media, blogs and Top 50 DMA press.

He successfully elevated awareness of INRIX’s expertise with consumers including the development and distribution of a traffic forecast report ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games covered by AP and top-tier U.K. news outlets including The Guardian, Times of London, Sky and the BBC. Finally, he continues to drive multiple stories in top-tier national news outlets including USA Today, The Independent, and others

  • User Acquisition in mobile-first.
  • User engagement.
  • Premium mobile services.
  • Deep-linking.
  • Leveraging user data: GPS, contacts, pictures.

Eileen Boerger

CEO, CorSource

Eileen Boerger is the president of the CorSource Technology Group. 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.”

Patrick Fetterman

CEO, Detroit Technology Marketing

Patrick Fetterman is CEO of Detroit Technology Marketing and previously VP of marketing at 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 Patrick’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.

Paul Pressler

Principal, 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.

Don MacLennan

CEO, Bluenose Analytics

Don MacLennan is co-founder and CEO of Bluenose Analytics. Bluenose is building customer analytics software for subscription-based vendors, helping them get, keep & grow their customer base. Previously, Don was SVP of product management for AVG (NYSE: AVG), a provider of leading IT security products for consumers and small businesses.

He utilized Freemium & SaaS business models and Big Data analytics to generate growth.He also led product management for a portfolio of products at RSA, the security division of EMC.

His portfolio included security information & event management (RSA enVision), data loss prevention (RSA DLP) and enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance (Archer). Earlier in his career, Don held field operations positions with vendors such as SAP, Calico Commerce, Pure Atria and CA.

Don is a frequent blogger on technology trends. He has also spoken on a diverse set of topics including social media analytics, governance, risk & compliance and supply chain best practices. Don holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Acadia University in Canada.

Matthew Shanahan

SVP of Marketing and Strategy, Scout Analytics

Matthew Shanahan has nearly 25 years of experience in the technology industry, recently serving as Chief Marketing Officer of Teranode Corporation, where he helped to establish the company as the thought leader for informatics infrastructure in the life sciences industry.

In addition to his tenure at Teranode, Shanahan was the original product manager at Documentum and spent 10 years in leadership roles until the company was acquired by EMC.Prior to Documentum, Shanahan was a manager at Accenture, specializing in advanced enterprise architectures for Global 500 companies.

Kurk Spendlove

SVP, iovation

Kurk Spendlove has over 30 years of experience in the software industry. For the past 10 years he has been involved with SaaS companies at the VP and Director level. He is currently working at iovation as a SVP.

His responsibilities includes analytics, reporting and predictive analyses as well as development and QA.

Cory Von Wallenstein

CEO, Adored

Cory Von Wallenstein, current CEO of Adored, until Cory was previously Dyn’s Chief Technology Officer and was responsible for the architecture, development, and operations of the company’s advanced DNS platforms and Email Delivery services. 

Previously Cory was the company’s Chief Product Officer, where he led product strategy, innovation and development across all Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings for DNS and Email. Prior to joining Dyn, Cory served as co-founder and President for Servprise International, Inc. Cory also co-founded TechHampshire and is a board member at Trendslide and Apptegic.

Karl Wirth

CEO, Evergage

Karl Wirth is the CEO and co-founder of Evergage (Apptegic). Evergage’s focus is on enabling your firm to continually score each of your customers’ engagement with your business and then more effectively convert your trials, retain and upsell your customers, and reduce churn, and improve your product. 

Karl has led product, engineering, and businesses for a number of startups and established companies such as Red Hat and RSA.

SaaS UNIVERSITY LEGAL ISSUES

Jeremy Aber

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.

Michael Whitener

Partner, VLP

Michael Whitener is a VLP Partner. His legal practice focuses on two areas: (1) technology transactions, including software licensing and alliances, cloud computing, web hosting and outsourcing agreements; and (2) corporate compliance, particularly regarding data privacy and anti-corruption laws.

In the data privacy area, Michael conducts privacy audits and risk assessments, drafts privacy policies and data transfer agreements, and advises on compliance with U.S. and foreign data privacy laws and regulations, including COPPA, HIPAA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the EU Data Protection Directive (e.g., Safe Harbor certification). Michael’s data privacy expertise includes Big Data analytics, mobile applications, privacy by design, cybersecurity and cross-border data transfers.

He drafts corporate policies concerning social media, “bring your own device” and other privacy-related issues. 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.

SaaS UNIVERSITY BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Jan Aleman

Founder of Servoy, B.V.

Jan Aleman is the founder 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.

Ken Gee

BDO Assurance Partner, Regional Technical Accounting and SEC Director

Ken Gee has nearly twenty years of experience serving clients in several of BDO’s focus industries, including technology. As the Regional Technical Director for the West Coast, he advises clients and engagement teams on technical accounting and audit matters.

Ken is also a member of BDO’s national assurance committee, which establishes the firm’s internal policies. Ken has authored a number of BDO publications on financial reporting developments.

He also teaches continuing education courses for BDO and has been a guest speaker for various organizations.Areas of focus for Ken include revenue recognition, business combinations and stock-based compensation. Ken is one of the BDO’s Technical Audit & Accounting leaders for the firm’s Technology and Life Science industry group and has consulted with many of the firm’s technology clients on revenue recognition issues.

Ken has authored a number of BDO publications on financial reporting developments.He also teaches continuing education courses for BDO and has been a guest speaker for various organizations.Areas of focus for Ken include revenue recognition, business combinations and stock-based compensation.

Ken is one of the BDO’s Technical Audit & Accounting leaders for the firm’s Technology and Life Science industry group and has consulted with many of the firm’s technology clients on revenue recognition issues.

Jose Briones

Director, SpyroTek Performance Solutions

Dr. Jose A. Briones is the Director of Operations of SpyroTek Performance Solutions, a supplier of Innovation Management and Training Services. Jose has 20 years of commercial and technical experience in the manufacturing and technology industries, holding positions in the areas of marketing, innovation, sales, engineering and R&D with Fortune 300 companies, custom manufacturing operations and software companies.

Dr. Briones was a pioneer in the use of technology and social media to achieve social change on a large scale. He has been the leader in the launch and commercialization of over 40 new products in the fields of chemicals, materials, smartphone apps and cloud software. His experience includes product introductions in the U.S., Europe and Latin America and has been named as inventor in 7 different product and process patents.

He is currently spearheading the introduction of a new approach in the field of innovation management to define and manage disruptive innovation projects. Jose’s areas of expertise include: Innovation Management, Product Development and Ideation, Business Model Assessments, Product Portfolio Value Analysis, Probabilistic Forecasting and Practical Uses of Social Media. Dr. Broiones has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University and an Executive MBA from Wharton Business School.

Chris Holbert

CEO, SecuraTrac

Prior to seeking elected office, Chris Holbert was a trade association manager. From 2000 to 2008, Holbert worked as president and executive director of a statewide trade association, where he represented over 6,000 business professionals throughout Colorado.

Paul Giurata

President, Catalyst Resources

Paul Giurata is considered one of the preeminent UI application architects in the U.S. with operating experience in diverse technology companies. As Catalyst UX’s lead solution architect and managing partner, Paul is active in key engagements. Paul began his user experience career at Apple working on media-rich learning environments for children. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Colorado and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Ranjith Ramakrishan

Co-founder and CTO, Opstera

Ranjith Ramakrishan is the co-founder and CTO of Opstera (founded in 2011) – a leader in SaaS operations management market for Cloud applications, that was recently acquired by Avanade.

Opstera’s AzureOps is a SaaS service with over 250 Enterprise customers and handling millions of data points daily at the time of acquisition. Prior to Opstera, Ranjith co-founded Cumulux, an Enterprise Cloud enablement provider focused on delivering SaaS development/deployment solutions. 

During the three years of existence, before it was acquired in late 2011, Cumulux was twice Microsoft Cloud Partner of the Year, with revenues growing over 300% YoY and customers including Ford, GE, McDonalds and SAP.

Prior to starting Cumulux in 2008, Ranjith had a 9 year career at Microsoft where he led Engineering and Product planning teams in divisions like Visual Studio and Windows. Over his 16 year technology career, Ranjith has been building and leading engineering teams develop both on-premise and SaaS software. 

Over the last 4 years, his focus has been streamlining SaaS operations and how to create processes, tools and connections that enable launching and scaling SaaS services. He has been advising large software vendors and startups alike on how to implement these methodologies and has spoken at several Cloud conferences.

Stephen Williams

CTO, Experian

Stephen Williams is a high-performance enterprise SaaS visionary with more than 20 years of industry experience. He is currently the CTO of Experian and has held strategic technology roles with leading companies such as CTO 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.

SaaS UNIVERSITY Research

Rick Chapman

Managing Editor, Softletter

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 “SaaS Entrepreneur: The Definitive Guide to Succeeding in Your Cloud Application Business,” “The Product Marketing Handbook for Software” (Aegis Resources) and “In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters.” His most recent novel is “Selling Steve Jobs’ Liver: A Story of Startups, Innovation, and Connectivity in the Clouds”

Kevin Dobbs

Senior Executive, Montclare

Now a senior executive at Accenture, Kevin Dobbs was the founder and managing partner of Montclare, providing customized Software-as-a-Service advisory services designed to help SaaS-based and non-SaaS-based software companies optimize their business models, improve revenues, control costs and deliver world-class software. Montclare develops the leading report on the Top 250 SaaS companies globally and provides strategic expertise that is trusted by industry leaders. 

The team offers valuable perspectives and a focused set of SaaS-related service solutions including strategy, revenue, and products.The result allows software companies to improve competitiveness, revenue performance and profitability. Founded in 2008, Montclare has an elite clientele including CA Technologies, Ceridian, Infor, Novell, Oracle, Red Prairie, SuccessFactors, and Xactly.

He is an active member of the SaaS community, having spoken at many industry conferences, events, user groups, forums and seminars. Kevin has been cited in dozens of publications and is the primary author of the popular Smart SaaS blog, drawing thousands of readers per month covering leading firms such Eloqua, ServiceNow and Workday.

SaaS UNIVERSITY Sales and Marketing

Merritt Alberti

Director, Deloitte Consulting

Merritt Alberti is a Director with Sales Force Effectiveness and Customer Transformation offering within Deloitte Consulting, LLP. He regularly serves some of the largest technology, life sciences and retail companies, helping them solve complex go to market and business development challenges.

He provides clients with both advisory and technology support, primarily in the areas of sales operations, sales process, sales deployment, CRM, quote to cash, and sales compensation. 

Merritt’s most recent work is on the selling cloud — helping companies select, deploy, and embrace cloud apps that provide strong ROIs and differentiation in the market. He is also part of Deloitte’s CloudMix team. CloudMix is Deloitte’s pre-configured, pre-integrated cloud application solution anchored with leading service providers like Salesforce.com, NetSuite, and Workday. 

Prior to Deloitte, Merritt held positions with CGI and The Alexander Group, and was SVP, Client Services at CallidusCloud. Merritt earned his BS from the United States Military Academy at West point, his MS in Information Systems from Texas A&M, and his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Austin with his wife, Leah, and 3 children.

Tim Diassi

EVP, UnicornHRO

Tim Diassi is Executive Vice President and General Manager of Unicorn HRO LLC, formerly known as Software Plus. Diassi is also an active board member of Unicorn Brokerage and Unicorn Benefit and Insurance Services.

Since 2000, he has been responsible for overseeing and advancing the company’s strategic direction, sales and marketing. Diassi joined Unicorn HRO in 1995 as a financial and human resources consultant and since has also served as the company’s director of product management.

Throughout the years, he has been directly responsible for reshaping Unicorn HRO from a software application vendor to a human resource, payroll, and benefits services firm supporting the human resources industry with a suite of SaaS/Cloud based solutions.

Prior to Unicorn HRO, Tim served as consultant for the Unicorn Venture Group. Tim graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, attended Columbia and Darden University Executive MBA programs.

Ted Finch

President, Chanimal

Ted Finch is one of the top channel and marketing experts in the high-tech industry, having help launch over 450 products into the channel for over 200 vendors (Microsoft, HP, Adobe, Leadmaster, Alias, IQ Tech Pros, plus over 70 start-ups and mid-sized companies with retail, enterprise and SaaS products).

He has helped raise over $27 million in funding, gone through five successful acquisitions, been quoted in over 100 books and publications, including Marketing Computers, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN, Internet World, Computer Reseller News, VAR Business, ABC, CBS, Business Week, Software Success, Channel Advocate, Tom Siebel’s “CyberRules,” “In Search of Stupidity,” and wrote the forward and contributed content for, “The Product Marketing Manager’s Handbook for Software.”

When not raising his five beautiful children, he writes marketing content, produces videos, trains and consults with businesses worldwide.

Jim Geisman

Software Pricing

Jim Geisman 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. 

A frequent speaker at conferences and trade conferences and has consulted internationally on issues of software pricing and deal structuring.

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 Entrepreneurial Leadership Program at Tufts University.

Harold Holgren

The York Group

Harald Horgen is an acknowledged expert in the field of helping software companies expand internationally, and with almost 30 years of global experience, he has learned what it takes to build successful indirect channels. 

As the President and founder of The York Group, an international business development organization with offices and partners in 26 countries, Harald speaks from experience.

He has been personally involved in setting up channels in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.He has worked with clients of all sizes, from small start-ups to industry giants such as Dell, Honeywell and Microsoft. His clients have come from more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., the UK, France, South Africa, Australia, Russia and India. 

A native and citizen of Norway, Harald attended high school in London, Canada, business school in Oslo and graduate school in Arizona. Fluent in English, Norwegian and French, he lived in France for 14 years and is now based in Bellevue, Washington.

Robert Jurkowski

CEO, On Demand 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, including the head of SaaS giant Intaact, and an accomplished speaker at industry forums and events. Some of these companies include 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. Bob 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.

Jack Mardack

Growth Hacker, Prezi

Jack Mardack leads the Growth Team at Prezi, the cloud-based presentation software that’s eating PowerPoint’s lunch and empowering millions to communicate their ideas more visually. As the tech world begins to fill with self-described “growth hackers,” Jack has earned the title by making it rain at several successful early-stage companies. 

Prior to Prezi, Jack was the head of marketing (and employee #2) at Eventbrite, the Sequoia-backed darling of DIY event ticketing.Before that, Jack had a hand in helping FriendFinder go global and exit at $500M in 2007.

Anthony Nygren

Executive Vice President, EMI Strategic Marketing

Anthony Nygren has significant experience in marketing strategy and execution, as well as competitor and market analysis. He has a proven history of identifying and capturing market opportunities that generate significant increases in revenue and market share, in part because of his ability to understand customer motivation and behavior. 

Prior to joining EMI, he led marketing and customer experience initiatives at SaaS company Insight Direct, focusing on lowering customer acquisition costs and increasing retention rates. Anthony has a BA, Magna Cum Laude, Yale University; PhD candidate in the History of Art, University of California at Berkeley; MBA, Babson College, specialization in marketing.

Jeff Saling

Co- Founder, MyBuzzTools

Jeff Saling brings 20+ years’ experience in business and IT solutions, and deep expertise in Sales Performance Management (SPM), Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) and Technology Business Management (TBM). As a partner/founder at MyBuzzTools,  Jeff and his team are pioneering a new system for driving sales and awareness on Facebook and other social networks.

Before MyBuzzTools, Jeff was an executive at Callidus, a Silicon Valley-based sales performance management solutions company (Nasdaq: CALD) for 7+ years. As SVP of Sales, Jeff led WW sales and SPM solution development. As SVP and founder of CallidusCloud, Jeff and his team provided SaaS-based SPM solutions for 200+ companies in 135 countries.

As VP of Services, Jeff and team implemented On-Premise SPM/ ICM solutions for 50+ enterprise companies in North America in 2003-04. Before SPM, Jeff worked in the CRM space with PegaSystems and Accenture. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, Production & Ops Management, from CSU, East Bay.

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