Technology Leadership Council

James M. Butler, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer
Nexage

Jim Butler is an accomplished technology executive and the CTO of Nexage, the premier optimization platform for mobile advertising.  Prior to Nexage, Jim was CTO of matchmine, a media discovery network, where he provided technical leadership in the areas of Architecture, Engineering, and Operations.  In the aftermath of the dot-com era, Jim was instrumental in the dramatic turnaround of eCredit.com, an enterprise software company later acquired by Fidelity Ventures. Serving as its CTO and EVP, he directed eCredit’s technology strategy, onshore and offshore product engineering, and Software-as-a-Service infrastructure operations. Jim has held Chief Architect positions at EC Cubed and American Management Systems. He has also served in various architecture, engineering, and consulting roles at Pioneer Investments, JP Morgan Chase, CapitalOne, Ameritech, Royal Bank of Canada, Boston Consulting Group, BAE Systems, and Raytheon Company. Since 2002, Jim has served as the founding Chairman of the Boston Technology Leadership Council. He is the author of the 2003 book “Technology Blueprints: Technology Foundations for High Performance Companies” along with numerous technical publications in IEEE, ACM, and other journals and conferences. His portfolio of patents pending spans the areas of web services architecture, genetic computing as applied to decision optimization, and content identification.

Jim holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, an MSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a BSEE Magna Cum Laude from the University of Lowell.

Dr. Butler is the Chairman of the Boston Chapter of the Technology Leadership Council.

J. Trent Adams

Outreach Specialist, Identity Community
The Internet Society

J. Trent Adams is an Outreach Specialist at the non-profit Internet Society, where he helps to build relationships with technologists and developers in order to collaborate on tools and documents to communicate key issues related to trust and identity. Prior to joining the Internet Society, Mr. Adams directed the strategic core of matchmine, the premier Media Discovery Network. Earlier, he served as the Chief Innovator for the Kraft Group, a position requiring him to bring new technologies to their Sports Properties division. The online presence for the New England Patriots fell under his aegis, including websites, community portals, and eCommerce. Having designed the Patriots online strategy through three Super Bowl victories, Mr. Adams has proven that online success can be measured, analyzed, and captured as revenue. He has also been responsible for the evaluation of new technologies for integration into various business units as well as identifying potential Kraft Group investments. Mr. Adams holds a degree in Astrophysics with a minor in Computer Science from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY.

Steven Baron

Vice President of Engineering
Desktone

Steve Baron gained more than 25 years of executive management and software engineering experience before signing on as VP of Engineering with Desktone in 2007. The venture-funded startup offers a scalable virtual desktop solution that is easier to provision, practical to manage, and achieves higher asset utilization for deployments of 1000s of users. Previously, as VP of Engineering at Altaworks, he managed delivery of a unique system performance analysis solution for multi-tier J2EE applications that was later acquired by OPNET Technologies (NASDAQ: OPNT). Serving as VP of Engineering for startup QuickBuy, Mr. Baron guided commercialization of the company's patented distributed e-commerce technology from vision into production Internet service. Throughout his career, Mr. Baron has held key leadership positions for new software product development at high-tech businesses that include Engage, Red Brick Systems and Digital Equipment, in fields such as Web applications, distributed computing, database and decision support systems. He has also fulfilled interim executive and technical advisory roles with a number of early-stage companies, such as Steeplechase Networks, AlgoMagic Technologies, and FireStar Software. Mr. Baron is primary or co-inventor on several pending U.S. patents and holds an MBA and a BS degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University at Albany in New York.

Ralph Brown

Vice President of Software Engineering
Ingenix (most recently)

Ralph Brown is a software product development executive currently serving as VP of Software Engineering for Ingenix, a $1B division of UnitedHealth Group, where he is responsible for the PARALLAX I®, Impact Pro™, and IMPACT ANALYSIS™ suites and related decision support products. He is interested in applying product portfolio management to the software development industry to create a better return on investments in software products. Prior to Ingenix, Mr. Brown created the world’s first Product Portfolio Management suite while serving as the CTO for IDe, a venture backed startup. The product is used by corporations including Qualcomm and Pepsi. He has also served as an executive for Lotus and IBM, responsible for the development of Lotus Notes on Strategic platforms. He was a founder of Paxton Computers Ltd., a software house in the UK with customers including the Royal Navy and British Telecom. Mr. Brown is the President of the Board of Indian Hill Music, a not for profit music school with over 1,200 students and a professional symphony orchestra based in Littleton, MA.

Joseph A. Cerro

Founder and President
The Schooner Group, LLC

Joseph Cerro is President and Founder of The Schooner Group, LLC, a consultancy with practices in high-end informatics and data analytics, organizational design and leadership, and life sciences product development. In addition to health care, the firm has attracted clients in other industries, such as professional sports and entertainment, where data analytics are critical to competitive success. Prior to founding the Schooner Group, Mr. Cerro had contributed to the development of Bayer’s High Tech Platform as a scientist and technologist since 1997. While at Bayer, he led or participated in due diligence studies of technology projects worth over $2 billion. As a member of Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp’s Executive Committee for IT governance, Mr. Cerro was directly responsible for developing and leading the company’s Research IT strategy, and he is a highly sought-after public speaker on the subject of business and IT alignment. In recognition of his contributions as a Pharma industry thought leader, Mr. Cerro was awarded the 2005 Albert Einstein Technology Medal by the State of Israel and Global Capital Associates. Mr. Cerro earned his BS in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University and holds two Masters from Columbia University. He currently serves as the Executive Vice President of the Yale Science & Engineering Association.

Timothy J. Dion

Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer
Sensei, Inc.

Timothy J. Dion is the COO/CIO at Sensei Inc., a healthcare provider focused on positively impacting consumer behavior using advanced technologies including wireless devices, cellular phones, and the Internet. Mr. Dion is responsible for Sensei's operations and the technology implementation and infrastructure and brings extensive managerial and technical experience to the team. Before joining Sensei, Mr. Dion held the CTO role at Biogen Idec, a global biotechnology leader, where Mr. Dion led efforts centered on enterprise architecture and technology strategy for the global organization. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Dion was with Riverton LLC, a specialized technology consulting firm focused on providing Fortune 500 with enterprise architecture, operational business intelligence, and cross enterprise integration expertise. As CTO and VP of Delivery, he was responsible for the technical vision and delivery of all of Riverton’s engagements as well as being a key member of the executive team. Prior to Riverton, Mr. Dion was the CTO for Primix Solutions, a world leading strategic Internet applications services firm, VP of Consulting at Advis, an object architecture firm earning entrepreneurial awards in the Deloitte and Touche Fast 50 and the Inc 500’s Fastest Growing Companies, and held architecture and engineering positions at Marble Associates and Telco Systems. Mr. Dion holds BS degrees in both Computer Science and Mathematics from Worcester State College, Worcester MA.

Michael Guerrieri

Chief Technology Officer

Marketing Advocate, Inc.

Mike Guerrieri has more than 15 years of experience in software development of Internet based applications and management and is currently the CTO at Marketing Advocate, Inc. He began working at Marketing Advocate as a Senior Software Engineer in 2005 where he oversaw and guided the re-architecting of their Relationship Advocate platform. In 2007, Mike was promoted to CTO where he implemented refinements to the SDLC at Marketing Advocate and acquired the services of an off-shore team of developers and QA analysts. Prior to Marketing Advocate, Mike worked for Market Intelligence as Senior Software Engineer and Manager of Internet Technologies. At this organization, he designed a web-based workflow application to assign properties to realtors for evaluation, gather the real estate property evaluation data from the brokers, automate much of the QA of this data, and automate the transfer of this data to lending institutions. The huge success of this company and its subsequent acquisition by Fidelity National Financial was in great part due to the ability of this application to allow the processing of large numbers of property evaluations with greater quality and reduced human effort. Mike is also a member of the Cape Cod .NET User Group since 2003.

Patrick Harding

Chief Technology Officer
Ping Identity

Patrick Harding is the CTO of Ping Identity and has over 15 years experience in software development, networking infrastructure and information security. Prior to Ping, he was a VP and the Security Architect (Enterprise Architecture Division) at Fidelity Investments, responsible for aligning identity management and security technologies with the strategic goals of the business. Mr. Harding has been integrally involved with the implementation of federated identity technologies at Fidelity -- from "napkin" to production. He has represented Fidelity within the Liberty Alliance since its foundation and has contributed Fidelity's requirements to the development of the SAML 2.0 specification within OASIS. Previously, Mr. Harding was a software developer before joining Fidelity and participating in the build out of Fidelity's original Internet firewall infrastructure. He spent time consulting on Internet security in the late 1990's before returning to Fidelity to focus on Internet application security, identity management and web services security. Mr. Harding has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Peter Karlson

Founder and Senior Consultant
NeuEon

As the founder and senior consultant of technology consultancy NeuEon, Mr. Karlson provides guidance and advice to emerging technology oriented companies in a Fractional-CTO^SM capacity. As a former CTO for two technology services firms, Harrison & Troxell and Inforonics BTS, he has gained diverse industry expertise in healthcare, non-profit, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and publishing. In addition to his professional services firm management experience, Mr. Karlson is well versed in software product development lifecycles and has been involved with developing Internet technologies since 1991. He speaks regularly at business and technology events, seminars, and workshops and contributes to books and periodicals on topics that include networking, software development, and online services. Mr. Karlson has a BS in Computer Science from Northeastern University, Boston MA.

James Kauffman

Vice President, Homeland Security
Ascentry Technologies, Inc.

As former state fire marshal, corporate CTO, and a leader in developing new markets for emerging technology, Mr. Kauffman is highly credible with public and private sector users of technology as well as public policy makers at the federal, state and local levels. He co-developed the concept of the PASS device, the Personal Alert Safety System used by firefighters. His experience in advanced wireless applications, telematics, law enforcement, fire protection, industrial security, ergonomics, behavioral science, emergency management and telecommunications has placed him in roles of public policy and rulemaking as well as leadership in deploying technology to extend reach, enhance effectiveness, and reduce cost. Prior to his current position, Mr. Kauffman was Director of Public Safety Services for U.S. Wireless. Today he leads efforts to develop new markets that leverage existing IT and network investments to meet the spiraling demand for greater functionality, security, and mobility. Mr. Kauffman is an adjunct instructor for Texas A&M’s WMD/Terrorism Preparedness Program and holds an MA in Education/Behavioral Science from University of Michigan and a BA in Psychology from Lawrence University.

Michael McGonagle

Vice President of Engineering
Deploy Solutions (recently acquired by Kronos)

Mr. McGonagle is responsible for helping Deploy’s product offerings grow and mature to support the near- and long-term goals of the company, bringing nearly 30 years of experience in commercial software development to the role. Prior to his current position, he served as CTO of Exchange Solutions. In 1994, Mr. McGonagle co-founded Xchange and directed the growth of the product family and the R&D organization for over six years of rapid growth and becoming an industry leader in the CRM industry. He has also held a range of software engineering roles at Cullinet Software, Atex, Praxis, and MarketPulse. Mr. McGonagle holds a BS in Mathematics from University of Massachusetts and an MS in Mathematics from Brown University.

Edward J. McGowan

Chief Technology Officer
Mzinga

E. J. McGowan is a software engineering professional with a demonstrated track record of bringing complex projects to market currently serving as Chief Technologist of Mzinga. Prior to Mzinga, at Intranets.com (acquired by Webex), McGowan directed the product architecture, ensuring that the product supported the future engineering requirements of customers and partners. Prior to joining Intranets.com, Mr. McGowan was a Systems Architect at Lotus Development Corporation where he worked on every major Microsoft Windows release of Lotus 1-2-3. Before assuming a position at Lotus, Mr. McGowan was an International Development Project Leader at Atex, Inc. While there, he built complex, custom classified advertising systems for the international market. Mr. McGowan earned a BA in Computer Science from Tufts University in 1983.

Michael Michaud

Vice President of Application Development
Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.

Mr. Michaud has over 25 years of experience in the enterprise software industry including 14 years managing all aspects of software development teams including engineering, quality assurance, documentation, and release engineering, currently serving as VP of Application Developoment at Lionbridge. His career highlights include VP of Engineering roles at Circle Lending and Availant, and an extended stay at Lotus Development, contributing to Lotus 1-2-3 releases for 11 years as an engineer, technical leader, and manager. Mr. Michaud has also led teams at Platinum Technology, and Scribe Software.

Madeleine Noland

Chief Information Officer

Backchannelmedia, Inc.

Madeleine Noland has been working at Backchannelmedia since 2004 and is one of the original members of the company. She currently holds the CIO role and is responsible for the broad range of tasks, projects and systems within the technology department. The Backchannelmedia product consists of software and equipment installed at television stations and cable systems and a central platform enabling access to the system via web-based portals. Madeleine manages both internal and outsourced people working on web application development, cable engineering, video/broadcast engineering and systems/network administration, and is deeply involved in product definition and patent writing. Prior Backchannelmedia, Madeleine worked for Rubel Bikemaps for ten years where she used AutoCAD as a cartographer, edited and prepared books for publication, and also designed and built the company's ERP system which performed CRM, invoicing, inventory control, and reporting functions. Madeleine graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and holds teaching certificates in Mathematics and Music.

Steven Novick

Director of Product Development
Ascend Technologies (most recently)

Mr. Novick has held senior management positions in product development, technical operations, and business development during his 18 year career. He is currently Director of Product Development for Ascend Technologies, a fast-growing business and technology consultancy and is the co-Practice Director for their IT Governance practice. Prior to Ascend, Mr. Novick was CTO and VP of Business Development for Kcard, which was developing an innovative financial services product. He has held senior management positions at Platinum Technology/Computer Associates, Unicast, Morgan Stanley, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Earlier in his career, Mr. Novick was Director of Product Development for Bachman Information Systems (IPO 1991), where he was instrumental in designing and building their first product. Mr. Novick holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from MIT and a Finance MBA from Northeastern University.

John Pavlov

Vice President of Engineering
Softrax Corporation

John Pavlov was previously Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer at Centive, the recognized leader in on-demand strategic sales compensation management. Mr. Pavlov led Centive’s transformation from software to a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution provider with the Compel product and greatly enhanced the Enterprise Incentive Management (EIM) on-premise product. He served as Vice President, Development, at Interleaf, where he was responsible for the definition, implementation and product enhancement of the BladeRunner product line, an XML-based content management and publication system. Mr. Pavlov was the co-founder of OpenSoftWorks, which was acquired by FlexiInternational Software. Mr. Pavlov holds a BS in Computer Science from Massachusetts State College at Bridgewater. His professional affiliation history includes: the Technology Leadership Council - Boston Chapter, W3C Advisory Committee, IEEE Computer Society, Brown University Venture Forum, the Association for Computing Machinery and Object Management Group.

Chuck Rehberg

Chief Technology Officer
Trigent Software

Mr. Rehberg has over 25 years of successful software product invention, development, and delivery. He currently serves as the CTO of Trigent Software specializing in mission critical software development and legacy migration outsourcing. Prior to Trigent, Mr. Rehberg co-founded Dovetail Software as its VP of Engineering. Two years later, Dovetail was acquired by Ardent Software; now Ascential. Previously, Mr. Rehberg has also held various engineering, and managerial roles at Digital Equipment Corporation, R&O, and Cayenne Software, and has been an architect member of the Technology Office at Ardent Software and then Informix. In addition, he has served as Vice-Chair Technical of the CDIF Standards Committee. Mr. Rehberg holds an MS in Computer Science and a BS in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico and is co-inventor of one US patent with several others pending.

Phil Stanhope

Vice President of Technology & Architecture
Aspen Technology

Phil Stanhope has over 20 years of experience in software development, software architecture, and technology management. He is an expert in collaboration and integration, and has served on numerous Microsoft advisory boards and technology adoption programs including WinFS, Vista/Longhorn, WCF/WPF, and .NET/Visual Studio. In addition, he is the author of the 2002 J. Wiley and Sons book “Get in the Groove: Building Tools and Peer-to-Peer Solutions with the Groove Platform”. Prior to joining Aspen Technology, Mr. Stanhope was VP of Technology and Alliances at Adesso Systems, a provider of mobile application and data synchronization tools and services for both enterprise and consumer markets. Between 2001 and 2003, Mr. Stanhope consulted for Groove Networks where he architected the Microsoft Outlook synchronization adapter and the SharePoint content synchronization engine. Both components were subsequently bundled into the Groove platform (now part of Microsoft Office 2007). From 1996 to 2001, he was Founder and Vice President of TimeØ, a subsidiary of Perot Systems, where he helped forge the digital marketplace business. Prior to Perot Systems, Mr. Stanhope spent 7 years at Lotus Corporation where he was founder and chief architect of the NextGen products group (e.g., Lotus Components, Java eSuite), platform architect for LotusScript (i.e., application development environment for Notes and SmartSuite), and architect/lead engineer on the Freelance Graphics team.

Tibor Vais, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President of Products
PowerSteering Software

For over 20 years, Tibor Vais has managed the development of complex software from DBMS and 4GL development tools to enterprise-class applications. In early-stage companies, he built software engineering teams from the ground-up, introducing methodologies and processes, development metrics, quality assurance, and release engineering and has managed offshore teams of over 200 staff in Russia and India. At PowerSteering, a Cambridge-based firm that helps companies manage enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, Dr. Vais is responsible for defining the products and implementing the product vision. Prior to PowerSteering, Dr. Vais was CTO of NewRiver, VP of Engineering and CTO at ChannelWave Software, COO at Damirus Corp., and CEO of WebSecure. Dr. Vais worked for 14 years at CompuServe, from an entry-level software engineer to VP of Engineering and General Manager of their software division, CompuServe Data Technologies. Previously, Dr. Vais spent over a decade in the academia, at the Russian Academy of Sciences and at Harvard University. He received his Masters from Moscow University and his Doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Brad Whitehall, Ph.D.

Chief Information Officer
The MathWorks (most recently)

Brad Whitehall is the Vice President of Information Technology and CIO for The MathWorks, the leading global provider of software for technical computing and Model-Based Design. Dr. Whitehall is responsible for The MathWorks IT infrastructure, operations, business systems, and internet technologies. Before joining The MathWorks, Dr. Whitehall was Executive Vice President of Information Technology for Information Resources, Inc, a leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services and provides a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software, and professional services for the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries. At Information Resources, he was responsible for IT operations and business systems. Prior to Information Resources, he led the knowledge management group for Johnson Controls and did research for United Technologies Corp. Dr. Whitehall has over 50 publications in the area of Artificial Intelligence, application of AI techniques and Knowledge Management, and 4 patents. Dr. Whitehall holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Mamoon Yunus

Chief Technology Officer
Forum Systems

Mr. Yunus is an industry-honored CTO in Web Services-based technologies for enterprises. He is co-founder of Forum Systems, the leader in Web Services Security. He has been recognized by InfoWorld as one of 4 “Up and coming CTOs to watch in 2004” and is a sought after speaker at industry conferences such as RSA, Web Services Edge, Gartner, and Network Interop. He has been featured on CNBC as Terry Bradshaw’s “Pick of the Week.” Prior to Forum Systems, Mr. Yunus was a Global Systems Engineer for webMethods where he developed business integration strategy and architecture plans for Global 2000 companies such as GE, Prudential, Pepsi, Siemens, and Mass Mutual. He has held various high level executive positions at Informix (acquired by IBM) and Cambridge Technology Group. Mr. Yunus holds two Graduate Degrees in Engineering from MIT and a BSME from Georgia Institute of Technology.