PALO ALTO STRATEGY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Technology
Brett is a career CTO having built and run complex IT environments, and developed custom applications deployed in the cloud, hybrid cloud, on-prem and cross-platform, cloud-connected mobile solutions. He is highly revenue oriented with vast experience in software engineering, information technology, product development, customer service, marketing, and support teams in multiple industries including enterprise software (B2B & B2C), network security appliances and servers, residential and commercial real estate technologies, and global print manufacturing cloud systems. He has been recognized for having business acumen and finding right mix of technology, operational processes and organizational muscle.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
Brett is a visionary leader with 30+ years of experience as an executive of Fortune 500 contact center and unified communications companies. He has demonstrated success at founding and building entrepreneurial software enterprises like Spanlink and Calabrio as well as transforming large software and services organizations like Cisco and Avaya. Brett has been a General Manager and Chief Executive of global software-based business units, directly reporting to the CEO, in multi-billion dollar companies including both rapid growth and restructuring phases of the company lifecycles. Brett also has a history of success related to sales leadership, corporate strategy, corporate development, and product innovation. Brett holds several business management and executive degrees from Stanford University and the University of Minnesota.
Carlo Franke is a Partner and Co-founder of Palo Alto Strategy Group. He heads up the firm's consulting team in Europe and has led over 75 diligence projects in software and technology. Carlo is a career consultant and has spent over 6 years conducting commercial due diligence for Private Equity funds and other principal investors, closing in on 100 due diligence projects. Carlo has been lucky enough to work with 16 of the Top 20 Private Equity funds, the most recognizable software and technology-focused growth equity investors, as well as some of the largest hedge funds. Carlo and his team track over 200 European software businesses and are well networked across Europe. PASG has both Executives and a substantial expert panel in Europe, and also frequently leverages the US team's resources when beneficial.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
- Co - Founder and Chief Medical Officer for TeleMed2U
Dr. Siddiqui is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer for TeleMed2U, a telemedicine based multi-specialty clinical practice. He has been actively involved in telemedicine since 2002 and has been recognized as a national thought leader in the field. Dr. Siddiqui served as the Medical Director of one the nation's top telemedicine programs at the University of California, Davis.
He is an Infectious Diseases physician and a recognized medical technologist who has previously held positions at the School of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley and served as the first Medical Director of California's Institute for Science and Innovation, The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society [CITRIS].
Dr. Siddiqui has lectured throughout the United States and Internationally on healthcare technology and serves as an advisor and board member to a number of telemedicine and healthcare technology companies.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Technologist
- Expert
Dr. Kaufhold is an expert in artificial intelligence and deep learning. He is the founder of Deep Learning Analytics , a machine learning company, and served as Secretary of the Washington Academy of Sciences . Prior to founding Deep Learning Analytics, John investigated deep learning algorithms as a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to NIH, Dr. Kaufhold was the youngest member of the Technical Fellow Council at Science Applications International Corporation. Over 7 years at SAIC, John served as principal investigator or technical lead on large government contracts funded by NIH, DARPA and IARPA. Prior to joining SAIC, Dr. Kaufhold investigated machine learning algorithms for medical image analysis and image and video processing at GE's Global Research Center. On a Whitaker fellowship, Dr. Kaufhold earned his Ph.D. from Boston University's biomedical engineering department. Dr. Kaufhold is named inventor on >10 issued patents in image analysis, and author/coauthor on > 40 publications in the fields of machine learning, image understanding and neuroscience.
Elad's 20+ years in the cybersecurity industry spans experience as an executive, investor and several-time successful entrepreneur. He has held C-Level positions at Security Growth Partners, Vaultive, Symantec, and Sentrigo, and has served as a senior advisor for the FBI, RedOwl Analytics, Cloud Security Alliance, and Infinidat. Elad is a noted public speaker and has authored many articles including the Internet Security Threat Report. For his success Elad has been recognized as "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst & Young. He is a member of several technology, security and community Boards, including KoolSpan (Executive Chairman), Infinidat, the Army Cyber Institute (ACI), the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and the Jewish Chapel Fund at West Point. Elad holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor's in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
Frank is an experienced, board level leader with 25+ years of sustainable successes at companies' growth, transformation, change, turnaround and consolidation / restructuring. Frank was CIO/CPO as part of the global executive board at a worldwide service company, listed at wall street, and is recognized as an accomplished international expert in IT management. He shows a broad expertise in companies' operation and IT, comprehensive management capabilities, in regular, challenging or crisis environments. As CEO of his company, specialized in IT management, he performed a wide range of international consultations and interim mandates, building new fields of businesses or growth, achieving gains in efficiency, acceleration, streamlining or scaling. He holds an MBA at Katz University Pittsburgh (USA) and a Graduate Engineer at University Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (Germany). He publishes articles, facilitates seminars and writes parts of books about digital transformation, IT-strategic / -tactical / -operational topics, structuring, processes, etc.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
Geoff has held key positions as CIO and Vice President of Fortune 500 companies such as Sabre, WW Grainger, and Gateway. He is an IT leader with significant international experience, and has a strong track record of defining IT strategy as an integral part of business strategy and being a dynamic initiator and leader of change/re-engineering projects - in demanding matrix environments. Geoff is currently COO at Microexcel, where he has acquired a CRM company to add to product portfolio, implemented global reporting standards, implemented a global PMO, significantly increasing project profitability and customer satisfaction, and reduced global headcount, increasing utilization rates and profitability. Geoff holds a Master's Degree in Information Technology from Morningside College.
Gordon has 30+ years' experience of emerging complex frontier technologies having worked in both London and San Francisco with leading companies such as IBM UK, Xerox Corp, Crosfield Electronics, Bay Networks, Northern Telecom, 3Com and Cisco Systems. Holding positions such as Director of Engineering, Director of Product Management, European Sales Director and Worldwide Sales VP he gained significant experience in development and execution at both tactical and strategic levels for product development, product management, sales and support operations. Gordon has lead and initiated strategic OEM relationships resulting in significant revenue generation and a company acquisition as part of his contribution in starting operations for over 10 start-ups to date in the UK & Europe. He holds a BSc. In Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland.
Job Titles:
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Executive Strategist
Hardy is an accomplished and agile executive with over with over 25 years of CxO experience scaling and managing global technology and manufacturing organizations including extensive experience in enterprise applications, unified communications and contact center solutions. Hardy has demonstrated success in a wide range of business environments including startups, multinational enterprises, mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations. He also has a strong background in private and public capital raising. In his most recent role as SVP of Strategy & Business Development at Avaya (NYSE: AVYA), Hardy was a member of the executive leadership team responsible for driving and transforming Avaya's $3 Billion unified communications and contact center business. Prior to Avaya, Hardy held senior management positions with emerging private and leading public companies in the communications, automotive, aerospace, and defense market sectors. Hardy holds a BSBA from Georgetown University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Jamal Ahmed is a Partner and Co-founder of PASG, where he heads the firm's East Coast US consulting presence. Jamal has extensive experience leading diligence engagements, vetting over 60 global software and technology assets. Jamal leverages experience tracking, studying, and evaluating software & technology companies and working on some of the industry's largest acquisitions to ensure that his clients are making informed investments and placing competitive bids. Working with the majority of the Top 30 PE Funds, Jamal has vetted over $5B of executed investments, and evaluated companies with combined Enterprise Value of >$50B. With a team of experienced consultants and lifelong software executives and strategists alongside him, Jamal continues to help software and technology-focused investors achieve top returns.
Jørn has 24 years of experience in the software and consulting industry as a leader, adviser, architect, project manager, mentor and developer. Jørn was CTO of Exie (Corporate Performance Management), the Global Corporate Product Manager for Reporting and Analytics at Unit 4 (ERP), and the leader of digitization and innovation in the Sporveien Group (transport). He has architected and built software products from scratch, led major development organizations and been the brain behind innovative solutions to complex digitization challenges. He holds a bachelor degree in high frequency electronics, a masters of technology in distributed systems and has a specialization in deep learning.
Ken has over 30 years of experience in new product incubation, big-data analytics, machine learning, visualization, cyber-security, technical strategy, UX, IP exploitation, and academic/Government tech projects. He has held senior technology and development positions at Microsoft, IBM, and Sun Microsystems, focusing on advanced strategy, intellectual property, and open source and platform management. Ken is currently Founder and CTO of QBIC Limited, and serves as a key advisor to Amaxra, s4i, Auspex Systems, Immerse Learning, and Fortitude. Ken holds a Ph.D, M.Sc., and B.Sc. from Simon Fraser University, where he focused his studies on physics, big data, analytics, math, and computer science.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
Madelein is an experienced, board level leader with 20+ years of problem solving and team building through periods of significant corporate change and restructuring. She is an innovative thinker and challenges the status quo. Madelein was CIO at Intertrust Group, as part of the global executive board who brought the company to IPO in 2015. During this period she also completed and integrated several acquisitions into Intertrusts IT and process landscape. As a Big 4 trained Chartered Accountant, she has a natural affinity for fintech or in any situation where processes have to be matured to meet market needs. She earned a Bach. of Accountancy from Stellenbosch University and executive program certificates from Harvard Business School and Singularity University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Managing Director at PASG
Malcolm is a Managing Director at PASG and leads the firm's West Coast US and APAC presence from PASG's Silicon Valley offices. He led 40+ technology strategy and diligence projects for private equity clients in the past 18 months. With over 30 years of tech industry experience, Malcolm has conducted strategic planning, software development, commercial and technical diligence and M&A exercises for private equity clients, their portfolio companies and directly as an operating executive. His product portfolio includes building enterprise software and services solutions in customer experience analytics, machine learning, collaboration, web hosting infrastructure, security and mobility. He also completed product diligence and roadmap rationalizations for Verio (52 acquisitions, 2,400 products) and Avaya (825 products).
Mark has over 30 years of experience as a senior operator and director, with a particular focus on engineering, intellectual property and assets, and security protocols. He has held director-level positions at Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Quantum, among others, where he has managed large teams of engineers, technologists, and IP strategists. Mark is currently developing technology roadmap, business strategy, and intellectual property strategy to address the worldwide data center concern, emphasizing data center security and hardware acceleration of security protocols. Mark holds a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering and Applied Physics from Columbia University, and a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Job Titles:
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Executive Strategist
Paul has over 10 years as an executive, entrepreneur and advisor with high tech, digital media and products manufacturers, leading teams in product, business development, finance and operations. He has professional expertise in software product management, strategic planning and open source competitive intelligence (OSINT). He has advised companies across many tech sectors, including Enterprise Software, Web Applications, Analytics, Human Capital Management (HCM), Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Security. Previously, Paul was a product line manager of the small-medium-enterprise (SME) business unit for Verio Inc. a publicly-traded communications services company. Prior to Verio, Paul co-founded Whois.Net, a WHOIS keyword search engine, sold in 1997. Paul holds a BSc from the Haas School of Business, BA in Economics from UC Berkeley and an MSc in Computer Science from Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Paul is also certified as a project manager (PMP) and fraud examiner (CFE).
Job Titles:
- CTO
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
Remi is a CTO with an IT engineering background, combining software and hardware experience over a 20+ year career. He is an innovative and accountable IT executive with a track record of taking businesses to the next level through technical expertise and decisive leadership. Remi has built the technical foundations of several businesses scaling up in green energy recharging, freight management (immutable transactions), and data solutions for accounting software, among many others. He is adept at combining large corporate environments with start-up pace and energy. Remi's expertise includes Enterprise IT Architecture, Technology Strategy, Direction & Roadmaping, BPO, System Analysis & Integration, BI, and Cloud Computing. He holds an MBA from Nyenrode University.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
- Chief Architect of Contact Centers at Avaya
Robert is currently the Chief Architect of Contact Centers at Avaya, directly reporting to the CTO. Robert's specialties include: business analysis, CRM application sales, call center design, and CTI application development.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Leader
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
Steve is a seasoned leader with over 25 years' experience in helping corporations with digital transformation, scaling sales and product teams, and managing IT organizations. He was the Chief of Staff to the CIO at Flex and worked as a strategic adviser to CTOs at Mirantis and Motorola Mobility. Most recently, Steve served as the interim CEO of a successful start-up, where he lead them through their initial funding and product certification with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Steve currently sits on three advisory boards. He is a former Air Force pilot and has degrees from the University of Southern California and a program certificate from Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
- Software Executive With 20 Years' Tenure at Microsoft
Todd is an experienced software executive with 20 years' tenure at Microsoft in a wide variety of roles in program management, product management, and as a general manager and corporate vice president. He has extensive experience in managing large software projects (e.g., Windows Mobile, Windows CE) and building new categories (e.g., Microsoft Exchange, Small Business Server). Todd currently is a Managing Director at Divergent Ventures, where he focuses on investments in software infrastructure. He also teaches at Northwestern as the Industry chair of award winning course in software entrepreneurship, NUvention web, that has spawned 4 startups in 2 years. Todd's specialties include software engineering, product management, embedded software, new device development, operating systems software, development tools and runtimes, project management software, and email software and systems. Todd holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science and Economics from Northwestern University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Executive Strategist
- Strategic Product Marketing Expert
Ton is a strategic product marketing expert with over 27 years of experience in Business Software. He works with PASG in helping business software companies rethink their strategies by means of how they communicate their value, accelerate innovation, and increase their market potential. Ton is also the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Value Inspiration. Previously Ton acted as Vice President of Product Marketing & Management, Global Head of Product Marketing and Chief Evangelist at Unit4, a global leader in ERP for Services. During his career Ton built up a wealth of experience in the field of value communication and what business software companies need to differentiate in their respective market(s). He has worked with a multitude of organizations spanning the globe, including the Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America, and can be described as a creative, energetic, and optimistic person with an entrepreneurial drive.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the EXECUTIVES Team
- Technologist
- Strategic Leader
Troy is a strategic leader with over 20 years' experience as an executive at Cisco, Citrix, CenturyLink, and Avaya, and has a strong track record of establishing and growing profitable businesses in dynamic, competitive markets. He has extensive experience defining, developing, managing, launching, marketing, and selling a broad range of innovative, customer-centric solutions and services for Enterprise, SMB, Consumer, and Service Provider customers globally. His solution expertise includes networking, communications, collaboration, security, virtualization, IoT, SaaS, and Cloud. Troy holds both an MBA in Marketing and Strategic Planning, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.