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Yan T. Ness,
President and CEO
Yan has fifteen years of
experience in the high-tech start-up arena, first as a software
development manager, and subsequently in strategic planning,
executive management, mergers and acquisitions, and venture
investing. Most recently, as a co-founder and managing director of
CompanyCrafters (Ann Arbor, MI) from to 2000 to 2002, he and his
partners served as "mentor capitalists" in providing strategic
guidance and hands-on start-up assistance to several young
companies. Previously, Yan had been a successful entrepreneur as
co-founder and corporate officer for Systems & Software Group,
Inc. (SSG) and its successors from 1985 to 1999. In the role of VP
of software development, he led the transition of the company from
an outsourced software developer to a vendor of packaged software
products for work-loss claims management. He and his partner raised
outside investment capital, and in 1995, sold the services portion
of SSG to Software Services Corporation (Ann Arbor) to achieve a
healthy return for SSG's investors. Afterwards, Yan continued to
operate the still independent packaged-software component of the
business, renamed Workwell Health & Safety Systems, Inc., as its
President and CEO. He sold that company to Liberty Mutual Insurance
Group (Boston, MA) in 1997, and served as general manager of the
operation for Liberty until 1999. A former nationally-ranked
swimmer, Yan holds a BS degree in computer science from the
University of Michigan and is a guest lecturer at the Business
School.
Ty Myers, Vice President Sales
Ty is a
seasoned international business professional with nearly two decades
of experience. His C-level business experience includes business
strategy and tactics, operations, sales, marketing, channels,
finance, business development, and consulting. He has successfully
delivered e-commerce and enterprise software, hardware, and service
solutions to Fortune 1000 clients. Ty had several highly successful
years in sales and consulting at Schlumberger and the leading
value-added reseller, Rand Technologies. Later, Ty was Vice
President of the Americas at Baan Engineering (Baan Company). Ty and
the team he put together excelled by reversing a $3.5 million loss
to breakeven in less than one year, and went on to generate over 80%
of the company's total global revenue for the next three consecutive
years. Over the last nine years, he has worked with numerous
startups or struggling companies either on a contract or full-time
basis. In the late 1990s, he successfully took on the roles of
Senior Vice President of Tigrsoft (supply chain) and Executive Vice
President of Liquidation.com (e-commerce) in Washington D.C. At
Liquidation.com, the company excelled by closing a 7-year contract
to handle $21 billion of government assets. Over the years, when Ty
is not filling an executive role, he capitalizes on his business
portfolio through his own consulting firm, TYM Solutions. Ty holds a
Bachelors Degree from The Ohio State University and a Masters Degree
from Eastern Michigan University in Industrial Technology.
Robert F. Palmerton, Jr., CFO
Bob's background includes 19 years of
business planning, financial analysis, controllership, and operations
management responsibilities for Fortune 500 companies, including Automatic Data
Processing, Allied-Signal (currently Honeywell), and the BOC Group. Bob's most
recent corporate experience was at ADP, where he was a major player in
launching an information technology outsourcing service, achieving over 100%
annual revenue growth over a four-year period. Bob provided key business
planning and development support for this $30 million revenue business at ADP,
and participated in the creation of product development, implementation and
operational plans, and financial systems. Bob was recently Managing Director of
VentureGrowers, a technology start-up management services firm focused on
launching business improvement software and services. Bob holds an MBA from the
University of Michigan.
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