Board of Directors
Steve Anderson
Founder and Chairman of the Board
Steve Anderson founded Acorn to assist turnarounds and buy-outs through a unique approach to activity-based costing that he had pioneered (now called time-driven activity-based costing). After a successful start that over doubled the profits of the first five clients, he converted the methodology into a software solution for a broader audience. Today, Acorn has over 350 clients in the retail, financial service, consumer packaged goods, and distribution sectors. The company has added over $15 billion to the market capitalization of their clients. Mr. Anderson is currently involved with helping Acorn further penetrate the private equity space. He is a prolific writer with over 20 articles, white papers and case studies on M&A Strategies, Supply Chain Management, Customer Profitability, Product Management, Lean Solutions, and IT Value Management. Steve has co-authored the book, Time Driven Activity-Based Costing, with Dr. Robert Kaplan, Harvard Business School Professor and noted author. Steve is an alumnus of Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar) and McKinsey & Company. He holds an engineering degree from Princeton University (with honors) and an accounting post-baccalaureate from University of Houston (with honors).
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Dr. Robert Kaplan
Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School
Robert S. Kaplan is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School, where he has taught since 1983. Formerly he was on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, serving as Dean from 1977 to 1983. He has authored or coauthored thirteen books, sixteen Harvard Business Review articles, and more than 110 other papers. His research, teaching, consulting, and speaking focus on linking new performance and cost management systems, especially the Balanced Scorecard and Activity-Based Costing, to strategy. He has received numerous honors, including election in 2006 to the Accounting Hall of Fame, the Outstanding Educator Award from the American Accounting Association, Lifetime Contributions to Management Accounting from the AAA, and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) Award for "Outstanding Contributions to the Accountancy Profession". Dr. Kaplan serves on the board of Acorn and Evergreen Energy.
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Leland Putterman
Chief Executive Officer
A seasoned and visionary leader, Leland sets the vision and strategy for Acorn. He brings extensive experience in managing large organizations that deliver software solutions to corporate customers. Leland came to Acorn from BMC Software where he served as an Executive Officer and Vice President of Global Marketing. There, he was responsible for the worldwide marketing operations and grew the division to 275 employees, as it evolved from a mainframe product vendor to an enterprise software company. Prior to BMC, Leland worked for Oracle in various senior management positions, including Vice President of Product Marketing. He was also responsible for launching Oracle Energy, a multi-million dollar division focusing on the upstream sector of the energy industry. Leland sits on the board of Digital Consulting and Software Services and has served on several other software company boards. He received a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.
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Michael Triplett
Managing Partner, Insight Venture Partners
For the past 18 years, Mr. Triplett has invested in Infrastructure Software companies, among which his successes include Quest Software (Nasdaq: QSFT), Authorize.net, Solarwinds (NYSE: SWI), Acronis, Parallels and Scriptlogic. He joined Insight in 1998 from Summit Partners, where he focused on investments in infrastructure and enterprise application software companies. Prior to joining Summit, Mr. Triplett worked as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co. and at Midland Data Systems. Mr. Triplett graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in Economics, cum laude.
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Executive Team
Leland Putterman
Chief Executive Officer
A seasoned and visionary leader, Leland sets the vision and strategy for Acorn. He brings extensive experience in managing large organizations that deliver software solutions to corporate customers. Leland came to Acorn from BMC Software where he served as an Executive Officer and Vice President of Global Marketing. There, he was responsible for the worldwide marketing operations and grew the division to 275 employees, as it evolved from a mainframe product vendor to an enterprise software company. Prior to BMC, Leland worked for Oracle in various senior management positions, including Vice President of Product Marketing. He was also responsible for launching Oracle Energy, a multi-million dollar division focusing on the upstream sector of the energy industry. Leland sits on the board of Digital Consulting and Software Services and has served on several other software company boards. He received a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.
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J. Alex Fernandez
Chief Executive Officer
Alex has more than 25 years of in-depth experience in software solution delivery, information technology sales, marketing and product development. He is responsible for worldwide operations at Acorn.
During his ten year tenure at Acorn, he has personally overseen the development, sales and delivery of profitability and cost reduction solutions at Acorn’s largest clients which include Charles Schwab, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Cabela’s, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, PNC, and SUPERVALUE. Prior to joining Acorn, he served in several senior management positions with Scalable Software, BMC Software and IBM. While at BMC, he was responsible for leading teams that delivered four of the largest transactions in BMC's history, totaling $320M. He held various senior field management positions during a fourteen-year career with IBM, where he became one of IBM's first Professional Services Branch Managers. Alex received his B.B.A. in Management Information Systems from the University of New Mexico.
Alex serves on the advisory board of Oak Forest Ventures, Digabit and HighRadius Corporation.
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Chris Fraga
Chief Strategy Officer & President, Acorn International
Chris serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Acorn and the President of Acorn International, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. Having joined the company in 2000, Chris brings over 19 years of sales, business development, corporate development, marketing, and management experience and success in F1000 and early stage software and services companies. Today, Chris is responsible for Acorn’s go-to-market strategies, global marketing, alliances and corporate development. He also oversees Acorn International, a business he launched in 2004 with partners. Since then, he has grown the business via an EMEA-based Acorn International management team and a globally-diverse network of partners. Prior to joining Acorn, Chris was Vice President of Business Development for docHarbor, where he was one of the founding employees. Chris also served as Sr. Client Executive at Anacomp, Inc. where he was consistently recognized as a top sales performer with Fortune 500 clients, achieving profitable sales of over $19M in a five-year period. Chris serves on the Board and the Finance, Fundraising and Board Development Committees of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and on the Advisory Board of Oak Forest Ventures, a private-equity and turnaround consulting firm. Chris received a B.S.B.A. in marketing with a concentration in finance from the University of Delaware.
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Lien T. Kingston, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Lien T. Kingston, CPA, is responsible for the overall financial management of Acorn. She has over 20 years of financial experience. Prior to joining Acorn, Lien was VP, Finance/Co-Founder for a software service provider, where she managed the finance and administration departments from start-up to a company with 160+ employees. She was instrumental in raising over $40 million. Lien also served as Corporate Controller for a major physician practice management company. Earlier in her career she served as an Auditor with Price Waterhouse LLP and as the Director of SEC Reporting and Benefits for two publicly held hospital chains, helping to guide one of those companies through an IPO and continuing growth to a $1 billion firm
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Steven Allen
Chief Technology Officer
Steve has more than 16 years of experience in Information Systems with specific interest in both Business Intelligence and Enterprise Application Development. In his role, Steve is responsible for Product Roadmap, Innovation and Delivery of Acorn software solutions. Prior to joining Acorn, Steve worked in start-ups, mid-size and billion-dollar organizations in a variety of verticals including High Technology, Financial Services and Global Transportation and Logistics. He has broad experience with the leading enterprise business intelligence software offerings and also several software development languages and suites. He is a Certified Scrum Professional, holds several Microsoft certifications, a PMP and a B.A. from James Cook University. When not working on the latest Acorn innovations he enjoys spending time hiking the state parks outside Philadelphia with his wife, their two daughters and cocker spaniel.
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Jerome Patterson
Chief Marketing Officer
Jerome Patterson has over 18 years of high-tech experience delivering strategic solutions to enterprise clients. In his role, he is responsible for the design and execution of the company's global marketing programs including branding, corporate communications, marketing communications, product marketing, Web marketing, sales training & development, sales support, strategic alliances support, demand generation and analyst relations. Jerome has held senior management roles spanning sales, business development, marketing, solutions engineering, and delivery with organizations as varied as Andersen Consulting (Accenture) to small, privately held firms. Prior to Acorn, Jerome led sales, marketing, alliances, services, and support at Paymetric, Inc., during a period when the company was consistently at the top of the Fast Tech 50 for revenue growth, secured nearly 100 Fortune 1000 clients, and was an inaugural winner of the SAP Pinnacle Award. Jerome earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College.
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James Cunningham
Senior Vice President, Field Services
With over 20 years of consulting and management experience, Jim has successfully demonstrated the ability to build and lead large technology teams for some of the world's leading software vendors. Jim is responsible for managing all aspects of Acorn's field services, including Professional Services, Pre-Sales Consulting, and Education. Before joining Acorn, Jim served in a similar capacity with MicroStrategy, Inc. as the Central Region Vice President of Services. While with MicroStrategy, he was instrumental in the building of a standardized implementation methodology, the development of operational control systems, and best practices in the delivery of Professional Services. Prior to MicroStrategy, Jim spent a combined 15 years employed at Oracle Corporation and Information Builders, Inc. (IBI) in a variety of Senior Consulting Management positions. Jim received his B.S. from the University of Cincinnati in Industrial Management with a concentration in Operations Research.
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