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Leadership
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Leadership
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Board of Directors
Steve Anderson, Founder and Chairman of the Board
Dr. Robert Kaplan, Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School
Scott Maxwell, Managing Director, Insight Venture Partners
Leland Putterman, Chief Executive Officer
Michael Rovner, Partner, Austin Ventures
Executive Team
Leland Putterman, Chief Executive Officer
J. Alex Fernandez, President and Chief Operating Officer
Chris Fraga, Chief Strategy Officer and President Acorn International
Lien T. Kingston, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Jerome Patterson, Chief Marketing Officer
Torsten Weirich, Chief Technology Officer
James Cunningham, Senior Vice President Field Services
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Board of Directors |
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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 150 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 Systems and Evergreen Energy.
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Scott Maxwell
Senior Managing Director, Openview Venture Partners
Scott Maxwell is the founder and Senior Managing Director of OpenView Venture Partners. Prior to OpenView, Scott was a Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners, having joined Insight in 2000 as the Chief Operating Officer. At Insight, Scott led the effort to institutionalize the investment process, outbound program, value add program, and finance, legal, and administration departments. Post institutionalizing the investment strategy and infrastructure, Scott started leading deal work in 2001 and was the partner responsible for investing in eight Insight investments.
Scott was previously a Partner at Putnam Investments, where he was Managing Director, Corporate Development. Before joining Putnam, Scott was a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers, where he was the Chief Financial Officer of the Global Equity Division and a member of the Global Equities Executive Committee. Prior to Lehman, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company from 1990 to 1994.
Scott graduated from M.I.T. with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Sigma Xi) and an MBA from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management. He has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Between his undergraduate and graduate programs, Scott worked as a Research & Development Engineer at two start- up companies developing robotic systems and lectured at California State University, Sacramento.
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Leland Putterman
Chief Executive Officer
A seasoned and visionary leader, Leland sets the vision and strategy for Acorn and oversees its daily operations. 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 Rovner
Partner, Austin Ventures
Michael Rovner joined Austin Ventures in September 2000. He is a stage agnostic investor with a broad range of experience in startup formation, corporate spinouts, and growth equity. In addition to helping lead the firm's financial services initiative Michael focuses on financial technology, information and business services, and enterprise software. Michael has worked with companies such as: AlterPoint, BuildForge, Idera, Paymetric, Permeo Technologies and PreCash.
Prior to joining Austin Ventures, Michael led business development and mergers and acquisitions for Mission Critical Software, which went public in 1999 and later merged with NetIQ. Earlier in his career Michael served as a management consultant to FedEx Global Logistics and Electronic Commerce. Before this he held executive management positions with Stanford Technology Group (acquired by Informix) and Empart Technology (acquired by ARI Network Services), where he was a founder. Mr. Rovner received his BA from the University of California at Los Angeles.
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Executive Team |
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Leland Putterman
Chief Executive Officer
A seasoned and visionary leader, Leland sets the vision and strategy for Acorn and oversees its daily operations. 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
President & Chief Operating Officer
Alex has more than 25 years of in-depth experience in client solution delivery, information technology sales, marketing and product development. His primary areas of focus are successful direct sales, project delivery, client satisfaction and complete execution of the company strategy.
At Acorn Systems, he leads all client facing functions, field marketing, and product development functions. During his eight year tenure at Acorn Systems, he has personally overseen the sales and delivery of profitability and cost reduction engagements at Acorn’s largest clients which include Charles Schwab, Lowe’s Home Improvement, PETCO, Sysco Foods, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, ATB, PNC, and SUPERVALUE. Prior to joining Acorn, he served in several senior management positions with Scalable Software, BMC Software and Cybernetics Systems. While at BMC, he was responsible for leading teams that delivered four of the largest transactions in BMC's history, totaling $320M. He also 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 and HighRadius Corporation.
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Chris Fraga
Chief Strategy Officer & President, Acorn Systems International
Chris serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Acorn Systems, Inc. and the President of Acorn Systems 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 Systems 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 Systems, Inc. She has over 20 years of financial experience. Prior to joining Acorn Systems, 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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Jerome Patterson
Chief Marketing Officer
Jerome Patterson has over 15 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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Torsten Weirich
Chief Technology Officer
Torsten brings over 13 years of commercial software product development experience to Acorn. He joined Acorn from BMC Software, where he was the Product Development Manager and architect for BMC's PATROL for Diagnostic Management suite. Other roles at BMC included serving as a member of an elite group that created new products incorporating advanced technologies. These advanced technologies included automated network configuration management, statistical analysis and data mining. Torsten was also a lead developer for BMC's PATROL DB database management products. Prior to BMC, he managed graphical database tools development at UniSQL . Torsten also has experience with compiler technology (at Ryan McFarland) and a reverse-engineering CASE tool while at Ten X Technology.
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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 Systems' field services, including Professional Services, Pre-Sales Consulting, and Education. Before joining Acorn Systems, 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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