Management Team
Christopher Keene
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Chris is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience running public and private enterprise software companies. He was the founder of Persistence Software, a NASDAQ-listed company that pioneered the field of data transformation and caching for high transaction systems. Persistence investors included Cisco, Intel, Reuters Morgan Stanley and Sun Microsystems. Chris is also the chairman of Reportive SA, a business intelligence company. Previous work experience includes McKinsey & Company, Hewlett Packard and Medaid. Chris is an accomplished speaker and educator and has served on the entrepreneurship faculty at INSEAD University and at the Berkeley Haas School of Business. Chris earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, and holds a Bachelors Degree with honors in math sciences from Stanford University.
Derek Henninger
Vice President of Engineering
Derek has spent 22 years as a tech industry executive. In 1991, Derek was a co-founder of Persistence Software with WaveMaker CEO Christopher Keene. At Persistence, Derek's roles included leading engineering, customer care, and worldwide field operations. After Persistence went public in 1999 on the NASDAQ exchange and was sold in 2004 to Progress Software, Derek served as Progress' Vice President of Product Development and was responsible for the engineering organization and all products within Real Time Data Services division of Progress. Derek earned Bachelor Degrees in economics, computer science, and mathematics from the University of California-Davis.
Michael Harper
Vice President of World Wide Sales and Alliances
Prior to WaveMaker, Michael served as SVP WW Sales and Channels at SeeControl, a SaaS-based Asset Management platform and then prior Vice President, North American Sales for Padcom, a mobile VPN provider, where he doubled sales operations and was instrumental in increasing revenues by over 200% in 2005 prior to the company's merger with NetMotion Wireless. Before Padcom, he served as VP, European Operations for Sendmail, an enterprise messaging and security provider. At Sendmail, Michael assumed a 54 member team distributed across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. His teams not only secured strategic alliances with Hewlett Packard, IBM, T-Systems, Orange PCS, and Vodafone but also orchestrated a direct and channel strategy that aided in the EMEA operation's migration to a profitable business unit. Prior, Michael spent six years with Persistence Software where his teams contributed substantially to a successful IPO in 1999. He has also held sales positions with EMC and Dun and Bradstreet Software. Michael holds a B.B.A. in Marketing and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin.
Board of Directors
Mitchell Kertzman
Board Member and Partner, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Mitchell Kertzman is a Partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He has over 30 years of experience as CEO of public and private software companies. Most recently, Mitchell was chairman and CEO of Liberate Technologies, a provider of platform software for the delivery of digital services by cable television companies. Before joining Liberate, he was chairman of the board and CEO of Sybase, Inc. Mitchell was founder and CEO of Powersoft, which merged with Sybase in February 1995 (at that time, the most valuable merger in the history of the software industry). Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is currently a director of CNET.
Michael Orsak
Board Member and Partner, Worldview Technology Partners
Mike co-founded Worldview in 1996, and has over 17 years of experience as a venture capitalist. He has successfully invested in communications, internet, software, and semiconductor start-ups. Mike has led or co-led successful investments into leading companies such as AFC, Ciena, Corvis, Cosine, Cyras, DigitalThink, IGN.com, NVIDIA, Netcore, Obsidian, Redstone, Tellium and Tivoli. Before founding Worldview, Mike was a Fund Manager at JAFCO, where he spearheaded the firm’s investments in numerous successful companies. Prior to this, he was a Research Analyst at Robertson Stephens & Company where he covered the computer systems industry and worked on financings for companies such as Dell Computer and Sun Microsystems. Mike earned an M.B.A. degree and a B.A. degree, both from Stanford University.
Roger Sippl
Board Member and Partner, Sippl Investments
Roger Sippl has a rich history of both starting companies and investing in the winning efforts of other entrepreneurs in the data management enterprise software industry, and currently invests though his own investment entity, Sippl Investments, LLC. Previously Roger was founder and CEO of Informix Software, where under his direction Informix pioneered SQL relational databases, 4GL application development tools and OLTP database technology before being acquired by IBM. Sippl was also co-founder of The Vantive Corporation, founder and CEO of Visigenic Software, Chairman and CEO of Above All Software and currently serves on the boards of Interwoven and Demand Reports. Other notable investments in this area include Illustra, Versata, BroadVision, SupportSoft and Rearden Commerce. He earned a B.S. in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.
James Sutter
Board Member and Partner, The Peer Consulting Group
Jim Sutter is a management consultant specializing in Information Technology, focusing on technical evaluation and its advanced application. He has worked with companies such as Xerox, Chrysler, and Rockwell in the development of information technology plans and architecture. He has advised companies such as IBM, Oracle, Digital Equipment, and Berkeley Networks in areas of customer requirements and product planning. Before joining the Peer Consulting Group, Jim Sutter had twenty years experience as a top chief information officer in several Fortune 50 companies. Mr. Sutter received his B.S. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame, and an MBA from Marquette University. He recently taught Information Technology Strategy to MBA candidates in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine.
