Executive Team
Jeff Drake
CEO
Jeff was the Founder and EVP of Business Development at Access360, acquired by IBM. As Founder at Access360 he worked to raise venture capital from a leading venture capital fund and also strategic investment from both Oracle and VeriSign. After the acquisition, he served as the Director of Software Security at IBM then was recruited to become the EVP of Business Development at Akana. Most recently, he was the EVP of Corporate Development at Servicemesh, which was acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC; mrkt cap $7B). Post acquisition by CSC he was the Director of Emerging Practices, and established business development programs that drove revenues for the CSC Cloud group. While at ServiceMesh, he was instrumental in raising venture capital from Ignition Partners and created strategic alliances with Dell, EMC, and Microsoft.
Bill Ruehle
Chief Financial Officer
Bill has led two very successful IPOs as a CFO in the tech sector, having joined both companies when they were small private entities. He became CFO of Silicon Valley-based SynOptics Communications as employee #30 in a company with a $2 million annual revenue run rate. He led the very successful IPO and merger with Wellfleet that created Bay Networks. When he left Bay, it had grown to $2 billion in revenue, a multi-billion-dollar market cap and a listing on the NYSE. Following that, he joined Orange County-based Broadcom Corporation who, at the time, had 150 employees and a $20 million annual revenue rate. He led the wildly successful IPO and helped guide the company through an exponential growth rate that allowed it to reach $1 billion in revenue in just two years following the IPO. When he left Broadcom, the company was the leader in broadband communications semiconductors with revenues of $3.6 billion, a market cap in excess of $20 billion and listing on Nasdaq.
Since leaving Broadcom, Bill has worked with a number of tech companies through his own advisory business. Most recently, he was CFO of ClariPhy through its successful sale to Inphi Corporation. Since that transaction, Bill has been a member of the Board of Inphi (NYSE: IPHI; market cap $2B). He holds a BA in Economics from Allegheny College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Steve Henning
Chief Marketing Officer
Steve brings more than 25 years of global enterprise software experience to Bitvore, where he is responsible for all aspects of corporate brand development, product management and marketing, go-to-market strategy, and demand generation.. Prior to Bitvore, Steve was CMO and Co-Founder at appLariat. Prior to appLariat, Steve was the CMO of Cloud Management Platform provider ServiceMesh, which was acquired by CSC in 2013. Previously, he held executive positions at various hi-tech start-ups in the domains of software configuration management, identity management and IT predictive analytics where he led marketing and sales, leading to IPOs and multiple acquisitions by IBM, VMware and Software AG.
Greg Bolcer
Chief Data Officer
Greg is a serial entrepreneur who has founded three angel and VC-funded companies. He's been involved at an early stage or as an advisor to at least half a dozen more. Greg has a PhD and BS in Information and Computer Sciences from UC Irvine and a MS from USC. He started his career at Irvine as a researcher in Web protocols, standards, and applications under a series of DARPA-funded grants. He formerly was the Intel Architecture chair for the Peer to Peer working group and was awarded the Distinguished Alumni of the Year in 2004 from UCI.
Alan Chaney
Chief Technology Officer
Alan started down the technology path years before he knew anything about software. A guy who's always been fascinated by how things work, he fed his curiosity by disassembling everything from clocks to motorcycles. When he learned that software offered the same sort of intellectual stimulation, but without the solder burns, he quickly changed his focus from re-wiring objects to writing code. During his career as an academic and entrepreneur Alan's dedicated himself to reinventing everything from networked storage to streaming media, always focused on doing things better, faster and more elegantly than previously imagined.
Mike Heberle
VP, Sales & Business Development
As VP of Sales, Mike is responsible for driving sales and business development for Bitvore. Mike brings Bitvore a successful track record of more than 20+ years that includes high-profile sales leadership positions and recognized sales achievements. Prior to joining Bitvore, Mike led North American Sales for Powerreviews. While at Powerreviews, SAAS revenues grew significantly year over year until the acquisition by Bazaarvoice in 2012. Mike has a long distinguished career in sales, including senior sales leadership roles at Endeca Technologies (acquired by Oracle), Business Objects (acquired by SAP) and Parametric Technologies.
Brenda Andrews
VP, Content Operations
Brenda brings a well-rounded life experience that enables her to develop creative solutions. She currently serves as Bitvore's VP, Content Operations, responsible for a team that ensures the quality of the content that is delivered to our customers on a daily basis. Prior to Bitvore, Brenda developed enterprise software products for several startups. She was solely responsible for developing proprietary software that produces auctions for non-profit companies. The software completely automated all manual processes, making it easier for the company to grow its client base. She started her career developing an excess and surplus insurance agency management system where she quickly became a team leader.
Board Members
Mr. Mandel is an active entrepreneur and tech investor that holds patents in data visualization. Prior to founding Bitvore, he was a seed investor in Broadcom, Access360 (acquired by IBM) and Fulcrum Microsystems (acquired by Intel). Mr. Mandel was also lead investor for Innovent Systems (acquired by Broadcom).
Mr. Hawk has had several CEO-level leadership positions at major telecommunications companies and has guided over twenty private companies through financings and initial public offerings. Bob was formerly President and CEO of U.S. West Multimedia Communications, Inc. and Director of Advanced Systems Development for ATT/American Bell. He is currently a partner with Doll Capital Management (DCM).
Mr. Pikover has over 25 years experience in the development, capitalization and growth of emerging technology companies and is currently an active board member and investor in a series of technology companies. Prior roles include Chairman & CEO of 5Square.com, FLN, Access360, co-founder and EVP of Xylan, and a board member of several startups.
Mr. Dull served several roles through the growth and IPO of Broadcom Corp including General Counsel, Secretary and
Mr. Babak Razi founded Third Wave Ventures to help guide the growth of emerging high technology companies in Southern California. Among his endeavors, Mr. Razi was an early founder of Innovent Systems, which was acquired by Broadcom Corporation.
JEFF DRAKE
Advisors
Mr. O’Shea has spent his career in the development, manufacturing, marketing and sales of information systems. He was the former President AT&T Bell Labs, former CTO Lucent, former CEO NCR, former CEO of Lucent’s Enterprise Networks Group now known as Avaya.
Mr. Mandel is Bitvore's co-founder and a board observer. He is a seed investor in Broadcom and Access360 with multiple exits in other startups. Mr. Mandel has extensive experience with data/info visualization and has several patents.