Management Team
Steve Papermaster, Chairman and CEO
Steve Papermaster is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in the private sector as well as an active leader in a number of key public sector roles. Mr. Papermaster is the Chairman and CEO of nGenera Corporation, the Next Generation Enterprise On-Demand company based in Austin, Texas, USA. nGenera partners with Global 2000 companies, governments and innovative organizations from concept through execution to become Next Generation Enterprise leaders in their segments. nGenera couples innovative thought leadership and leadership principles with leading edge Enterprise 2.0 and collaborative technologies to create sustainable leadership positions for its customers. Mr. Papermaster has also provided innovative, constructive leadership to several public sector initiatives which impact United States and international policies for science, technology, and economic development.
Primary among these is Mr. Papermaster's role on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which he was appointed to by President George W. Bush in 2001. Through his Co-Chairmanship of the Energy Committee and Co-Chair or membership on National Nanotechnology Committee, Innovation Ecosystems Committee, Personalized Medicine/Healthcare IT and others, Mr. Papermaster has worked closely with the White House and Administration of President George W. Bush, Congress, federal and state agencies, international counterparts and the private sector to help PCAST formulate and deliver their recommendations and provide selected oversight functions.
In addition to his PCAST initiatives, Mr. Papermaster serves as chairman of Technology Network Texas (TechNet), as well as being a member of TechNet's National Executive Committee. TechNet is a network of CEOs from a variety of technology-related fields that represents the technology industry. Mr. Papermaster has been able to leverage his understanding of the crossroads of the public and private sectors along with his international experience to help drive TechNet's mission of promoting policies that encourage economic growth and build effective working relationships with political and policy leaders. Mr. Papermaster's related involvements have included serving as a White House Fellows Judge and a member of the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board. He is also the co-founder of Joint Us-China Cooperation for Clean Energy (JUCCCE), base in Shanghai, China.
His present and past entrepreneurial experiences include serving as Chairman, CEO and/or board member for several public and private companies. They include: Powershift Ventures L.P.;Perficient, Inc.(Nasdaq: PRFT), Vignette Corporation (Nasdaq: VIGN), Per Se Technologies/acquired by McKesson (Nasdaq: PSTI/NYSE: MCK); Tipping Point Technologies/acquired by 3Com (Nasdaq: TPTI/COMS), BSG Corp., LabNow Inc., and ROME Corp. Mr. Papermaster's leadership roles in these companies have spanned start-up stages through revenues of over $500mm/yr and/or market caps of over $1 billion.
Mr. Papermaster is a past recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and has served as a national judge and represented the United States as the judge for the World Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He is active as a community leader with organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Innovation Alliance, and 360 Summits.
Mr. Papermaster is an active public speaker, addressing groups at the national, international and local levels on topics ranging from business and technology trends, to the future of science and technology, to entrepreneurship and public policy.
The following is a sample of his recent public speaking engagements:
- Fortune's Brainstorm Conference: Keynote, Panel (Aspen Institute)
- MIT Forum: Future of Energy in China (Shanghai, Beijing-Keynote)
- Fortune 500 Conference: Speaker (Austin)
- Global Business Innovation Forum: Keynote (Tel Aviv, Mt. Carmel)
- Fortune Global Forum: Speaker, Panel (Paris)
- National Innovation Forums: Keynotes (Dallas, Palo Alto, New York, Washington D.C.)
- Future of Science and Medicine: Speaker, Panel (Dallas, George Washington University, Stanford University)
- 360 Summits: Co-chair, speaker (Austin)
- Internet 2 Annual Meeting - Future of the Internet: Keynote (Washington D.C.)
- World Entrepreneur of the Year: Speaker (Monaco, London, Singapore)
- International Energy Credit Association: Keynote (San Diego, Calgary)
- Dare to Dream/Innovation Forums: Speaker, Panel (San Francisco, London, Austin)
- National Innovation Ecosystems and Technology: Keynote (Washington D.C. in conjunction with Secretary of Commerce and President Bush)
- PCAST: Speaker, Panels (Washington D.C., New York, Palo Alto)
- McKinsey Global Forum (Beijing)
Ed Mello, President, Markets
Prior to joining nGenera, Ed served as COO of CSC Consulting for Computer Sciences Corp. [NYSE: CSC], where he was responsible for the majority of the firm's US operations and more than 2,000 consultants spread throughout the United States. He has also held key leadership roles at Cypress Point Partners, Viant and EDS, as well as the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Steve Douty, President, Platform, Applications, and Marketing
Steve has been in the technology business for more than 25 years. The first 15 years of his career were in telecom, IT and systems integration where he served at companies like GTE, IBM and AT&T. In the early 1990s, he was the CIO of AT&T Paradyne, a $600 million communications equipment unit of AT&T.
He broke into the Internet marketplace in 1996, when he joined Hotmail as VP of Marketing, Sales and Business Development. After Microsoft acquired Hotmail at the end of 1997, he led business planning and media programming for MSN. At MSN, he was a key player in the conversion of MSN.com to a portal, the acquisition of LinkExchange, the integration of LookSmart into MSN Search, and the creation of Passport.
In 1999, Steve and two colleagues co-founded Octopus Software, the award-winning content integration platform that was acquired by Ask Jeeves in 2001. Steve founded SnapJot, Inc. in 2004, a Web 2.0-based consumer site that enables groups to collaboratively create photobooks.
Steve has a B.A. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College.
Colby Thames, President, Sales
Colby is an experienced and entrepreneurial executive with extensive experience in information technology planning, technology, strategy and management consulting. Colby served as COO for the Global Account Management Group of SunGard Data Systems, which put him in charge of financial services sales operations and solution delivery. Previously, he co-founded EnFORM Technology, which was acquired by SunGard in 2002, and played an integral role in growing EnFORM from a startup to a 200+ employee organization with more than $30 million in annual revenue within four years.
Don Tapscott, Chairman, nGenera Innovation Network
Don is an internationally sought authority, consultant and speaker on business strategy and organizational transformation. He served as founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by nGenera, co-wrote 2007's highly praised Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, and currently works as an Adjunct Professor of Management at the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management.
Brian K. Magierski, Chief Development Officer
Brian is an experienced entrepreneur and startup executive in the area of software and Web services targeted at enterprises. He co-founded Kalivo, an Enterprise 2.0 collaboration Software-as-a-Service provider, and served as its President and CEO before nGenera acquired the company. Brian was also the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of iMark.com, Inc., a business-to-business Web marketplace for trading surplus goods that sold to FreeMarkets for $340 million. In 2000, he placed as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Austin, TX and is currently a member of the advisory council for Cornell University's entrepreneurship program, Entrepreneurship@Cornell. Brian blogs at http://brian.magierski.com, and can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bmagierski and FriendFeed at http://friendfeed.com/bkm.
Brian has a B.S. from Cornell University and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jim Tipton, Managing Director, Finance
A proven finance and accounting executive, Jim has led merger and acquisition activities on both the buy and sell sides, raised over half a billion dollars in debt and equity financing, taken companies public, and led global information systems implementations. Before joining nGenera, Jim was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of OnFiber Communications, where he managed the company's financial and human resources functions on its five-year path to $60 million revenue and a #41 spot on the INC 500 and played a key role in the sale of OnFiber to Qwest Communications.
Ryan Gravelle, General Counsel
As General Counsel, Ryan is responsible for nGenera's legal activities across the company, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, licensing and IP portfolio protection. Prior to nGenera, Ryan was on Dell Inc.'s legal team, where he supported Dell's professional services business segment, and was an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., a Palo Alto-based law firm specializing in representation of technology and emerging growth companies. Ryan has B.A. degrees in English and political science from Rice University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He sits on the board of directors of Austin Music Foundation and is a member of the steering committee of the Austin Chapter of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, as well as the technology committee of the Texas Supreme Court's Access to Justice Commission.