David Ehrlich
Chief Executive Officer
David’s a seasoned Silicon Valley veteran who’s helped start, grow, and lead numerous successful technology companies. He has extensive experience helping organizations of all sizes establish business models, build product/marketing strategies, and meet their go-to-market challenges – all while defining models of leadership, communication, and culture. Prior to launching Aktana, David was executive in residence with Mohr Davidow Ventures, and before that served as CEO of ParAccel, an early pioneer in the field of analytic databases. David also held senior level positions with NetIQ Corporation, Visual Networks, Inverse Network Technology, and McKinsey and Company, where he played a leadership role in the firm’s Asian telecommunications, electronics, and media practice.
In addition to being an angel investor and advisor to early stage technology ventures, David currently serves on the board of Dear Health and has previously served on the Boards of Reso Holdings, ThreatSTOP, Infravio and the Brandeis School of San Francisco. David also spent over a decade on the board of directors for Travelzoo, Inc., where he served as chair of the audit committee and lead independent director.
David received a BA in sociology with honors and distinction from Stanford University, an MS in industrial engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Derek Choy
President
As co-founder of Aktana, Derek spent the last decade developing and refining Aktana’s product, evangelizing Aktana’s vision in the life sciences industry, and delivering Aktana’s products and services to customers across four continents to establish Aktana as the global leader in decision support for life sciences. Now as chief operating officer, Derek is responsible for strategic definition and scalable execution of Aktana’s vision. In this role, he oversees strategy, product, customer success, and services at Aktana.
Prior to co-founding Aktana, Derek held a number of different roles in technology and services sector, developing his expertise in sales force optimization, change management, and technology development and implementation. He drove initiatives to enter new markets and develop new products at Intuit, developed and implemented strategies for a diverse range of public and private sector clients at The Boston Consulting Group, worked at several large law firms in Australia and Hong Kong, and co-founded a medical IT company in Australia.
Derek has dual degrees in computer science and law (honors) from the University of Melbourne.
Pini Ben-or
Chief Science Officer
Pini is an experienced technology leader who oversees artificial intelligence (AI) and analytic innovation at Aktana. He has spent much of his career focused on improving business decisions using advanced analytics, optimization, business intelligence, and machine learning. In addition to being a data science expert, Pini enjoys and excels at building highly capable teams and nurturing a culture of innovation.
Prior to Aktana, Pini served as Global Head of Analytics at Actimize where he helped transform the company from reliance on rule systems and expert models to deploying fully agile machine-learning-based models for financial crime detection. Throughout his career Pini has introduced analytics innovations in the applications of machine learning, data management, operations optimization, marketing channel optimization, and business intelligence. He has multiple patents and patents pending, most recently in the area of machine-learning on network graph data.
Pini has a BSc in Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a MA and MPhil in Philosophy from Columbia University in NY, where his research areas were Decision Theory, AI, and Philosophy of Physics.
Karen Byrnes
Vice President, Finance
Karen currently serves as VP of Finance, where she is responsible for overseeing Aktana’s financial planning & analysis as well as the accounting functions. An accomplished financial executive, Karen has more than 20 years of hands-on experience working at tech start-ups.
She has held leadership positions in a full range of finance and accounting functions, leading organizations through numerous successful rounds of venture funding and two acquisitions.
Prior to joining Aktana, Karen held leadership roles at Paraccel, Inc and EWI, Inc as well as several other entrepreneurial engagements. She has a BA from UC San Diego and an MBA from the University of Washington with an emphasis in technology.
Dmitri Daveynis
SVP of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer
As SVP of Engineering and CTO, Dmitri is responsible for championing innovation through strategic and operational aspects of software architecture, product development and cloud operations. A seasoned technology executive, he brings more than 20 years of software engineering and technology operations leadership experience in both consumer and commercial markets.
Before joining Aktana, Dmitri served as VP of Engineering at Verint, a leading global provider of customer engagement, security and business intelligence solutions, where he was responsible for leading global engineering teams and overseeing product development of Workforce Management and Experience Management product portfolios. Prior to Verint, Dmitri was SVP of Engineering at Capsilon, a leading provider of AI-powered mortgage automation solutions. His career also includes CTO / VP / SVP Engineering leadership roles at Quantros, HP and Kodak.
Dmitri is based in San Francisco and holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from Belarus University as well as an MBA from the University of Rochester.
Clay Hausmann
Chief Revenue Officer
As Chief Revenue Officer, Clay oversees the global sales organization as well as Aktana’s strategic alliances, marketing strategy and business development. Before taking on this role, Clay served as Aktana’s Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of Strategic Alliances.
Clay has spent the last 25 years in technology marketing, beginning his career on the agency side leading go-to-market campaigns and communication programs for brands such as LG, Sun Microsystems, and Advent Software. He spent six years at Plantronics as vice president of corporate marketing where he led the largest rebranding effort in the company’s 50-year history. Clay also served as vice president of marketing for oneID, a digital identity management company funded by Khosla Ventures.
Clay spent several years pursuing screenwriting and was a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. He also leads a marketing consultancy called treatment. that utilizes the methods of the screenwriter to help brands build and tell their unique story. Clay graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University with a BS in broadcast journalism.
Kris Hinckley
Vice President, People
As VP of People, Kris is responsible for creating and aligning Aktana’s people strategy to enable our business to achieve its key objectives and results. Throughout an employee’s lifecycle, she and her team provide the frameworks and support to ensure Aktana’s talent and leadership are empowered to succeed. Kris has more than 20 years of experience in leading successful teams in fast-paced, performance-based companies.
Before joining Aktana, Kris led the Talent Acquisition function at SoFi, a high-growth Fintech start-up. Prior to SoFi, she led Customer Service Operations at both Peet’s Coffee & Tea and UPS.
Kris holds a BS in Business Administration and Marketing from Eastern Montana College/Montana State University and is based in the San Francisco Bay area.
Alan Kalton
SVP, Business Development
As SVP of Business Development, Alan is responsible for the development of customer relationships and strategic partnerships worldwide. A customer-oriented problem-solver, he brings deep experience helping global pharmaceutical companies introduce and improve the use of technology to drive commercial effectiveness.
Prior to joining Aktana, Alan worked in applied AI technology development in the international development sector and for global technology research and consulting firms including EY and IBM/IBM Research based in the Americas, Africa, and Europe. He has also worked directly in the life sciences industry—in pharmaceuticals for Novartis and GSK, and in medical technology and medical publishing.
Alan holds an M.Sc in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and is based in Barcelona, Spain.
Brendan McGuire
SVP, Global Sales
As SVP of Global Sales, Brendan is responsible for driving sales across all of Aktana’s regions and manages the development of customer relationships worldwide. He oversees Sales Engineering, Sales Operations, Business Development, and Enterprise Sales. He has managed enterprise SaaS sales organizations for more than 15 years with an acute focus on ensuring customer success.
Previous to Aktana, Brendan held various sales leadership roles including most recently at Clarabridge, a firm specializing in Enterprise Customer Experience. He holds an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management and a BS in International Business & Marketing from Illinois State University.
Caitlin Steel
Vice President, Product Management
As Vice President of Product Management, Caitlin is responsible for driving product strategy and assembling a world-class team to build easy-to-use AI for the life sciences industry.
Prior to Aktana, Caitlin spent four years as VP of Product Management and Customer Solutions at OpenGov, where she took the organization’s first enterprise product from beta to category leader, growing product revenue tenfold. She also led product teams at Xactly and Blackline Systems, where she was instrumental in setting the long-term strategy and building out the company’s first customer-focused product organization.
Before moving into product management, Caitlin was the CFO at several technology companies and has deep experience orchestrating turnarounds, implementing enterprise software and leading international teams.
Caitlin holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and a BS in Accounting from Sonoma State University. She is also an active CPA, licensed in California.
Manny Triggiano
SVP Professional Services
As SVP of Professional Services, Manny is responsible for leading the Services organization to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction, operational efficiency and cost effectiveness in the areas of client management, implementation, managed services and support. An experienced program leader, he also oversees Aktana’s Services and Customer Impact & Analytics Centers of Excellence.
Prior to joining Aktana, Manny spent five years as the COO of Theorem, where he led the Client Services, Delivery, IT, Marketing and HR teams while supporting Sales and setting the company’s strategic direction. Before Theorem, Manny spent 20 years at IMS health (now IQVIA), where held a number of leadership roles related to process and quality improvement, consulting delivery and client services—including VP of Quality Management and VP of Global Delivery and Customer Support.
Manny is based in New Jersey and holds a B.S. in industrial engineering and an MBA from Rutgers University. He has also attended numerous executive training programs associated with the University of Pennsylvania and holds a project management certificate from George Washington University.