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TechPar Group Principals
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Mark Abramson
Principal Advisor
mabramson@techpargroup.com
Mark Abramson has spent over 20 years
applying technology fundamentals to the successful implementation of
business solutions working as a technology expert in the area of systems
design, software architecture, and data analysis. His professional
experience has led to a career of Investigative Data Mining, which includes
activities for security and criminal detection, Patent and Claims Analysis,
Prior Art Searches, and Expert Witness in computer litigation. Mark has
participated in over 35 major cases including one of the largest and longest
computer software action cases in the industry.
Mr. Abramson has worked with Attorneys, Courts and
Corporations across the country. His clients have included major legal
firms, governmental agencies as well as many smaller companies and the
courts. Mark has provided expert witness testimony in both state and
federal courts. His knowledge and experience also include Data Recovery
Services. This encompasses high-level electronic discovery and recovery for
litigation and forensics, including computer forensics, expert testimony,
email recovery and tape recovery. He has been in the computer technology
industry since 1981 and has successfully worked with many Law Firms, Fraud
Examiners, CPA Firms, Special Courts and Fortune 500 and 1000 enterprises.
Mr. Abramson has been directly responsible for the prevention
of IP theft, thereby saving corporations millions of dollars in lost
revenue. This prevention of IP theft led to a legal case involving a very
large software company. The expert services provide to this client
introduced evidence that identified the original source of Prior Art
language found in their most valued patents.
Mark Abramson has published many white papers on data analysis
and data forensics and authored articles and legal briefings on the area of
computer forensics. He has been invited to edit some of the leading
publications on the area of Investigative Data Analysis and authored
several technology related patents.
Mr. Abramson is a noted speaker and lecturer having addressed
many industry organizations on the topic of Enterprise Data and Systems
Analysis. As a respected Data Forensics Specialist in the legal community
he has presented Data Analysis concepts at some of the largest corporations
in the country, including DuPont, Oracle, Blockbuster and JP Morgan Chase.
Mr. Abramson holds an Associates Degree in Applied Technology
from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science from the
State University of New York.
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Bob Cooke
Principal Advisor
Bob Cooke is a former
PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Partner, the founder and owner of a
software & consulting company, and CIO of a public company, In these
roles, Bob has participated in and experienced the complete value chain of
Information Technology. With this unique experience, Bob can rapidly
assimilate and respond to the challenges and opportunities facing a
customer and then create value by applying these different perspectives.
As the CIO of Domecq Importers, Bob implemented the first
integrated suite of Oracle Applications for Manufacturing and Finance. Bob
redesigned all operations of the company to handle the rapid domestic and
international growth. During his three year tenure the company grew from
$200 million to over $1 billion. Much of the company’s success was
attributed to the information delivery Data Warehouse that powered the
sales and marketing decision making. This solution was considered the first
of its kind.
Bob created Concept Information Systems (CIS), a highly
respected and successful company specializing in business analytic Data
Warehousing (DW). As CEO, he designed and launched
“Q-Manufacturing”, the industry’s first analytic Data
Warehouse solution for the Manufacturing and Supply Chain Marketplace. Bob
and his team also built and launched a Sales and Marketing DW for Platinum
Technologies “Sales Analyzer” to be marketed and sold
internationally. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) recognized Bob and his
company’s unique and visionary approach in this field. Less than six
months after launching “Q”, CIS was acquired by PwC to
penetrate their large ERP and Supply Chain clients.
As a Partner at PwC, Bob provided global leadership in Data
Warehousing for Manufacturing and Supply Chain, implementing
“Q-Manufacturing” for many PwC clients. Bob managed a DW group
specializing in Consumer Products, Industrial, Pharmaceutical, and
Technology clients. Bob also extended and managed global strategic
relationships with vendors such as Informatica and Microstrategy.
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Bob Eiler
Principal Advisor
beiler@techpargroup.com
Bob Eiler has 30 years experience
assisting Fortune and mid-sized companies to implement business process
improvement and information technology solutions. He has joined TPG
following a career as a Partner in the Management Consulting Services group
at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He served as a client service partner for a
number of clients, site leader in Cleveland as well as National Director of
Cost Management and International Director of Finance Transformation. Prior
to joining Price Waterhouse in 1974, he was on the accounting faculty at Miami University
in Oxford, Ohio.
His professional experience includes implementation of
finance, cost and enterprise planning systems; consulting in cost and
profitability improvement; finance and operational process reengineering;
merger and organizational restructuring; and turnaround services. He has
served large Fortune companies in the consumer products, high technology,
telecommunications and service industries.
He was engagement or technical support partner on a number of
clients including Kellogg, Anheuser Busch, IBM, Dell, United Technologies,
Chrysler, General Motors, Toyota,
Waste Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ameritech, SBC Communications,
Walt Disney and Westinghouse. With these companies and many others, he
brings significant business experience in areas such as process
reengineering, cost reduction, activity based costing, performance
measurement; merger integration, organizational change, forecasting and
budgeting, profit improvement and system implementation.
Bob has been a frequent speaker on finance and business issues
in the United States, Brazil, Australia,
India and Great Britain.
He is a founding editor and now on the Editorial Advisory Board of the
Journal of Cost Management. He has authored a number of articles in
publications such as The Journal of Cost Management, Management Accounting,
Harvard Business Review and Handbook of Cost Management. He received the
Eliza Watts Silver medal for the second highest score in the U.S.
for the May, 1974 CPA exam.
He graduated from Purdue
University with a
Bachelor of Sciences degree in Industrial Management and a M.B.A. from
Washington University of St. Louis.
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Jonathan Harris
Principal Advisor
jharris@techpargroup.com
Mr. Harris has over 40 year of
experience as an Information Technology consultant specializing in the use
of technology to gain competitive advantage. Mr. Harris was one of the lead
data security and control partners in PW and PwC involved in founding this
practice, developing the marketing strategy and building the practice. As
the leader of this practice he performed numerous engagements for
telecommunications, financial, government, and manufacturing clients to
evaluate security policies, organization, procedures, and access control
software and perform "hacking" to test security. In this capacity
Jonathan has worked closely with internal audit departments and CIOs and
Audit Committee's to help them establish planning and risk ranking
methodologies, develop work programs and perform joint and outsourced work
for the internal audit area. Jonathan also specialized in the use of
advanced technology to improve the efficiency and conduct of the audit
process.
His industry experience includes major control and security
and audited related work for a number of international financial
institutions, technology companies, utility, communications, government,
education and manufacturing clients. Technical experience includes auditing
and review of controls for mainframe, LAN, communications and distributed
systems in batch, on-line and data base environments. Mr. Harris is a
frequent speaker on topics related to computer security, back up and
recovery and long-range data processing planning.
Mr. Harris holds a B.S.C., Accounting and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania
(Thesis title: Interdivisional Transfer Pricing and an M.B.A., Operations
Research from the Indiana
University where he
held a Research and Teaching Fellowship. He is a Certified Public
Accountant, New York State and Pennsylvania State
and a holder of Certificate in Data Processing and Certified Information
Systems Auditor.
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Bonnie Hauser
Principal Advisor
bhauser@techpargroup.com
Bonnie Hauser is a pharmaceutical healthcare leader with over 25 years of experience in client service and consulting to leading pharmaceutical manufacturers and their customers. Bonnie’s work with manufacturers is concentrated in sales and marketing operations and analytics, large-scale data warehouses, and business restructuring to improve effectiveness and enhance relationships with their customers.
Bonnie has worked extensively with all aspects of pharmaceutical care. In addition to manufacturers, she works with Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), physician practice organizations, health insurers and HMOs, and the federal government. Her work encompasses primary care and specialty product segments, and she has deep expertise in pharmaceutical pricing, contracting and managed care.
Bonnie was a pharmaceutical industry partner at Coopers & Lybrand and at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she was an integral part of the leadership team that combined industry knowledge with consulting competencies to develop industry-focused services to pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. She also held an executive position with a patient longitudinal data provider, where she led a team of industry analysts, statisticians and IT analysts to launch a data service to deliver advanced analytics for physician segmentation, targeting, and promotional effectiveness.
Bonnie has an MBA from New York University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Bonnie has been a participating member of the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) and the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). She is widely published and is a primary contributor to the book “Understanding Pharma”, a primer on how pharmaceutical companies work.
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Michael Katz
Principal Advisor
mkatz@techpargroup.com
Michael Katz has over 30 years
experience in technology management, systems development, and helping
companies achieve business value through technology innovation. He has an
extensive background working for vendors in a variety of roles, and has
concentrated over the past ten years as a Managing Director developing
thought leadership for PricewaterhouseCoopers, including running the
Firm’s Global Technology Centre. In addition, he has worked with
start-ups with technology issues, both as a Consultant and as a Vice
President and Chief Technology Officer of a Silicon
Valley company. Mike has been involved in hundreds of
technology due diligence projects, working on behalf of investors, VCs, private
equity firms, high wealth individuals, and companies who want to purchase
other companies, merge, or be acquired.
At PricewaterhouseCoopers, Michael was responsible for the
Firm’s Technology Forecast publications, a set of comprehensive
documents covering a wide range of information technology topics supporting
PwC’s global Thought Leadership initiatives. They are produced and
distributed annually to PricewaterhouseCoopers practitioners and their
clients and are a distinguished and authoritative analysis on topics of
current and future importance to business users of information technology.
These documents analyze current trends and predict major events for the
next three years. Each Forecast includes:
• An analysis of the broad areas of computers and
communications, from hardware anddevices, telecommunications equipment and
services, software applications, and the middleware that makes all the
pieces fit together
• A series of interviews that discuss the use of
technology.
Michael presented the findings of these documents to clients around the
world, helping them understand how the most recent developments are
relevant to them and how to gain a competitive advantage for their
business. He works with clients to establish their information technology strategy
and identify business opportunities and threats posed by new technologies.
He presented seminars and board-level briefings on technology
futures and their likely impacts to business. For many enterprises,
business and technology strategies are not well aligned. Using a
workshop-based methodology, technology implications to business issues are
examined. Typically, a robust, forward-looking plan for technology support
of business is generated.
In addition to determining the direction of these publications,
including specialized publications for the Entertainment, Media, and
Communications, and Financial Services industries, Michael developed
publications on Anti-Money Laundering issues and value creation for early
stage venture-backed companies (Paths to Value).
Working for vendors including IBM, Rolm, and Tandem Computers,
Michael has developed an extensive knowledge of large-scale software
development projects, in addition to a thorough understanding of how to
successfully create new products and bring them to market.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science
(Highest Honors) from the University
of California at Berkeley.
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Charles H. Le Grand
Principal Advisor
clegrand@techpargroup.com
Charles Le Grand has over 30
years of experience dealing with security, reliability, auditability,
compliance, risk, and assurance matters in information and related
technologies. He has served in various management positions and IT roles
ranging from programmer / analyst, to IT auditor, to CIO, and managed many
successful systems projects. He is a recognized author and speaker on a
wide range of technology topics. He produced board-level guidance on
information security for the U.S. Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office
(now part of the Department of Homeland Security), and coordinated the
development of information security metrics for a subcommittee of the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Prior to joining Tech Par Group, Mr. Le Grand directed the
work of The Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation that produced
the landmark Systems Auditability and Control reports. He also served as
IIA’s CIO to develop and implement a three-year project that migrated
IIA systems and networks to the Internet, architected and implemented its
first two web sites, implemented its first email systems, and provided the
framework for a global communication network.
Mr. Le Grand provided expert testimony to the U.S.
President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. He
served on the board of directors of the Partnership for Critical
Infrastructure Security, the Executive Committee of the Generally Accepted
Information Security Principles Committee, the Advanced Technology
Committee of The Institute of Internal Auditors, the National Cyber
Security Partnership, and the Center for Continuous Auditing. He was
co-leader of a team that developed “Information Security Program
Elements” and “Information Security Metrics” for the
Corporate Information Security Working Group. He also serves in an advisory
capacity to the U.S. President’s National Infrastructure Advisory
Council, and the American Bar Association’s Information Security
Committee.
Mr. Le Grand earned a bachelor degree from Auburn University
School of Engineering, is a Certified Internal Auditor, a Certified
Information Systems Auditor, and has the Basic and Standard certificates
from the American Institute of Banking.
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William M. Lehman
Principal Advisor
wlehman@techpargroup.com
William Lehman has over 35 years of business and consulting experience. His work has ranged across the manufacturing, financial services and insurance industry sectors. He is a recognized expert in manufacturing systems and in customer relationship management systems and processes. He joined TechPar Group after a 27-year career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he developed and led a U.S. National Manufacturing Management Consulting practice, and then developed and led a Global Financial Services Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practice. He also spent 4 years with BearingPoint Consulting in a similar Financial Services CRM leadership role.
Bill’s manufacturing sector experience includes diagnostic assessment, process improvement and system implementation work in manufacturing management for both process and discrete manufacturers. His clients included: Bristol-Myers, Pfizer, Warner-Lambert, Abbott Laboratories, Biogen, Northrup-Grumman, Fiat Automotive, United Technologies, General Electric, Union Camp, and others. He founded a ground-breaking alliance between PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kawasaki Heavy Industries which brought industry-leading just-in-time manufacturing techniques and management skills to the Firm’s clients.
He also led the design and implementation of cost accounting structures and systems for Ciba Vision Care, Emery Air Freight, and Air Canada.
In the Financial Services and Insurance sectors, Bill’s work was focused on implementation and/or improvement programs around customer-facing systems and processes. He has worked on sales, marketing and customer service strategies and implementation efforts in major banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies. His clients include: Cigna, The Hartford, AIG, First Union(Wachovia), Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and others. He also led the development and ongoing management of PricewaterhouseCoopers and BearingPoint alliance activities in the Financial Services and Insurance sectors with leading technology vendors such as Oracle, Siebel, SalesForce.com, SAS and Initiate.
Bill has lectured, trained and facilitated on a wide range of topics in literally hundreds of client sessions and public forums over the course of his career. He has a proven track record in defining pragmatic strategies practical implementation programs. He holds a MBA in Operations Management from Duke University and a BBA in Economics from the University of Iowa.
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Robert Mankin
Principal Advisor
bmankin@techpargroup.com
Robert Mankin was a senior executive in commercial, investment and mortgage banking before entering consulting. Earlier in his career he held management positions in broadcasting and manufacturing.
Dr. Mankin served as:
- Managing Director, Co-Head of Fixed Income and a member of the Management and Capital Committees of Nomura Securities International. He founded and managed the Mortgage-Backed Securities business unit (trading, finance, research, structuring, sales, underwriting).Head of the Corporate Bond and Fixed Income OTC Options businesses. Founder, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of the holding company's commercial real estate securities business and board member of the firm's mortgage-backed securities subsidiary.
- Senior Vice President and COO of First Interstate Bank's domestic Capital Markets organization responsible for: Corporate Finance, M & A Advisory Services, Portfolio Structuring, Sales and Administration.
- COO of Thomson Financial's Electronic Settlements Group responsible for sales, product development and operations.
- COO of PaineWebber's Fixed Income Division responsible for the Middle Office, including FI and FX risk management, and bringing Kidder Peabody’s commercial real estate business into the firm.
- Vice President of Chase Manhattan Bank serving as a Senior Corporate Planner with planning oversight of consumer, commercial, institutional and private banking and bank operations. Division Executive of Information & MIS and Financial MIS. Division Executive of the holding company's mortgage bank's Strategic Planning and Business Development Division responsible for strategic planning, new products, M&A and servicing acquisitions.
- President of Ocwen Technology Exchange (OTX), an e commerce mortgage services company.
- CEO of Sutton Strategic - a start-up registered investment advisor. The first Manager of Corporate Systems Planning for the American Broadcasting Company and Manager of a department responsible for IT technical consulting, software and hardware acquisitions and human resources for the various divisions of Babcock & Wilcox.
Consulting assignments included:
- Advisor to the Chairman and President of NYSE-traded regional financial corporation on capital markets, international business development and strategic planning.
- Advisor to the President of a major GSE in a firm-wide reorganization of its back office.
- Advisor to the head of Operations of a major GSE in assessing the possible development of new product offerings.
- Conducted market study of the NY-NJ-CT mid-sized commercial bank segment in order to assist a major, large foreign IT company in deciding how it would support the segment.
- Assisted a start-up software company in the development of its strategic plan and in locating an acquirer.
- Supported a major business intelligence software firm as a subject matter expert in the development of its financial services vertical marketing effort and its compliance support. Assisted in major sales efforts to the FS sector.
- Assisted a major insurer in its understanding of certain mortgage business processes.
- Advised a commercial bank on mortgage securities portfolio reconciliation and the bank’s systems planning.
- Assisted a U.S. subsidiary of a major European bank in the selection of the mortgage loan-servicing system to be used by a recently acquired U.S. regional thrift.
Dr. Mankin currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The Hudson Institute and is a member of the Board's Long Range Planning and Audit Committees. He has served as a Member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of Nomura Mortgage Capital Corporation, Member of the Board of Directors, CEO and President of Nomura Asset Capital Corporation and Member of the Board of Directors of PaineWebber Real Estate. Dr. Mankin's doctoral thesis was "A Comparison of Two Country Risk Assessment Approaches."
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Jim Mattecheck
Principal Advisor
jmattecheck@techpargroup.com
Jim Mattecheck has over 28 years software and technology experience across multiple industries. Jim has a long history of improving the performance and sales of enterprise and retail software companies. Jim has been a SVP and General Manager for SAP Retail focused on the North American market. Jim was instrumental in helping SAP drive into the retail market while working closer with many retailers in the go-live projects on the SAP platform.
Mr. Mattecheck was Executive Vice President at SupplyChainge, an emerging technology company focused on providing an optimization engine that dramatically reduces lead times associated with short life cycle products. This solution was leading edge and primarily designed for the Footwear and Apparel industries. Jim has spent a majority of his career focused on the retail and CPG applications market and held leadership positions at Oracle, Retek, Tomax, and CommerceHub. All of these companies are leading providers of solutions for the retail market. Jim provides deep business development and channels experience and He has a unique perspective on the retail industry.
At Oracle, Jim was the leader for the newly formed vertical focused on the consumer markets. They introduced the concept of providing an “architected best in class” solution for an entire application footprint required for both the retail and CPG industries. He established an OEM model with specialty software companies that were considered “best of breed” and delivered the entire solution to the market. Jim and his team grew the business over 500% in a 3 year period and captured 60+ new global customers.
At Retek, a leader in merchandising solutions for the retail space, Jim was instrumental in establishing new partnerships to fuel the 100% growth that they experienced during Jim’s tenure. He was also an integral part of the foray into internet commerce and supply chain collaboration. Much of this was based on the desire to be first to market and today it has greatly matured for all industries.
Jim spent the earlier part of his career in many sales and marketing positions with Unisys across all industries inclusive of Public Sector and the financial line of business helping customers use and leverage the current technologies of those times for improved business operations.
In addition to his extensive technology background he has also been a successful entrepreneur. Mattecheck purchased an unprofitable wood manufacturing company in 2002 and orchestrated a turnaround that brought the company to profitability in less than one year. He was able to accomplish this turnaround by establishing a multi-channel business model that allowed the company to leverage the manufacturing capacity that had been previously underutilized. In addition, his knowledge of manufacturing processes and systems allowed him to reduce the cost of operation by more than 35% year over year.
Mr. Mattecheck has an MBA from Notre Dame and Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Portland.
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Dave McDonald
Principal Advisor
dmcdonald@techpargroup.com
Dave McDonald is an accomplished advisory consultant and executive specializing in problem solving and project management. He has thirty-five years of experience in the financial services sector split equally between executive management and consulting.
Dave was a partner in the financial services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and IBM Business Consulting Services for twelve years and provided high-value add consulting services to all major banks and investment companies specializing in complex program management. He assisted a variety of firms in addressing serious financial ‘breaks’ and operational breakdowns and he developed and headed the financial services program management merger integration practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. He also assisted in the development of the initial anti-money laundering programs implemented by a number of brokerage firms in response to the Patriot Act.
David specializes in defining and executing complex project management challenges including merger integration, major process improvements, large scale application implementation, system integration efforts, break management and related process breakdowns. He most recently served as a senior vice president for program management for a GSE where he successfully defined and executed a remediation program for the elimination of financial control breaks. Prior to becoming a consultant, David was an operations and systems executive with American Express Company.
Mr. McDonald has a bachelor’s degree from Marist College and an MBA from Long Island University.
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Martha Quesada
Principal Advisor
mquesada@techpargroup.com
Martha Quesada is a versatile
business and IT senior manager with over 25 years of experience in managing
and improving business outcomes through excellent analytical skills, project
management rigor, knowledge of business processes and controls, six sigma
methodologies and strong team building skills. Martha has developed strategies, business
models and teams delivering innovative business and IT solutions, providing
enhanced performance in the financial sector, pharmaceutical R&D, and
corporate IT functions. She is
experienced in operations and strategy management and is an experienced
leader in project management and project portfolio optimization. Martha is recognized as a cross
divisional content expert and consensus builder in the Pharmaceutical
sector.
Since joining TechPar Martha has provided leadership in a
broad spectrum of client engagements.
These include:
- Creation
of a Business Continuity plan including new organizational model,
analysis and reengineering of data security processes (data
management, monitoring and recovery).
Solution implementation included overall project management,
development of the RFP and selection of; security expert services and
a backup and recovery vendor.
- Internal
controls audit (SOX compliance) for a generics Pharmaceutical company,
including analysis and reporting on data security and financial
reporting processes.
- Definition
of a proof of concept IT solution for integration of clinical data
with genomics information for a major pharmaceutical company
undergoing M&A challenges.
- Creation
and presentation a three hour workshop on project portfolio
optimization for the
Center
of
Business Intelligence
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- Project
management expertise for litigation support.
At Merck, as a Director in the Corporate IT Center of Excellence
for Project Management and Business Process Reengineering, Martha provided
project leadership for corporate operational excellence initiatives and
large interdivisional projects. She
led the design, development and implementation of a Global IT portfolio
planning process and the use of a portfolio management tool. Martha is experienced in strategy management,
including portfolio management, balanced score card implementation and
prioritization techniques.
Martha is experienced in the processes surrounding
Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery, Pre-Clinical evaluation, Clinical Pipeline
management and Global Operations.
As Director of Scientific Information Services, Martha introduced
innovative commercial and in-house information solutions for decision
support and increased productivity of global drug discovery. She improved research decision support
through the development and global implementation of data capture and
analysis tools. Martha replaced the
proprietary database for chemical information with an Oracle based solution
more amenable to data integration and mining, and introduced the routine
use of automated metrics analysis for global performance of research
information systems. She was
recognized with the Merck IT “Team of the Year” award for her
efforts in integrating new research facilities.
As a manager in the Research Laboratories Martha initiated and
institutionalized a global process for the selection and dissemination of
chemical screening entities across Merck biological projects and sites. The
program resulted in the identification of several significant drug
candidates and three internal product candidates. Hallmarks of the success of this effort
include:
- Education
and consensus building within the laboratories, as well as the
development of centralized database and query tools, leading to
formalization of cross project information sharing at laboratory
level.
- Design
and implementation of new data mining strategies and applications, in
conjunction with the computational chemistry group, for screening
compound selection.
- Successful
engagement of research management ensuring communication and
stakeholder ownership of the program.
Martha holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Rochester and PMI certification as a
Project Management Professional.
She has published widely in scientific and technical journals, has
been a speaker at scientific strategy and information conferences and holds
several patents.
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Harry Sakamaki
Principal Advisor
hsakamaki@techpargroup.com
Harry Sakamaki joined TPG to be responsible for the Japan and Asian Desk after over 30 years of IT business development and IT consulting in a global professional and an IT company. His major consulting services in TPG are to help the Japanese and Asian clients by providing business and IT solutions. He is also responsible to develop cross border business between U.S. and Japan as well as Asian companies by transferring new technologies, products and new business models through the placement of private equity.
Harry’s major engagements in TPG include a series of industry vertical strategy and business developments for Fujitsu and private equity placement for several Japanese companies for US investors, creating over $100 million of investment. The Japanese companies invested in include animation content, real estate investing, and other businesses.
During his eleven years of service as a director and partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers in U.S., he has built the Japanese Consulting Practice to provide various strategic solutions from business & organizational restructuring, ERP implementation, B2B e-marketplace, supply chain management, risk assessment, business continuation guidance and others. Major clients developed were such as Mitsubishi Electronics, Hitachi, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Sony, Toyota Motors, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Nomura Securities, Itochu International and others. These achievements have turned out to be the number one Japanese consulting practice among Big 4 firms. Prior to PwC in U.S., he was invited to work as a director in Pricewaterhouse Consulting in Tokyo from IBM Japan to build IT Consulting Group to serve Japanese subsidiaries of global clients such as JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Grace, Sandoz (now Novartis), Shell Oil, and others.
Mr. Sakamaki served nineteen years in IBM Japan and he took various management positions in system engineering, sales, marketing planning, and business development. He was an industry opinion leader on IT control and management of the Japanese iron & steel industry through various mega systems implementation experiences. One of the projects was to implement the first fully automated integrated system and no-operator slab yard system for the world third largest Nippon Kokan Ltd. iron & steel plant from production planning, shop floor control, manufacturing to delivery. The peak time of project resources amounted to over 1,000 system engineers and programmers. He was assigned to IBM Singapore to organize and manage a new market and product planning department. There he developed a strong communication network with Singapore Chinese community. His last major contribution was to plan and develop strategic joint venture companies between IBM and top tier Japanese companies under president office. He was involved in JV project for NTT and has initiated and started up other JVs with Fuji Bank, and other major software companies.
He has organized the first CIO Association of Japan in late 1980s to recognize the important role of CIO and developed an alliance with Society of Information Management (SIM) of America. He has made public speeches and wrote papers on topics as such new roles of CIO, strategic information systems, supply chain management and others. He has made a public debate with Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University on future strategic information system. He holds a BS degree in Electronics from University of Tokyo and MS in Operations Research from Stanford University.
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Marc Schweitzer
Principal Advisor
mschweitzer@techpargroup.com
Mr. Schweitzer has 17 years of
experience assisting premier companies to define and execute IT strategy.
For the last 5 years Marc has held the position of VP, Information
Technology for Avon, a $6B global
manufacturing and direct marketing company. There Marc was instrumental in
molding the IT strategy of Avon and in
coordinating the realization of the vision he helped create. In addition to
this role as CTO while at Avon, he had global
responsibility for E-commerce, data warehousing and marketing applications.
Prior to joining Avon, Marc served the
clients of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting for 9 years, where he helped
leading Retail and CPG companies enhance their profitability through the
implementation of strategic technologies.
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John Singel
Principal Advisor
jsingel@techpargroup.com
John Singel joined TPG following
a 30 year career with Price Waterhouse, where he served as a Partner and
Global Leader for Information Technology Consulting. His responsibilities
included all aspects of PW’s IT consulting practice – including
IT strategy consulting, applications development, vendor alliances and
telecommunications. He had direct line responsibility for more than 500 IT
consultants operating in the U.S Northeast and another 500 plus in a
programming “factory” in India. More than 6000
additional consultants reported through Mr. Singel on a dotted line basis.
His responsibilities as Global Leader included (1) determining which IT
businesses and technologies the firm should invest its resources in, and
(2) allocating partner resources to appropriate technology and geographic
markets. He was also responsible for structuring and managing the
development of the firm’s IT practice methodologies – including
strategic systems planning, applications development, package integration,
telecommunications, data management, data security, and others. For several
years, he personally taught a special course in Strategic Systems Planning
for partners and senior managers.
Mr. Singel served as engagement or supervising partner on
major assignments for most of PW’s Fortune 100 clients. His work
spanned several industries, including heavy manufacturing, pharmaceuticals,
banking, insurance, retail and entertainment. The projects comprised systems
planning, technology architecture and major applications integration. Some
of the major clients served in these areas included Viacom, Sony, Warner
Lambert, A.T.&T., Aetna Life and Casualty, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Mr. Singel was the firm’s leading expert on project management
– a subject on which he wrote numerous articles and delivered many
seminars. He also did due diligence work for various special situations
– including acquisitions, divestitures, venture capital investments
and legal cases.
Mr. Singel was a director of both Price Waterhouse
Technologies, a software development firm, and the Price Waterhouse
Technology Center,
PW’s IT R&D facility. He served as a contributing editor of the
Price Waterhouse Technology Forecast.
Mr. Singel has a B.S. in Physics from Carnegie-Mellon
University and an M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut. He also developed and
taught a course in the Management of Information Technology for the
graduate program in technology management at Polytechnic University.
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Yury Zaytsev
Principal Advisor
yzaytsev@techpargroup.com
Yury Zaytsev has been practicing an IT professional for over 25 years. He has successfully applied his management and technical skills in the insurance industry using technology to solve business problems on a global scale.
In Russia, Yury Zaytsev developed the complex IT system for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Upon concluding this project, he moved to the US, where he worked first as an IT project manager for the retail group K-Mart in New Jersey and after that for seven years as vice president of the American International Group, New York.
He joined Swiss Re America in 1992 as Head of Information Technology for Swiss Re's US subsidiaries. In 1995, he was put in charge of Swiss Re's Group IT. He was appointed to Swiss Re's Executive Board in 1999 and retired as Group Information Officer at the end of the year 2007.
Yury is a US citizen born in 1949 in Ukraine, studied engineering and computer technology at the Technical University in Lvov (Ukraine), graduating with a Masters Degree.
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