Paul Sparta, Chairman & CEO

Paul Sparta is a pioneer in learning and performance management systems. Before co-founding Plateau, Sparta served as the director of Training Systems at MRJ, Inc. (now part of General Dynamics) where he headed up the division that was subsequently spun-off into Plateau Systems in 1996.

Plateau has since won numerous awards, including being named by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in corporate America. Sparta has led the continued expansion of Plateau, and was named as an award recipient for the Ernst & Young Software and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2004. Sparta is also a veteran of the US Navy and the consulting industry. He has authored several articles in leading publications on workforce productivity and the role of performance management and development.

Brian F.X. Murphy, President and COO

Brian Murphy joined Plateau in 1999 as part of the company's merger with Sensory Computing, Inc., an e-Learning firm where Murphy served as Chief Executive Officer. Sensory Computing specialized in the content development and management of integrated, enterprise-wide, computer-based training solutions.

Prior to Sensory Computing, Murphy served as Vice President and Chief Cross Currency trader at JP Morgan. He also served as First Vice President and Treasurer of the New York office of BSI, a private Swiss investment house, where he led the capital markets group. Murphy received his MBA from Columbia University. Murphy oversees the day-to-day execution of Plateau's business, and is the company's main liaison to industry and financial analysts.

Ed Cohen, Chief Technology Officer

Ed Cohen joined Plateau as Chief Technology Officer in 1999 as part of a merger between Plateau and Sensory Computing, Inc. He founded Sensory Computing, which produced instructional titles, a pioneering LCMS and reusable learning objects functionality within an authoring tool. Sensory's titles became a standard in the nuclear power industry. Cohen currently serves as Chairman of the Aviation Industry CBT Committee's (AICC) Training Infrastructure Subcommittee. He is the only software executive from outside the aviation industry serving on the AICC, considered one of the two main e-Learning standards bodies. Cohen also is a regular speaker at international e-Learning seminars and a frequent contributor to major e-Learning and HR publications.

Shelly Heiden, Executive Vice President Global Operations

Shelly Heiden is responsible for all Plateau customer-facing operations, including marketing, sales and services.

Shelly has an extensive background working with organizations to ensure customer success. Prior to her current role Shelly was the Senior Vice President of Plateau Global Services where she managed professional services, managed services, knowledge services and support. During the past five years, Shelly has substantially grown the size of Plateau's Global Services operation while expanding the footprint of Plateau's service offerings all while maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction.

Before Plateau, Heiden managed national and global practice areas at PSINet Consulting Solutions. Heiden also served as a Managing Director with GE Capital Consulting, where she led the sales and delivery of e-business solutions to customers.

Stephen Blodgett, Chief Financial Officer

Stephen Blodgett joined Plateau in November 2004 as Vice President, Finance. Prior to joining Plateau, Blodgett was the Director of Finance for Forrester Research, Inc., a NASDAQ traded independent technology research company. While at Forrester, he conducted the financial due diligence and played a key role in the integration of the firm's acquisition of Giga Information Group. He also led the financial reporting effort in Forrester's initial public and secondary offerings. Blodgett created a scalable finance infrastructure to support Forrester's international expansion, including the implementation of a European shared services center, and was responsible for the company's planning & forecasting, treasury management, and international tax functions.

Blodgett is a CPA who began his career in Arthur Andersen's Enterprise Group, where he worked with a number of technology companies ranging from start-ups to large multinationals.

Brad Cooper, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy

Brad Cooper, a founder of Plateau Systems, is a visionary in the field of instructional technology and learning management.

Prior to Plateau, Cooper led marketing and product analysis for the Training Systems Department at MRJ, Inc. a Virginia-based IT company that is now part of General Dynamics. He was a principal architect for the original Plateau Enterprise Learning Management System. Cooper also served as Senior Analyst at General Physics Corp., providing instructional design and training system development. Cooper is also an award-winning producer of film and video programs for marketing and training. He is considered an industry expert on learning management in regulated industries, authoring several articles and speaking at pharmaceutical, energy and general e-Learning seminars on the topic.

Joe Herman, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Alliances

Joe Herman joined Plateau in March 2003 as Vice President, Strategic Alliances and has since taken responsibility for Plateau's Product Management organization. Prior to joining Plateau, Herman was Vice President, Product Management at Engenia Software, a startup working on next-generation collaboration software

Herman also spent 7 years at Microsoft, where he was a Group Product Manager. At Microsoft, Herman was involved in the successful launch of more than a half dozen of Microsoft's flagship products, including Office, Internet Explorer, and Exchange Server. He also worked on many of the developer-level technologies that Microsoft delivered with Internet Explorer, including XML, DHTML, and the MS JVM.

Jeff Kristick, Senior Vice President, Marketing

Jeff Kristick is responsible for worldwide marketing, including corporate communications, product marketing, demand generation, and events.

Jeff joined Plateau in March 2008. Prior to joining Plateau, Jeff worked at TIBCO Software, where he was responsible for global product marketing, analyst relations, and sales enablement. He and his team successfully designed and launched a broad array of marketing programs, firmly positioning TIBCO as a leader in the business process management and service oriented architecture markets. Prior to TIBCO, Jeff held several product management positions at Siebel Systems for their Siebel Marketing product suite.

Jeff received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, and his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Hung Vu, Senior Vice President of Technical Integration and Quality Control

Hung Vu brings fifteen years of software engineering experience to Plateau. His work includes n-Tier and multi-channel/pervasive B2C and B2B solutions, content management, and software configuration management. Vu managed the QA/QC/Tools division at Proxicom, where he led the team that implemented Proxicom's first standardized software engineering processes and tools.

Before Proxicom, he founded a multi-million dollar software firm in the Washington Metro area for 6 years. He was the configuration manager for Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station Washington, the US Navy's largest regional data center. The Washington Post and Washington Techway Magazine named Vu one of the Top 10 high-tech Managers in the DC area in 2001.

Sunil Chandran, Senior Vice President, Product Engineering

Sunil Chandran is responsible for the Product development and research activities at Plateau. Sunil’s core competencies include application software development, team development and leading organizational change. Prior to this position, Sunil was part of the Plateau Global Services Organization where he built and directed the Plateau Technical Services organization. In this position Sunil was responsible for overseeing all the technical implementation activities for Plateau’s entire customer base. Sunil brings a vast amount of first hand Plateau implementation and hands-on application development and architecting experience.

Prior to Plateau, Sunil worked at organizations such as Commerce One, Proxicom, IBM Global Services, Wipro and HCL where he helped develop both web-based and client/server applications using Oracle and J2EE technologies.

Sunil holds a Masters in Business Administration degree from Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business and received his B.S degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Pondicherry University, India.

Larry Thomas, Senior Vice President, Quality Assurance & Corporate Security

Larry Thomas joined Plateau in 2001 and has spearheaded quality improvements that have allowed Plateau to be amongst the best in quality and customer service. Prior to Plateau, Thomas was the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Manager at SAGA Software, where he built a QC team and developed the companyÌs quality-assurance processes from the ground up.

Thomas also held quality management positions at CyberCash, General Research Corporation, and Imark Technologies, where he served as Director of Operations. In that role, Thomas directed Engineering, Customer Support and was in charge of all quality issues.

He has had extensive training in ISO & CMMI methodologies which he brings to Plateau. Thomas is a member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Washington, DC, area Software Process Improvement Network. He is also a reviewer for ASQÌs Software Quality Professional magazine.