Management
The Certona management team has over five decades of combined experience in developing, marketing and selling analytical and enterprise software applications and web-based subscription services.
Meyar Sheik, CEO & Co-Founder
Meyar Sheik is a seasoned software industry executive with 25 years of experience. Since 2000, Meyar has been a web analytics pioneer working with some of the largest sites on the Internet such as Staples, ESPN, Fox, Sony, Best Buy, Disney, CBS and many other leading brands, in the areas of web analytics, personalization and real-time content optimization.
Prior to co-founding Certona, Meyar was the CMO and COO of web analytics leader, WebSideStory (now part of Omniture/Adobe). Before joining WebSideStory, Meyar was the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Strategic Alliances for the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) software vendor SuperNova, Inc., Earlier in his career, Meyar held senior sales management positions in Analytics and Security software products companies.
Since co-founding Certona in 2004, Meyar and the Certona team of predictive analytics experts have been focused on applying Certona's innovative, real-time behavioral targeting, optimization and adaptive personalization technologies to generate more revenue and higher conversion rates for online retailers and other multi-channel businesses.
Meyar has a BS in Electrical Engineering from New York Institute of Technology and an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Geoffrey Hueter, Ph.D., CTO & Co-Founder
Dr. Hueter leads the invention of Certona's innovative proprietary technologies. Dr. Hueter holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at San Diego, where he was part of the team that developed the Gamma Ray Observatory.
Prior to founding Certona, Dr. Hueter was the president of Far Point Technology, which provided software design and development services.
Before joining Far Point, Dr. Hueter was a staff scientist and director of automated inspection at HNC Software, Inc., where he managed the development and commercialization of QualityPlus™, an intelligent machine vision system. Dr. Hueter also managed several other analytics projects, including several Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs for neural network control systems.
While at UCSD, Dr. Hueter studied neural networks with industry pioneers Robert Hecht-Nielsen and Bart Kosko. Dr. Hueter is the author of over a dozen papers on astrophysics, neural networks, and numerical modeling.
Brian Rauls, CFO
Brian Rauls is an innovative, strategy oriented executive that has been working in the financial industry for over 19 years.
In his current role as CFO of Certona, a position he has held since 2008, Brian oversees all of Certona’s finances and aids in the identification of critical issues and solutions that can be enacted quickly and decisively. Maintaining a high level of professional ethics and personal integrity is imperative in how Brian operates both in and outside of Certona.
Prior to Certona, Brian started BMR Financial Services, an independent financial and operations consulting firm which he still runs. He also served as VP, Corporate Finance with New Century Mortgage after spending seven years as an independent consultant who specialized in dealing with companies operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy as well as start-up companies working through the challenges related to growing a new company.
Brian received his BA in Operations Management, Product and Inventory Control from California State University Fullerton.
Peter Wells, Senior Vice President of Global Sales
Peter Wells is a proven sales leader with 20 years of software and more than 12 years of experience concentrating on digital marketing and ecommerce. He has a strong and successful track record in building high value, high growth companies.
Peter's primary responsibilities include designing and leading Certona’s sales strategy, creating more value across Certona’s prospect/client lifecycle and establishing new channels to accomplish company growth goals.
Prior to Certona, Wells has been instrumental in solving complex problems for his clients and their customers; resulting in building some of the fastest growing companies in the SaaS, digital performance marketing, web analytics, VOIP, and TCP/IP application industries including Touch Commerce, Web Side Story (now part of Adobe), NetManage and AltiGen Communications. He has been involved in two IPO's and has experienced triple-digit annual growth with every venture.
Yvonne Blankenship, Vice President of Client Services
Yvonne brings over 15 years of Client Services leadership to the Certona management team, with a clear focus on client relationship management and solution support. Her background spans across Global Solution Design, Implementation and Account Management as well as building the teams and structures to support for the ultimate corporate goal – going beyond client satisfaction to delighting our Client.
At Certona, Yvonne leads the Client Services teams, utilizing her skills and background to continuously develop and refine our processes and services. Her teams include Account Management, Implementation Management, Optimization Analysis, Implementation Engineering and Client Support Desk.
Previously, Yvonne served as the Sr. Vice President of Solution Design at ProfitLine, a global telecommunications company focused on providing Telecom Expense and Mobility Management services. She worked with multiple teams to define global services and partnerships and strategically define new Client solutions while retaining internal operational structure and controls. Yvonne also served as the Vice President of Change Management at ProfitLine, where she provided subject matter expertise to supplement the sales process and assist clients with transition support during implementation.
Dan O'Neill, Vice President of Engineering
Dan O’Neill is a business focused technologist who has spent 25 years in software and systems development concentrating in technologies that cross software, hardware, and networking disciplines. In addition, O’Neill specializes in product and team development for large scale Internet based businesses.
At Certona, in his role as VP Engineering, Dan will oversee and lead the Software Development and SQA teams.
Previous to Certona, Dan co-founded and operated as CTO of Nettle, Inc., a La Jolla based company that built internet applications around the movie theater experience.
Before co-founding Nettle, Inc., Dan served as CTO and Exec. VP of Mood Media, a worldwide retail media services company. Mood Media purchased Trusonic, Inc. in 2007 where he was the co-founder, CTO, and Exec. VP. During his tenure the company reinvented digital delivery of preprogrammed audio to retailers and grew the business more than 30% year over year.
Prior to co-founding Trusonic, Dan was the CTO of VU Net USA, a division of Vivendi Universal responsible for the technical direction of MP3.com, MP4.com, Pressplay (now Roxio/Napster), Rollingstone.com, and eMusic.
From 1999 to 2003 Dan was the VP of Engineering at MP3.com where he assisted in a $370m IPO. Santa Clara University, Leavey School of Business, named him to its IPO Hall of Fame in 2000 and the School of Engineering named him the 2009 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus.
Dan holds both a BSME and an MSCS degree from Santa Clara University.
Clarissa Riggins, Director of Product Management
Clarissa Riggins is an experienced product management and product marketing leader with extensive background in conceptualizing and building online software products and services from soup to nuts. At Certona, Clarissa is focused on providing product leadership and direction for the development of new products as well as Certona’s flagship offering, the Resonance product line. Clarissa oversees Certona’s product and user experience strategy, product definition, and product planning process.
Prior to Certona, Clarissa was the VP, Product Management and Planning for RealAge, a digital media company focused on the health space. At RealAge, Clarissa built from scratch and managed the product management and program management (PMO) functions. Clarissa also spent several years at consumer software products leader, Intuit, where she was the product management leader for TurboTax Online. Clarissa has held several other leadership and management roles in account management, business development, product marketing and management consulting at established technology-focused companies such as Akamai Technologies and Accenture.
Clarissa has a B.A. from Duke University and is a holder of 2 patents in software technology.
Todd Scholl, Director of Marketing
Fifteen years of marketing experience spanning the web, digital media, and ecommerce industries has made Todd a seasoned professional. In addition to overseeing branding, lead generation and event marketing at Certona, he is responsible for creating and delivering integrated marketing and communications strategies for sales enablement, product launches and channel development.
Prior to Certona, Todd was Director of Marketing for ResorTime.com. During that time, he oversaw technology and business partnerships, and managed all on and offline marketing programs for the company’s ecommerce booking site. Previously, Todd co-founded ConstructionJobs.com, a national job board and resume database for the construction and building industries. Earlier in his career, Todd held marketing management positions at content delivery firms: Akamai Technologies and DigMedia.