Evan L. Kaplan was elected as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective in mid-November 2008. He brings to iPass nearly two decades of experience providing enterprises with IP-based communications services.
Earlier, Evan served as CEO and President of Aventail Corporation, a Seattle-based network communications company, which was acquired by Sonicwall, Inc. in July 2007. He launched Aventail from his home in 1996. It was one of the first early infrastructure companies to deliver software-based technology as a service and served blue chip enterprise clients including IBM, Kraft, Dupont, Verizon and AT&T.
Prior to Aventail, Evan led product management and business development functions at WRQ, Inc., a Seattle software company. He also served as Senior Program Manager for Proximity Indication and Control Systems with Crane Aerospace.
Evan has been voted one of Network World's 50 Most Powerful People in the Networking Industry. He was recognized as Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the Pacific Northwest. He has served as a board member for the Young Presidents Organization; the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Washington; the Washington Software Association (now WTIA); and the Networld + Interop industry trade show. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Trusera Corporation and the advisory boards of Mpire, Xoopit, CityID, terra Technology and Standard Renewables.
Evan earned an MBA degree from the University of Washington.
John Charters, Chief Operating Officer
John Charters, Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for the sales and delivery of all iPass products and services. John leads global direct and channel sales, business development, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, investment and partnership activities, and customer implementation and support. Since joining iPass in 2004, John has restructured iPass' engineering and operations functions to create a foundation for scalable growth and established a center of excellence for engineering and customer care in India.
John has more than 20 years of management experience in the technology industry. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer at Expanets, a reseller of converged communications equipment and professional services to over 500,000 mid-sized businesses. He was the founder and CEO of Qwest Cyber Solutions (QCS), a joint venture between Qwest Communications and KPMG Consulting that provided professional consulting and managed hosting services for key business applications for Fortune 1000 companies.
John holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Engineering from Gonzaga University.
Barbara Nelson, Chief Technical Officer
As Chief Technical Officer, Barbara Nelson drives the long-term development of the iPass platform, products and services through leadership of the architecture, engineering and network operations functions. Previously, Barbara served as Vice President Architecture and Design, where she was responsible for researching new technologies initiatives. She also architected the iPassConnect™ client, the company's award-winning software that seamlessly integrates connectivity to a wide variety of access methods (Wi-Fi, dial, 3G mobile data, etc.) with a rich set of mobility management capabilities.
Barbara has more than 20 years of engineering experience in voice and data communications, mobile agents and international communications standards. She joined iPass in 2002 after serving as a senior architect at Extricity Software, a provider of business-to-business integration applications. Before Extricity, Barbara spent seven years at General Magic, developing a patented mobile agent platform, and building a carrier-based service including voice user interface (VUI) and graphic user interface (GUI) software. Prior to General Magic, Barbara worked at Retix, a software company developing platform-independent solutions for OSI protocols. While at Retix, Barbara chaired the X.400 Special Interest Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Barbara holds a bachelor's degree with honors in computer science from University College Dublin, Ireland.
Bruce Posey, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Bruce Posey manages the iPass legal team and plays a key role in driving corporate strategies, setting policies and developing standards and practices across the company. Because iPass conducts business with large corporations worldwide, Bruce oversees vital regulatory and governmental relations efforts, and the legal review of all major contract negotiations.
Prior to joining iPass in 2002, Bruce served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at AuraServ Communications, a managed service provider of broadband voice and data applications. Earlier, he was Senior Vice President of Federal Relations and Regulatory Law for U S WEST Communications, and Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs for MediaOne.
In 1992, former Colorado Governor Roy Romer appointed Posey to serve as Executive Director of the state's Department of Administration.
Posey holds a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Oregon, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
Posey is a member of the California (Registered In-House Counsel), Colorado, and Oregon State Bars.
Frank Verdecanna, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Frank Verdecanna, iPass Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for all aspects of corporate finance and administration, including financial planning and reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, investor relations, billing operations and the company's transition to Web-enabled business processes. Frank joined iPass in 2000 as Corporate Controller and became Chief Financial Officer in 2005. He has also served as the company's Principal Accounting Officer since 2003.
Before joining iPass, Frank served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Impact Hire, Inc., a recruiting software and service provider, and as Corporate Controller for Interlink Computer Sciences, Inc., a public enterprise software company.
Frank holds a B.S. in Business Administration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Joel Wachtler, Vice President, Marketing and Strategy
Joel Wachtler is Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at iPass, with responsibility for evolving iPass' corporate strategy and the development of new capabilities, products and services. He also drives the effective promotion of the company and its offerings to prospects, customers, partners and other stakeholders.
Joel joined iPass in 2003, and under his leadership the company strategy has evolved to best capitalize on its unique technology platform and market position. Joel has also developed the company's product management function, created and implemented new fee-based pricing models that better monetize iPass' growing customer value, and built a metrics-focused and database-driven marketing operation.
Before joining iPass, Joel served as Vice President of Business Markets at Telenet, a broadband multimedia company in Belgium, where he held profit and loss responsibility for the company's B2B broadband Internet, telephony and data communications business. Earlier, he held various strategy and development executive positions at Media One, where he developed the company's international strategy and capital markets positioning, and led development activities in the cable TV, telephony and cellular telephony businesses. As Vice President of Development at Media One he founded ERA GSM, which became Poland's largest and most successful cellular operator. At U S WEST, Joel led the Business Development team that created the strategy and business plan leading to the formation of U S WEST Media Group, which subsequently became Media One.
Joel holds both a B.A. and M.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago, a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Virginia, and an M.S. with concentrations in Marketing and Finance from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
