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Management Team
Ted Morgan, CEO & Founder
Ted Morgan founded Skyhook Wireless with Michael Shean in 2003 to capitalize on the explosive growth of Wi-Fi usage and the emerging demand for location-based services. Prior to founding Skyhook, Mr. Morgan was the Vice President of Marketing for edocs Inc., a provider of customer self-service solutions that was sold to Siebel Systems in January 2005. At edocs, he ran marketing communications, inside sales, product marketing, and product management. Prior to edocs, Mr. Morgan was Group Product Manager for Open Market, one of the early leaders of the e-commerce revolution. Prior to that, he was a product manager for Harbinger Net Services in Atlanta. Prior to the technology industry, Mr. Morgan spent four years in the financial services industry, as part of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Alliance Capital, and Allen & Company. Mr. Morgan has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Georgetown University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Michael Shean, VP - Business Development & Founder
Michael Shean leads the sales and business development efforts at Skyhook Wireless. Prior to Skyhook, Mr. Shean was an early employee at edocs Inc., and oversaw sales efforts in the western region of the United States. Starting as the company's twelfth employee, Mr. Shean was instrumental in growing company revenues from less than $1 million in 1998 to more than $35 million in 2003. He was responsible for successfully initiating, establishing, and managing relationships with companies such as EDS, WorldCom, Toyota, and Franklin Templeton. Mr. Shean was employed at Montgomery Securities, a San Francisco investment bank, prior to its acquisition by NationsBank. He also led the Windows product management efforts at Versys Corporation, a legal software company. Mr. Shean earned a B.S. from the University of Vermont.
Nick Brachet, Chief Technology Officer
With 15 years of experience in software engineering, Nick Brachet has broad expertise in designing robust, scalable, and adaptable software. As CTO, Mr. Brachet oversees the design and development of Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System. Prior to joining Skyhook Wireless, he was Chief Architect at Passkey International Inc., the world's leading online group reservation system, where he was primarily responsible for the development of GroupLink — a system that enables the exchange of reservations between hotels and the Passkey system. The architecture of GroupLink defined a flexible core engine and pluggable modules that allowed rapid integration of disparate hotel reservation systems. Before Passkey, Mr. Brachet was Director of Engineering for edocs Inc., where he was responsible for the architecture, implementation, and release of all new products. Prior to edocs, Mr. Brachet was Lead Architect at Gradient Technologies Inc., and represented the company at the Object Management Group (OMG). Mr. Brachet received a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in Grenoble, France.
Dr. Farshid Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Chief Scientist
As a member of Skyhook Wireless' executive team, Dr. Alizadeh-Shabdiz is responsible for the research & development of Skyhook's positioning technology. Dr. Alizadeh-Shabdiz has almost fifteen years of industrial experience in the design and implementation of satellite and wireless networks. Before joining Skyhook wireless, as the head of the communications section of Advanced Solutions Group (part of Cross Country Automotive Services) he was leading/managing an application server and media gateway design and implementation. He developed his research and technical experience in physical layer, MAC layer, network layer design, and digital signal processing during years of work and research at Hughes Network Systems. He was part of the design and implementation team of the three first satellite-based mobile networks: ICO global medium orbit satellite network voice and data services, Thuraya GEO satellite network, and the first phase of the Inmarsat high-speed data network. Dr. Alizadeh-Shabdiz proposed the first complete analytical model to carry out an analysis of single-hop and multi-hop ad hoc networks and 802.11-based WLANs. He is also on the faculty of Boston University. Dr. Alizadeh-Shabdiz received his Ph.D. from the George Washington University and M.Sc. from Tehran University.
Steve Solari, VP - Operations
Prior to joining Skyhook Wireless, Steve Solari was Director of Marketing at edocs, Inc., where he was responsible for the development and execution of the company’s integrated marketing programs and sales and marketing infrastructure. There Mr. Solari built a scalable demand generation program that generated a five-fold increase of the company's pipeline and 16 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, which ultimately resulted in the company's acquisition by Siebel Systems in January 2005. Prior to becoming involved with the technology industry, Mr. Solari built a successful career in financial services working for Merrill Lynch in New York City. As a member of Skyhook Wireless' executive team, Mr. Solari is responsible for the development of Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System and the management of its scanning program. Additionally, Mr. Solari is tasked with building the sales, marketing, and operational infrastructure to support Skyhook's rapidly growing business. Mr. Solari holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts.
Jed Rice, VP - Market Development
Mr. Rice is responsible for identifying, creating, and building new market opportunities for Skyhook’s Wi-Fi positioning technology, through direct and indirect sales channels in the United States and overseas. Previously, Mr. Rice created, launched, and led the Self-Service OnDemand new business unit initiative at Siebel Systems, growing it into a more than $5 million-a-year business in less than six months. Mr. Rice joined Siebel as part of the acquisition of edocs, where he had held a range of key positions managing new market and business development initiatives. He also established and managed key strategic relationships, to include the one with Siebel, which eventually led to its successful acquisition of edocs. Prior to edocs, Mr. Rice served as a corporate attorney with a nationally recognized law firm where he was involved with and led a wide-range of strategic transactions, including venture financings, M&A deals, IPOs, and technology licensing relationships. Mr. Rice also served four years as an officer in the United States Army, where he held a number of leadership positions as a unit commander conducting Airborne, Ranger, and Reconnaissance operations both in the United States and overseas. Mr. Rice holds a B.A. in International Affairs from Georgetown University and a joint J.D./M.B.A. from Boston College.