Management Team

John Finegan brings 35 years of finance experience within international technology companies to his role as Axcient CFO. John’s expertise in venture and debt financing, IPOs, SEC compliance, investor relations, information systems, international business and mergers & acquisitions gives him a unique financial perspective that is essential to the company’s rapid growth. Prior to joining Axcient, John served as CFO for Cornerstone Imaging and ShorTel, both of which he helped guide through successful IPOs.  He also served as CFO for Actionpoint, VP of Finance for Faraday Electronics, VP of Finance for ECS Microsystems and Controller at Beckman Coulter. In addition to his role as Axcient CFO, John is a partner of FLG Partners, which specializes in comprehensive CFO consulting and board advisory services for companies in Silicon Valley and Northern California. John holds an MBA in finance and a BS in engineering.

Todd Scallan brings more than 25 years of product management experience to Axcient. Todd ensures that the Axcient solution continues to stay at the leading edge of the SMB data protection industry. Most recently, Todd was VP of Product Management for Interwoven, where he spent eight years overseeing the definition and delivery of enterprise software products for content management. Before Interwoven, Todd worked at Segue Software and start-up Black & White Software, which Segue acquired. His roles included VP of Engineering for Segue’s functional testing and software metering solutions and VP of Business Development for Black & White’s distributed application development products. Prior to Segue, Todd spent 11 years at IBM. He holds an MS degree in computer engineering, a BS in electrical engineering and has published numerous articles and papers on a range of computing topics.

Mark Swendsen brings to Axcient over 15 years of experience and a proven record of accelerating revenue growth domestically and internationally. As VP of Sales, Mark leads Axcient’s channel sales strategy and partner programs, working closely with resellers and service providers to increase market reach. Prior to Axcient, Mark was ShoreTel’s Vice President of Sales for Service Providers, and grew the company’s managed service quarterly business earnings by 400% in three years, playing a key role in the company’s successful IPO. Before then, he served as ShoreTel’s Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for more than two years, launching six distributors and 81 VARs, along with growing ShoreTel’s quarterly EMEA revenue by 800% in less than three years. Mark also served as ShoreTel’s West Regional Director and Area Sales Manager. Before joining ShoreTel, Mark was President of Ketchum Integration, a voice data integration solution provider that became ShoreTel’s first value-added reseller. Mark holds a BA in English from Santa Clara University and a master’s degree in education from National University.

Pam Lyra is a passionate support professional who has built a global customer service, training and support presence for WebEx, Trimble and a number of startups in her more than 20-year career. As VP of Customer Satisfaction for Axcient, she is responsible for building and maintaining the industry’s highest quality service team to deliver a superior customer experience. Previously, she was Senior Director for Global Support for Trimble, where she helped double the company’s worldwide footprint while decreasing expenses by 35%. She also led a global customer service team for WebEx through the company’s highest growth years and IPO. Pam earned her BS degree in electrical engineering and minors in computer science and English literature from UC San Diego.

Jeff Teddleton joins Axcient with more than 25 years of experience in technology problem solving. As VP of Operations, he is responsible for Axcient’s business systems, manufacturing operations, compliance, facilities and disaster recovery process management. While VP of Technology Operations at Zuora, Jeff delivered SaaS solutions with 99.95% service availability and achieved various compliance certifications. As a Senior Director at WebEx, he built a global team that supported revenue growth from approximately $3M to more than $750M. Jeff has held similar executive or consultant roles for Juniper Networks, Rocket Lawyer, Okta and BuildingSearch.

Eric Weiss has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and working in the SMB space, with a proven track record of launching, branding and expanding businesses. Eric leads Axcient’s marketing strategy, drives revenue growth and champions a fantastic customer and partner experience. Prior to joining Axcient, Eric was the SVP of Global Operations and Worldwide Marketing for GreenRoad, where he rebranded the company and implemented marketing strategies that helped grow revenue from $1M to $30M. Before Greenroad, Eric was the Chief Marketing Officer at Covad Communications, where he led the product and marketing teams and launched five new SMB market products. Prior to Covad, Eric was Vice President at Macromedia where he rebranded Flash prior to Macromedia's acquisition by Adobe. Eric also co-founded and was the COO of ITXC. Eric has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a master's degree in public policy, science and technology from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Asim Razzaq leads the engineering vision, strategy and execution of Axcient’s innovative platform and products. He has more than 12 years of experience building platforms and applications for mid-stage startups as well as large-scale Internet companies like eBay and PayPal. He was a founding member and Head of Core Platform Engineering for eBay’s X.commerce division, which provides an open platform for developing commerce applications for merchants. As Director of Engineering for PayPal, Asim led the vision, strategy and creation of the PayPal Developer Platform, which supported more than $350M in payment volume per year. He launched PayPal’s x.com developer portal that on-boarded more than 70,000 developers in its first year. Prior to PayPal, Asim served as Director of Software Development at QuickArrow, where he led the engineering turnaround for the company’s SaaS-based Enterprise Consulting Suite, resulting in a successful acquisition by NetSuite. Asim has a Bachelor of Science in computer sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and is a published author in the field of computer science.

Ken Sims is the Vice President of Business Development at Axcient, where he is responsible for establishing and growing the company’s strategic relationships. Ken has over 25 years of experience in a variety of business development and sales roles, with a strong track record of developing innovative go-to-market strategies and building strategic relationships to accelerate business growth. Prior to joining Axcient, Ken was VP of Sales for Dell KACE, where he built and managed the organization that generated 450 percent growth in sales following KACE’s acquisition by Dell. As the VP of Sales and Business Development at KACE, he led the company’s explosive growth and established key strategic relationships, including the company’s partnership with Dell. Earlier in his career, Ken held key executive roles at identity management software vendor Oblix (acquired by Oracle) and content delivery leader Inktomi. Ken received a BS in business economics from UCLA and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Joe Schwartz brings over 15 years of software marketing experience to the Axcient team.  Joe is a revenue-driven marketing executive with expertise in global demand generation, digital marketing, marketing automation and e-commerce. Joe is responsible for building and scaling Axcient’s lead generation engine. Most recently, Joe was the Senior Director of Marketing for Cisco Systems’ Cloud Collaboration Applications Group. At Cisco, he led a team responsible for the online marketing and e-commerce for Cisco’s collaboration software portfolio. Prior to his work with Cisco, Joe was the VP of Marketing Operations & Segment Marketing for WebEx Communications, where he designed and implemented digital strategies that quadrupled lead volumes, drove end-user engagement and grew e-commerce sales. He was also Senior Manager of Inside Sales and Marketing Operations for Calico Commerce, where he helped increase the company’s revenue by 400 percent and reduce sales costs by 20 percent. Joe holds a BA in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Kelly Dugan brings more than 25 years of accounting and finance experience to Axcient and is responsible for Axcient’s financial policies and procedures. Most recently, Kelly was Vice President of Finance and Operations at SeeControl, Inc., which provides an M2M SaaS software platform for tracking and sensor monitoring software applications. Prior to SeeControl, Kelly held the position of Director of Finance for Antara LLC, where she was responsible for the company’s financial policies and procedures, IT and human resources. Before Antara, Kelly was owner of Shamrock Business Services, a company that provides accounting services to venture-backed start-ups and established businesses. Kelly began her career at Masstor Systems Corporation. She graduated summa cum laude with a BS in accounting from Strayer University in Washington, D.C.

As Axcient’s Director of Sales Operations, Ann Neir is responsible for developing and managing overall sales strategies, processes and systems in support of the Axcient sales team. Ann has an extensive background in international sales operations strategy and management and a proven record of building high-performing teams to accelerate deals and grow revenue. Prior to Axcient, Ann was Senior Manager of Worldwide Sales, Strategy & Planning for Cisco, where she helped build and operate Cisco’s go-to-market plan for accelerating the growth of Cisco’s cloud services. Also at Cisco, Ann served as Manager of Global Sales Operations, and helped achieve a two-year, 220 percent growth in deal management. She also spearheaded operational improvements in channel management to reduce end-to-end deal cycle times. Before Cisco, Ann advised senior executives on global network and technology vendor agreements at Sprint Nextel and led negotiations to recover financial liabilities and contractual non-compliance. Ann holds a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.

As Axcient Director of Channel Marketing, Joan Morales leads Axcient’s partner recruitment and engagement efforts. Joan has over a decade of experience in channel sales, marketing and product management in the U.S. and European markets. In his most recent role, Joan served as Channel Development and Strategy Manager for Hewlett-Packard at the international level. Prior to that, he worked for HP, Dell and Checkpoint Systems within their respective EMEA organizations. Joan earned a BA in economics from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and a master’s degree in marketing from the ESADE Business School in Barcelona.