Firepond's Senior
Management Team
Bill Santo
Chief Executive Officer and Board Member
Prior to joining Firepond as CEO, Mr. Santo was a Managing Director at Sanders Morris Harris, a publicly traded diversified financial services firm. Prior to joining SMH, he was a successful entrepreneur involved in numerous start-up opportunities, primarily in the software industry. Most recently, Mr. Santo co-founded Magnetic Alliance, an online marketplace, facilitating co-marketing and co-branding opportunities between consumer brands and entertainment content producers. Before that, Mr. Santo co-founded the Web acceleration firm, wwWhoosh, Inc., and served as its CEO from 2000 through 2001. Prior to wwWhoosh, he founded and was CEO of InfoCellular, a company that developed customer acquisition software for the wireless communications industry. Within 5 years of its inception InfoCell’s products had been deployed at 26 wireless carriers across the globe.William Stelt
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Stelt joined Firepond in November 2005 as a consultant and later in April 2006 as an employee to support the company’s finance and accounting department. Prior to joining Firepond, Mr. Stelt held positions from controller to vice president of finance in private and public companies. His previous responsibilities have covered all aspects of accounting to include SEC reporting, procuring financing, human resources, insurance risk management, information technology and general and administrative responsibilities. Previously while serving as treasurer for Western Gas Resources, a NYSE listed oil and gas company, Mr. Stelt participated in two initial public offerings. During his tenure at Western Gas, the company went from annual revenues of less than $10 million to annual revenues of over $1 billion. Mr. Stelt has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from California State University at Northridge. He is a former certified public accountant and was previously employed by one of the member firms of one of the “Big 4” accounting firms.Jerry Keefe
Vice President of Operations
Jerry Keefe brings more than 20 years of experience to lead Firepond’s software solutions and professional services. Mr. Keefe ensures Firepond’s customers receive the highest level of support. Prior to joining Firepond, Mr. Keefe was President and CEO of Lexys Technology, a true multi-tenant on demand retail management software company. Mr. Keefe held a number of other executive roles during his career including InfoCellular (which later became LHS Group) where he lead operations and post acquisition integration. He later led the 75-person division delivering customer acquisition software to the wireless communications industry worldwide. Early in his career he managed several technical teams supporting internal systems for Digital Equipment Corporation. He has a Masters degree in Business Administration and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.James Scheper
Vice President of Sales
James Scheper brings over 20 years experience working for high technology companies and a track record of putting successful sales teams in place resulting in rapid revenue growth. Prior to joining Firepond in 2004, Mr. Scheper managed sales campaigns across multiple states for Vignette Inc. He earned the highest honor for new account development that included deals with several strategic accounts. Mr. Scheper also led a success sales program at BroadVision Inc. where he exceeded revenue objectives in 2000. Mr. Scheper has been a key contributor in Firepond's successful transition from enterprise to on-demand application provider with substantial revenue growth each year. Mr. Scheper has a degree in Business Administration from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.