Ari Kaplan's Resume:

Contact: ari_kaplan@ioug.org

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Ari Kaplan is one of the world’s leading authorities in the technology and database fields helping influence the future of business today.  Educated at the elite California Institute of Technology, he is a recipient of their “Alumni of the Decade” award for the 1990’s. Kaplan is President of the Independent Oracle Users Group. Kaplan gained broad recognition in the IT marketplace as CEO /CTO of Expand Beyond Corp, a market leader in the database and server management market. Kaplan has a rare proven track record for architecting, implementing, and supporting large-scale applications and back-end technology on-time and under-budget.

·         Current President and CEO of the Independent Oracle Users Group for the world’s second largest software company, managing over 200 staff and volunteers for the nearly 20,000 member technical association.

·         Widely recognized as a leading authority in the IT industry, Kaplan has architected and led implementation of some of the most successful and highly visible data centers and applications for Fortune 500 companies including 3Com, Hallmark, Merck and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

·         CEO/CTO for six years at Expand Beyond, a worldwide leader in mobile business software. Raised the largest first round of funding in Illinois for 2001 from Silicon Valley-based Menlo Ventures and executed a successful acquisition by a public software firm in 2005.

·         Author of five best-selling technology books. Topics include Oracle,  Microsoft, and baseball analytics.

·         Awarded Crain Communication’s "40 Under 40" distinction for effective young business leaders.

·         Currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois IT Association and Editorial Board for Oracle Magazine (600,000 subscribers), and has a regular column in Oracle Magazine.

·         Awarded broad US Patents on mobile technology with 46 claims.

OVERVIEW

·        Independent Oracle Users Group, President and CEO, 2005 – present. EVP 2003-2004

·        Expand Beyond Corporation, CEO / CTO, 1999- 2005

·        Chief Architect / Senior Consultant, 1994-1999, for enterprise companies including Chicago Board Options Exchange, Merck & Co., 3Com/US Robotics, Hallmark, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, InterAccess, Playboy Enterprises

·        Oracle Corporation, Senior Consultant, 1992 – 1994, including Bell Atlantic, Computer Science Corporation, FDIC, Department of the Navy, Baltimore Gas and Electric, Tennessee Valley Authority

 

Baseball Experience – General Overview

v     Senior Consultant for multiple MLB teams and scouts, 1993 - present

v     Montreal Expos Baseball Club, Scouting Technologist, 1992, full-time, consultant for several additional seasons

v     San Diego Padres Baseball Club, Scouting Technologist, 1991

v     Baltimore Orioles Baseball Club, Scouting Technologist, 1990

EXPERIENCE

Independent Oracle Users Group, President and CEO, 2005 – present. EVP 2003-2004

The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) is a technical association comprised of nearly 20,000 Oracle professionals including technical managers, database administrators, application professionals, and developers, The group’s mission includes channeling the voice of the customer to Oracle Corp. and their business partners.

Measurable results and accomplishments:

·        As President and CEO, Kaplan manages over 200 staff and volunteers to provide a wide spectrum of benefits and events for the membership.

·        Under Kaplan’s leadership membership grew over 100%, cash reserves increased over 50%, and participation in SIGs (special interest groups) increased 100%. New SIGs include Peoplesoft, Siebel, and over 7 others.

·        Initiated and executed the first co-located Oracle user group conference with OAUG (Applications) and Quest (JD Edwards) resulting in 200% increase in conference attendance and 80% increase in vendor participation (250+ vendors).

Expand Beyond Corporation, CEO / CTO 1999 –2005. Chicago, IL. Acquired by Datalink, 2005

Expand Beyond (XB.com) is one of the leaders of the mobile and wireless business software market. The company's solutions include PocketDBA™ and PocketAdmin™, which are suites of highly scalable and secure enterprise-class software solutions for database management (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 UDB, Teradata), server management (Windows, Unix, open-source), network management (routers, firewalls, switches), and storage management. XB’s patented XBanywhere™ framework has some of the most scalable wireless and mobile technology on the market, resulting in companies such as Teradata to OEM XB technology as their mobile backbone.

Measurable results and accomplishments:

·        As CEO, was responsible for setting and executing the strategic vision of the company's technology, and marketing the immediate and powerful benefits of mobile solutions in the IT workforce.

·        As CTO, was the driving force behind a top-gun results-oriented software development team focused on bringing enterprise-class solutions to market for databases, applications, server, and network management. Other responsibilities included finance, sales, business development, marketing, customer support services data center operations, HR, vendor management, communications, infrastructure, project management, and driving the GA releases of  multiple suites of enterprise-class software solutions.

·        Oversaw data center operations in Chicago. Applications included ERP (financial / accounting controls), billing, help desk and bug tracking, sales / CRM, and development / QA / demo environments. Hired and managed internal IT teams and strategic technology partners for successful rollouts to meet business objectives.

·        Both oversaw and performed hands-on implementation of compliancy for public company (once acquired) and for VC-based C-Corp auditing (PriceWaterhouseCoopers). Set corporate standards and procedures for Sarbanes-Oxley and COBIT audits and controls.

·        Hands-on product development and management led to the issuing of several broad US patents in mobile software and award-winning solutions including SQL Server Magazine Readers Choice, Windows Server System Readers Choice, and Pocket PC Magazine Best Software.

·        Negotiated and executed top-level partnerships with Oracle, CA, Teradata, Microsoft, and BMC.

·        Personally closed many large deals including Verizon, USPTO, Oracle, and American Healthways. Opened EMEA offices in Paris and ASIA-PAC in Tokyo.

·        Raised the largest first-round funding for Illinois 2001, and over $16M led by top-tier firm Menlo Ventures.

·        Chairman of BOD which included founders of Teradata and Hotmail and ex-CEO of Chicago Board of Trade.

 

Chief Architect / Senior Consultant, 1994-1999, for enterprise companies including Chicago Board Options Exchange, Merck & Co., 3Com/US Robotics, Hallmark, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, InterAccess, Playboy Enterprises

 

Measurable results and accomplishments:

·         Chicago Board Options Exchange: Helped reinvent the core business applications for the world’s largest options exchange to enable decimal trading (from fractional), to handle exponentially larger volumes of options trading, and to convert operations from mainframe to open systems. Served as lead data architect for several projects, all successfully completed on-time and under-budget. Responsibilities included infrastructure planning and deployment, system architecture, and database and SQL tuning. The applications process hundreds of millions of quotes daily providing for billions of dollars of financial trades.

·        Merck & Co: The OMS (Order Management System) application is used to place billions of dollars of orders and track all inventory for the world's largest pharmaceutical corporation. Played a senior role on a team of 50 to design and implement this mission-critical application providing the backbone for the $60 billion market-cap company. Application successfully rolled out in over 100 countries on-time and on-budget.

·        3Com/U.S. Robotics: Lead database architect for the implementation and upkeep of dozens of applications for the world's leading manufacturer of modems. Applications managed included just-in-time manufacturing, R&D, Scopus, HR. Helped to successfully merge applications and data center operations after US Robotic’s $6.6 billion acquisition from 3Com.

·        Hallmark: Served as lead administrator for www.hallmark.com’s databases. At the time this was one of the top-ten e-commerce websites on the Internet. Successfully implemented and supported applications that set worldwide milestones for volume and concurrent transactions.

·        PriceWaterhouseCoopers: Worked for the Emerging Solutions Group, using breakthrough approaches to uncover hidden consumer purchase patterns. The best-selling book, “How Hits Happen” was written about our successes.

·        InterAccess: Implemented key Billing system for one of the largest Internet Service Providers in the nation. The new billing and tracking systems enabled InterAccess to aggressively grow their customer base, eventually resulting in a sale to Allegience Telecom. The billing system became part of Portal’s Infranet, which was acquired by Oracle in 2006 for $220M.

·        Playboy Enterprises: Served as Oracle database consultant for Playboy Online, at the time one of the top Internet e-commerce sites. Responsibilities resulted in bottom-line results and included database and SQL tuning, preparing and testing standby databases, establishing backup and recovery procedures, and troubleshooting.

Oracle Corporation, Consultant, 1992 – 1994

Measurable results and accomplishments:

·        Architected and performed hands-on implementation for some of Oracle’s most important and highly-visible clients. For each of these multi-million dollar revenue clients, served as project manager and consultant. There was a perfect record of going into production on-time and under budget.

·        Highlights on customer applications: the Department of the Navy’s BAIM project was used to reduce planning effort and availability cost for depot maintenance of Navy ships by standardizing processes among shipyards for the repair, maintenance, and overhaul of ships. Computer Science Corporation’s application was used in tracking military equipment, and was used in the decisive military victory in the first Persian Gulf War. Bell Atlantic’s Video Service project was an early prototype for the first commercially available interactive television system (Tivo). Baltimore Gas and Electric’s Nucleis project enabled the maintenance and searchability of documents at nuclear and fossil generating plants. Computer and Electronic Communications’s Consolidated Logistics and Maintenance Management System provided employee tracking and information for Army Intelligence.

Baseball Summary

Ari Kaplan is known throughout the Major Leagues for revolutionizing and modernizing player assessment.  Over the past 16 years, he has brought innovative analysis and technology to baseball.  While employed by the Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, and Montreal Expos, he designed and developed scouting and player development database systems from the ground up.   Throughout the 1990s, he was a senior consultant with eight additional organizations to cross-supply scouting reports, depth charts, and additional information.   In the late 1980s, while still an undergraduate at Caltech, Kaplan gained national attention by popularizing the inherited runner statistic and creating new pitching evaluation techniques including the Save Value and Reliever Effectiveness.  Baseball highlights include:

·         Worked with several teams and under many General Managers and Managers including Kevin Kennedy, Frank Robinson, Roland Hemond, Joe McIlvaine, Fred Claire, Jim Beattie, Bill Stoneman, Doug Melvin, Dan Duquette, Kevin Malone, Larry Lucchino, David Littlefield, Randy Smith, and others.

·        Received Caltech’s Alumni of the Decade award for his ability to analyze player performance and trends with new techniques and technology.

·        Profiled on the covers of ComputerWorld, (Oct. 99), Data Management Review (Aug. 02) and Contract Professional (Oct. 99).  Also featured in Baseball America, on CNN, and the “Today Show”.Consultant for multiple MLB teams and scouts, 1993 - present

EDUCATION:

·         Bachelors of Science, Engineering and Applied Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 1992.

HONORS/ACHIEVEMENTS:

·         Awarded California Institute of Technology's Alumni of the Decade for the 1990’s.

·         Active on the Swedish-Russian Working Group on the Fate of Raoul Wallenberg. This international humanitarian group has taken the lead on investigating the fate of the WWII hero credited with saving 100,000 Hungarian civilians, before disappearing in the Soviet Gulag. Conducted a dozen trips to Russian prisons, along with Raoul’s half-brother uncovering many answers into his fate.

·         Granted broad US Patent 6,772,169 “System, Method and Apparatus for the Wireless Monitoring and Management of Computer Systems” with 46 claims, 2004.

·        Received Crain Communication’s "40 Under 40" distinction for effective young business leaders.


BOARD OF DIRECTOR POSITIONS

·        President and CEO of the Independent Oracle Users Group for the world’s second largest software company. www.ioug.org

·        Illinois IT Association. www.illinoistech.org

·        Editorial Board of Oracle Magazine (600,000 subscribers). www.oraclemag.com

 

MEDIA/SPEAKING HIGHLIGHTS

·         Cover features on Kaplan include: Data Management Review Magazine; ComputerWorld Magazine, Contract Professional Magazine. Interviewed for more than 150 print articles and TV segments, including the Today Show, CNN, USA Today, CIO, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Red Herring, InfoWorld and eWeek.

·         Popular speaker at national and international technology conferences including Comdex, OracleWorld, the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, Wall Street Technology Association, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, JETRO’s US-Japan Hi Tech Partnership, and dozens more.

·         Motivational and keynote presenter for CEO audiences including: Gordon Moore (Intel), Charles Phillips (Oracle), Thomas Mendoza (Network Appliance), Roger Smith (General Motors), Ben Rosen (Borland), John Akers (IBM), Arnold Beckman (Beckman Instruments), Rob McNamara (World Bank), Simon Ramo (TRW).


ARI KAPLAN in the MEDIA

 

 

On Business

 

Ari Kaplan invented the product after a ‘eureka moment’ while he toiled in databases at U.S. Robotics …Expand Beyond could do for databases what the remote control did for TVs.”

v      CIO Magazine (July, 2002)

 

Ari Kaplan recently took his place among the great contributing alumni at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.  Kaplan's honor ranks among such outstanding graduates as film director Frank Capra, Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and scientist Harrison Schmitt, the last man to walk on the moon.”

v      Trenton Times (August 9, 1997)

 

 

“It’s no secret that Chicago’s venture funding landscape has been akin to a desert this year, but over $11 million rained down on Expand Beyond this week.  The cloud burst came from Silicon Valley-based Menlo Ventures.”

v      I-Street (September 21, 2001)

 

 

 “While you still may be dreaming about the day you can own that powerful Ferrari, there is no need to dream about the efficiency and flexibility of wireless enterprise management. With Expand Beyond, you can move to the wireless fast lane today.” 

v      Data Management Review (executive cover story, August 2002)

 

 

On Baseball

 

“Until Kaplan got into the act, talent scouts tracked players on written notes that they later stuffed into file drawers…Now he’s developed databases and decision-support systems for just about every Major League team in the country.”

v      ComputerWorld (November 15, 1999)

 

 

"Our ability to generate stats has gotten way ahead of our ability to make any sense of it… it's going to take a lot of work by people like Mr. Kaplan before we understand what all this means."

v      Bill James (LA Times)

 

 

“Kaplan has already has devised three formulas that could, if instituted, change the way managers handle their bullpens.”

v     Baseball America (March 21,1993)

 

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