Stephan Schambach
Stephan Schambach is Chairman of the Board and Founder of Demandware, provider of the leading on-demand eCommerce platform for consumer brands. Prior to founding Demandware in 2004, Schambach was CEO of Intershop, an eCommerce company he founded in 1992, built to market leadership, brought public in 1998 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange's Neuer Market, and led to a successful NASDAQ listing in 2000. Long an eCommerce visionary, Schambach was among the first to recognize eCommerce as a major software market. He is the developer of a number of industry standards for the technology and also produced the first integrated eCommerce software package, enabling major global brands to sell and service over the internet. Schambach also currently serves as a board member of the SIIA (Software Information Industry Association of America) Software Division and regularly speaks in the industry about emerging technologies. Earlier in his career, Schambach studied physics at Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany, and was among the first to found a company in East Germany after the Berlin Wall came down.
John Pearce
President and CEO, John Pearce, brings more than 30 years of executive and operations experience in the technology industry to Demandware. Prior to joining Demandware, Pearce served as CFO at AppIQ where he led all business model and financial matters and facilitated the company's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard in 2005. Pearce also co-founded SilverStream Software (SSSW, NASDAQ) and served as the CFO, Vice President of International Operations, and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. As the CFO and Vice President of International Business at Watermark Software, Pearce grew the business through to its acquisition by FileNet Corporation in1995. Earlier in his career, Pearce held various operational and finance positions. He holds a Bachelor of Business degree from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
Larry Bohn
As a Managing Director of General Catalyst Partners, Larry focuses on the software infrastructure, enterprise software applications, and information technology sectors with a general interest in open source, software on-demand, and subscription-based business models. Larry is a board member of Advanced Electron Beams; Black Duck Software; ChoiceStream; Demandware; Optaros; OzVision Global; and QUMAS which are all active General Catalyst investments. Larry also served on the Board of Venetica, a General Catalyst investment that was acquired by IBM in October 2004.
Prior to joining General Catalyst, Larry was the chairman, president and CEO of NetGenesis, a market leading software and analytic solutions provider. Larry led NetGenesis from 1997 to 2001, overseeing the company’s business, product strategy and direction. During this time, NetGenesis was a two-time Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 award winner and was included among the Inc 500. In February 2000, Larry took the company public (NTGX) and in December 2001, NetGenesis was acquired by SPSS, Inc. (SPSS).
Prior to his role as CEO and president of NetGenesis, Larry was president of PC DOCS, Inc., a leading developer of document management software for enterprise networks. Under his leadership, PC DOCS’ product advanced to the number one market position. He also led the company's highly successful public offering. Prior to joining PC DOCS, Larry was senior vice president of marketing and business development at Interleaf, Inc., where he defined and implemented the corporate strategy that put its electronic publishing solutions in a top market position and helped grow the business to more than $120 million in revenue.
Larry is an honors graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and holds a masters of arts degree in Linguistics from Clark University.
Michael Skok
Michael Skok joined North Bridge Venture Partners in 2002. Prior to this, Michael had been an entrepreneur and CEO in the enterprise software business for over 20 years. Michael founded, led and attracted over $100Mil in private equity to his investments in several successful software companies ranging from CAD/CAM, Document Management, Workflow, Imaging and Collaboration, Security to Analytics and spanning the Mini Computer, Workstation, PC, Client Server and Internet eras.
Six of these companies were successfully acquired by Siebel, Platinum, Filenet, Banyan and IBM and two went public, including Symantec for whom he built Symantec UK into their most profitable international business. Most recently Michael founded AlphaBlox where he envisioned and defined the market for Analytical Applications, now a multi-billion dollar market segment.
Michael is a graduate of Nottingham University in the United Kingdom (awarded joint honors in Management Sciences and Engineering).
Dan O’Connor
Dan O'Connor founded MVI in 1988 and helped build the world's leading retail research and professional training firm. Dan is currently responsible for leading and developing CCONetwork, a peer group network designed for Chief Customer Officers at leading supplier companies. Prior to founding MVI, Dan was National Director of Retail and Consumer Products Consulting with Touche Ross & Company.
Management Ventures, Inc. (MVI), a WPP Group Company, is a subscription-based training and facilitation company with the largest retail research organization in the world. MVI tracks both the strategic and tactical developments in the 500+ billion-dollar retailers in the world, and the 110+ geographies where they operate. MVI operates research "hubs" in Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, UK.