Management Team

Kevin Haar

President & Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Haar is a software industry executive with a wealth of experience in company building. Prior to joining Appistry, Kevin spent 17 years at Rational Software, where he played a key role in driving the company’s transformation from a fledgling software startup into an industry powerhouse with over $800 million in annual revenues. At the time of his departure from Rational–following the completion its $2.1 billion acquisition by IBM–Kevin served as its Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations with responsibility for worldwide sales, consulting, training, support, and business development. In addition, Kevin sat on Rational’s executive management committee, through which the company’s four highest-ranking executives and two founders charted its strategic direction. Before his tenure at Rational, Kevin held a number of field and management positions at HP.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Jean Roberson

Chief Financial Officer

Jean Roberson is a finance executive with 17 years of progressive experience in all areas of finance, treasury and accounting. Prior to joining Appistry, Jean was the Chief Financial Officer of Bandwidth Exchange Buildings, a real estate firm focused on the acquisition and management of properties serving telecommunication enterprises. In 1998 Jean co-founded Partner Communications and Services, an internet services provider, and served as its Chief Financial Officer. Jean also served as Treasurer for Purina Mills during the time of its sale to Koch Industries in 1998. She began her career as an auditor at Ernst & Young.

Jean holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri and is a C.P.A.

Sam Charrington

Vice President of Marketing

Sam Charrington is responsible for the company's overall marketing efforts, including marketing and brand strategy, product marketing and product strategy. Formerly, Sam was an early employee at Plumtree Software, where he made pivotal contributions in a variety of sales and marketing roles as the company grew from pre-revenue to over $80 million in annual income. Most recently, as Director of Business Development, he was responsible for defining and executing the company's technology partnering strategy. Previously, Sam held sales and marketing positions in AT&T's Business Multimedia Systems organization.

Sam holds a bachelor's degree in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University.

Michael Groner

Chief Architect

Michael Groner is an Appistry founder and is responsible for the technical architecture and vision behind Appistry products. Prior to co-founding Appistry, Michael served in various capacities at PaylinX and, after its acquisition, at CyberSource. One of the earliest PaylinX employees, Michael held the position of Chief Architect at the company. Michael led the development of several versions of the PaylinX Payment Server. Later, as Director of Software Development at CyberSource, Michael managed the integration of the PaylinX and CyberSource products and development teams. Michael began his career as a developer with Tapestry Computing where he designed and implemented PayPort 1.x, the foundation for the PaylinX concept.

Michael holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis.

John Leighton

Vice President of Engineering

John Leighton has held various positions in software development over the past twenty years. Most recently, Mr. Leighton served as Director of Software Development for Reuters America. During his tenure at Reuters, John worked on client data delivery systems that enabled other news and financial service companies to deliver real time news and financial information to their customers. John was also responsible for the development and infrastructure design of several company web sites, one of which became the fifth largest news and financial site globally. John joined Reuters through its acquisition of Bridge Information Systems, where he served as Technical Director of Software Development.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics, with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Mike Pinette

Vice President of Business Development

Mike Pinette leads Appistry's channel partnerships and strategic alliance efforts. Mike has over 25 years of industry experience as a business development and sales executive. Most recently, Mike spent four years at Zend Technologies, where he was responsible for strategic alliances and channel efforts as VP of business development. There he was focused on building sustainable and equitable relationships with IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Adobe and other regional partners to extend and sustain the PHP applications ecosystem. Prior to joining Zend, Mike served as VP of business development and marketing for Infogain, and as senior director of business development at TIBCO Finance Technology (acquired by Reuters). In addition, Mike held executive positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, Informix, and Actional Corporation (acquired by Progress Software).

Mike Pinette holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration from Salem University, an Advanced Certificate in Decision Support Systems from New Hampshire College and has successfully completed the Commercial Marketing Executive Program at Harvard University.