Dave Gowel, CEO & Co-Founder
After serving as a US Army Ranger and Armor combat platoon leader in Iraq, Dave left active duty military service and co-founded Clearly Creative, a consulting firm that integrated new forms of social business technologies with traditional strategies. It was during this period where his successes included earning the title of “LinkedIn Jedi” in The Boston Globe and ultimately led to the founding of Rocktech with Mark Rockefeller.
Prior to RockTech, Dave also served at MIT as an assistant professor of Military Leadership, is a board member of the East End House and is a founding member of the Kendall Square Association. Dave is the author of The Power in a Link: Open Doors, Close Deals and Change the Way you do Business Using LinkedIn.
In addition to the time Dave spends focused on RockTech, he is as active as possible in various nonprofit organizations supporting educational and military causes.
Eric Johnson, Vice President of Sales
Eric joined RockTech in April of 2011. Previously Eric was President of a start up solar energy company in Florida; Director of Distribution Channels at BAE Systems Products Division and Armor Holdings, Inc.; Global Industrial Sales Manager at ExxonMobil and served in the United States Army as a Field Artillery officer. Throughout his career he has gained extensive knowledge in the areas of professional selling, channel creation and management, business operations and business development. Eric is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds BS degrees in General Engineering and Electrical Engineering. He has completed work in the areas of Channel Management and Business at Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia.
Mark G. Lohr, Chief Financial Officer
Mark Lohr joined RockTech as its CFO in 2010. Previously, Mark was Founder and Principal Consultant at Ambient Inc., a Boston-area firm providing management consulting services to leading companies in the software, telecomm and financial services industries; Managing Director, Finance of the systems and operating divisions of Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments; and VP-Finance and General Manager of the Intercarrier Services Division at Appex Inc., a start-up provider of enterprise software and networked services to the cellular telephone industry which was subsequently acquired by EDS. Mark earned an MBA from Northeastern University and BBA in Accounting and Economics from the University of Michigan.
Mark currently serves as Vice Chair of the board of the East End House community center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is Board Advisor to the Newton-Tanzania Collaborative, Inc.
Kevin Potts, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing
Kevin is a seasoned marketing and product management executive for enterprise and consumer software as a service companies.
Prior to joining RockTech, he served in marketing, product management and corporate development roles at Emptoris, a provider of supplier relationship management applications. He built a world class marketing and product management team, which helped Emptoris get recognized as the category leader by Gartner Group and Forrester Research. It also led to Emptoris being shortlisted by prospects more often than any vendor other than SAP and the market share leader, according to Gartner. Emptoris was acquired by IBM.
Kevin also worked at FairMarket, which after its initial public offering was acquired by eBay, and McKinsey & Company. He served in the U. S. Marine Corps. He is a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy and has an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Joe Ryan, Vice President of Corporate Development
Joe is a seasoned software company operating executive and a proven leader in high technology sales, having successfully established and led multiple global software businesses.
Prior to joining RockTech, Joe was the general manager of Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) Identity and Policy Software Business Unit, where he established and lead a new software business chartered to develop and sell network policy and access security software. Joe had previously been Vice President of Advanced Technology Sales at Juniper.
As Vice President and member of the founding team at Funk Software, Joe helped establish Funk as a leader in the network access security software market while having direct responsibility for all commercial operations of the company, including world-wide sales and business development. Joe was instrumental in driving the business from start-up, through multiple growth stages, into a global organization, and through a successful exit to Juniper Networks.
Joe is a graduate of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.