Holly Executive TeamLance Berks CEO  Lance is CEO and Founder of Holly Connects. Lance was responsible for raising capital and securing business with Holly's key customers and strategic partners. He has also played a lead role in recruiting key management and technical personnel to Holly.
Lance began his career in telecommunications as Business Development Manager for Teljoy, a GSM service provider, and Internet Solutions. Moving to Australia, he was subsequently responsible for the development of strategic partnerships for the OzEmail Interline VoIP Network and was instrumental in building the OzEmail Interline VoIP affiliate program leading up to the acquisition by MCI WorldCom in 1999. Lance has 14 years experience in Internet and telecommunications industries and is well-connected throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Ryan Millar VP Sales UK/EMEA  Ryan manages the relationships with Holly's key channel partners and is also responsible for developing business with the channel.
Ryan was previously with Qantas, responsible for developing e-business strategies and leveraging technologies to establish online revenue streams. Ryan originally comes from a financial services background, having worked for JP Morgan Chase in London, undertaking business process re-engineering, as well as financial markets analysis. Ryan holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management at the Universities of New South Wales and Sydney. Dr. Andrew Hunt VP Engineering  Andrew leads Holly's R&D team with responsibility for Holly's product portfolio. Andrew has 15 years experience in the development and deployment of speech solutions. Previously at ScanSoft, Andrew was the Director of Speech Recognition Products at the Boston HQ . Previously at Sun Microsystems, Andrew led the SunLabs Speech Research Team. More recently, he was a consultant to Telstra on its speech application roadmap and speech solution delivery capability.
Andrew has an international profile in the speech industry. Over the last decade Andrew has played a leading role in the development and adoption of speech standards with editorship of standards including VoiceXML, SALT and those for speech recognition and text-to-speech. Andrew holds a PhD for speech recognition research and a number of speech patents. Dr. Rob Kassel VP Marketing and Product  Rob has over twenty-five years of experience working with speech and telecommunications technology. Prior to joining Holly, Rob was responsible for a portfolio of network speech products at Nuance Communications (originally SpeechWorks), including the successful integration of product lines obtained through multiple corporate acquisitions. Rob has worked at several pioneering companies, including Voice Processing Corporation and Wildfire Communications. Rob holds a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ray Teale Chief Technology Officer  Ray has 13 years research and development experience in IT and Telecommunications, and a Masters in Computer Science. Formerly an Oracle Principal Consultant for 8 years, Ray joined OzEmail in 1996, taking the lead role in development of a Call Management System for the world's first public VoIP service. Ray joins the Holly team as Chief Technology Officer, bringing a combination of both IT and Telecommunications R&D experience.
Sean Crosbie VP Business Development  Sean is one of the founding team members of Holly and brings 14 years of IT and Telecommunications industry experience to his position as Head of Business Development for Holly. He is currently responsible for driving the company's business opportunities and managing relationships with Holly's strategic technology and business partners; as well as guiding the company's market development activities.
Prior to Holly, Sean spent six years in senior engineering management roles at OzEmail and OzEmail Interline, one of the worlds first commercial VoIP businesses. Sean holds a Bachelor of Information Technology degree majoring in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Michael Gulley VP Account Management  Michael is responsible for sales in the Asia Pacific region in addition to managing global customer accounts.
Prior to joining Holly Michael worked for Dimension Data, a specialist IT services and solution provider, where he was Program Manager for the New South Wales contact center division. Earlier, Michael worked for Arthur Anderson as Senior Manager for B2B technologies. Michael holds Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of New South Wales. |
