Eleanor Powers
Director of Research
Eleanor is an accomplished digital media executive with proven experience in corporate development, new businesses and product development, with a special expertise in businesses driven by membership and client renewal. Prior to joining OPEXEngine, Eleanor was part of management team of fast-growing digital start-up L2 Inc., which benchmarks the digital performance of brands for marketers. For half a year after joining L2 in 2013 she was Acting CFO, managing all aspects of Finance including a successful fund raise of $16.5M from General Catalyst.
As SVP of Research and Strategy at The Online Publishers Association (now Digital Content Next) and as the President and Founder of Powers Media and Entertainment Consulting, she specialized in benchmarking and corporate development for digital publishers. Prior leadership positions involving digital business development and start-ups include being SVP, Corporate Development at United Media (Scripps Howard), and VP, Information Services at Fairchild Publications (CapCities/ABC – Disney). Eleanor has served on the board of Rainbow Broadband, a start-up internet broadband access company for B and C class buildings in NYC, and Endurance Business Media, a real estate franchise publishing company.
A former McKinsey consultant, Eleanor has an MBA from The Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Radcliffe College.
CFO Maxwell Health
James oversees Accounting, Planning, Treasury, Human Resources, and Information Technology functions at Maxwell Health. He is excited to have a hand in helping evolve Maxwell Health’s positive, mission-driven culture.
Prior to Maxwell, James was the Chief Financial Officer at Evariant, where he helped build the Accounting and Finance functions and scale the business through multiple rounds of funding. Before Evariant, James held Finance roles at American Tower, Kaz, and Decision Resources Group.
James received his Master of Science degree in Finance from Brandeis University, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College. James also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA institute.
CFO Pepperjam
Greg is responsible for overseeing Pepperjam’s finance and accounting operations. Prior to joining Pepperjam in 2017 Greg served as IBM’s Security SaaS CFO and additionally was responsible for rebuilding IBM’s global SaaS financial management and planning processes.
Greg joined IBM in 2013 via the acquisition of Fiberlink, a leading SaaS Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) platform, where he was a member of the leadership team who launched and scaled the EMM platform prior to its sale to IBM. Prior to Fiberlink Greg held financial leadership positions at CIGNA and State Farm Insurance.
Greg holds a B.A. in Accounting from Kutztown University.
Chief Economist Clayton Economics
Richard is currently Chief Economist at Clayton Economics after 40 years at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics where he was Chief of the Division of Administrative Statistics and Labor Turnover, producing the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS), and Business Employment Dynamics (BED). These three programs provide critical data on the US economy and are highly valued by the business community, the FED, and innumerable other users. The QCEW is the most valuable federal administrative dataset (as determined by COPAFS) for its details, accuracy and frequency and also its many uses by both states and federal users; and BED provides insight into the underlying movements behind the net job change data.
Rick’s work was recognized through 2 Vice Presidential Hammer Awards, several awards from the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner of Labor Statistics. He also led a team to a Ford Foundation award “Innovations in American Government” and a Federal Technology Award.
Rick received his B.A. in Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Economics, both from Ohio University.
CFO
Sherri is a seasoned finance and operations professional with deep experience in the operations and financial structures of emerging growth companies. Sherri began her career on Wall Street with Salomon Brothers and then became an equity research analyst with Adams, Harkness & Hill, a Boston based investment bank where she covered information technology services companies. After leaving the capital markets, Sherri became a Managing Director at Internet Capital Group (ICG), an Internet venture capital organization with 80 business-to-business e-commerce companies in its portfolio.
Sherri has spent the last 15 years working with start-ups in the information services and consumer goods markets in a variety of financial and operational roles. Most recently, she was the CFO of JOOS, LLC where she helped to build JOOS into the largest fresh-pressed, organic fruit and vegetable juice provider in New England. She joined OPEXEngine to be a part of a rapidly growing high tech Company that has an impact on how financial professionals make day to day operating decisions.
Sherri is President, Columbia College Women and Board Member of Columbia College Alumni Association. Sherri has a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an MS in Finance from MIT Sloan School of Management.
COO & General Counsel
Rich is a successful SaaS technology executive with a unique background including roles as COO, CFO and General Counsel in a variety of B2B and B2C organizations. He leverages his operational, finance, legal and business expertise to transform business outcomes and build shareholder value for start-up and growth companies, including as CFO at OLB Inc., FISC Solutions (acquired by WAUSAU Financial Systems), and Relevant Equity Systems (a Thomson Financial portfolio company). He joined OPEXEngine for the opportunity to work with leading SaaS companies and to leverage his skills in helping to build out the OPEXEngine benchmarking product offering.
In his various leadership roles, he has driven financial operational and business strategy, scaled organizational infrastructure, raised outside capital and arranged financing, implemented financial reporting, customer care and KPI driven process improvement, accelerated product innovation, and expanded operations into global markets. His industry expertise includes technology, media, financial services, and consulting.
Rich resides in Boston and holds Master’s Degree in Finance from McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University and a J.D. from New England Law Boston.
Founder & CEO
Lauren Kelley is the founder of OPEXEngine. After 25 years in fast growth high tech companies, she founded OPEXEngine to solve the problem that high tech companies lack good quality benchmarks from a neutral provider — especially operational benchmarks — to reduce risk and improve efficiency and growth. Lauren is also a big believer that data and benchmarks level the playing field in decision-making, reducing all sorts of biases that can cloud management decision-making, affecting efficient growth.
Prior to OPEXEngine, Lauren led WW revenue and operations for internet and ecommerce pioneer, ATG, as SVP of WW Sales and Strategic Development, from start-up through ATG’s IPO (with one of the highest market valuations in the industry). ATG was later acquired by Oracle. Before ATG, Lauren managed part of Borland Software’s European business from Paris, France; and helped build Compaq’s East European business from Munich, Germany.
Lauren has a BA from Tufts University and M.I.A. in political economy from Columbia University. Lauren’s professional career started as an international economist in the Office of Computers in the US Department of Commerce, where she represented the US supercomputer industry in trade negotiations in Japan and Europe. Lauren’s entrepreneurial career started in elementary school when she created tie dyed wastebaskets and enlisted her friends to help her sell them by calling numbers in the phone book with similar phone prefixes – an early, manual version of direct marketing.