Mark Smith, CEO & Executive Vice President of Research
Mark is responsible for the overall direction of Ventana Research and drives the global research agenda covering both business and technology areas. He defined the blueprint for Information Management and Performance Management as the linking together of people, processes, information and technology across organizations to drive effective results. Mark is an expert in technology for business from Performance Management, Business Intelligence, Analytics to Information Management across finance, operations and IT. As an industry veteran with more than 22 years of experience, Mark worked at companies including SAP, META Group, Oracle and IRI Software before founding Ventana Research.  He has experience across major industries including banking, consumer products, food and beverage, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and retail and consumer services.

Mitchell Struthers, CFO and Senior Vice President – Finance & Administration
Mitchell heads up Ventana Research’s finance and administration. He comes to Ventana Research with more than 20 years experience as a performance leader in financial management. He has held senior finance management positions including Controller & Treasurer, and directed financial planning and analysis, budgets, capital management, M&A, accounting and treasury. He has been an integral part of senior management teams at early-stage and mature-market companies including Atlantic Richfield, the Pacific Stock Exchange, Pacific Telesis Group and SBC Communications.  Mitchell is a Chartered Financial Analyst and earned his BS from the Wharton School and his MS from the London School of Economics.

Robert D. Kugel, CFA, SVP & Research Director - CFO and Business Research
Rob heads up the CFO and business research focusing on the intersection of information technology with the finance organization and business. The financial performance management (FPM) research agenda includes the application of IT to financial process optimization and collaborative systems; control systems and analytics; and advanced budgeting and planning. Rob has been a technology analyst for over 20 years. Prior to joining Ventana Research he was an equity research analyst at several firms including First Albany Corporation, Morgan Stanley, and Drexel Burnham, and a consultant with McKinsey and Company. Rob was an Institutional Investor All-American Team member and on the Wall Street Journal All-Star list. Rob has experience in aerospace and defense, banking, manufacturing and retail and consumer services. Rob earned his BA in Economics/Finance at Hampshire College, an MBA in Finance/Accounting at Columbia University, and is a CFA charter holder.

Alan S. Kay, Vice President, Research Management
Alan manages the development, publication and syndication of the company’s research projects and other analytic and advisory materials. Alan is a veteran business journalist, newspaper and magazine editor and publication consultant who has written in and directed coverage of many of the areas addressed in Ventana’s research agendas. He served as executive editor of Corporate Computing and editor of Knowledge Management, and his writing has appeared in BusinessWeek, CIO, CRM, Datamation, Field Force Automation, Forbes, Fortune, InformationWeek, Mobile Computing & Communications, Small Business Computing & Communications, the Washington Post and Wired. Alan has been a judge for the Industry Solution Awards, has spoken widely on knowledge management issues including delivering an American Productivity and Quality Center conference keynote address, and has chaired sessions at the Seybold Seminars, the Bay Area Knowledge Management Cluster and the Cyber Summit. Alan attended Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and Princeton and Yale universities.

> Research Leadership Team Biographies