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The Rootstock Advisory Committee brings vision, drive, and commitment to deliver the leading SaaS manufacturing enterprise software serving Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) discrete manufacturers.

Simon Wilson - Chairman of the Advisory Committee

Simon’s background includes over 25 years of operational, financial and strategic positions in successfully running, growing, financing, buying and selling both public and private software companies.  Simon has also served on several boards of directors for software companies.

Simon is currently the CEO of MediaTile, the market-leading SaaS solution provider to the digital signage market.  He also serves as independent director and Chairman of M86 Security, a leading independent provider of secure web gateway products and services.

He previously served as CFO, EVP-Operations and a member of the board of directors for SurfControl, a publicly traded Internet security company, which was acquired by Websense in 2007.  Prior to SurfControl, Simon was a partner in KPMG’s U.S. Corporate Finance Practice, where he specialized in providing advice on corporate development strategy and M&A services to software and IT services companies.

Simon holds a BComm (honors) from Birmingham University, England.  He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.  He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Alex Hehmeyer – Chairman of the Board, Advisor, and Chief Financial Officer

Alex is a private equity investor in several enterprises, including two SaaS companies. He is a consultant to one of those companies whose software is used in auto and equipment lending companies.  He is Chairman of the Board and active in the workout of a defined benefit plan financial services and software company.  

Previously, Alex was the co-founder and President of Career Choices, Inc., a successful company in the for-profit postsecondary education business.  Career Choices, Inc. was sold to a major NYSE-traded company in 2003.  Before that, Alex was the CEO of the California Culinary Academy, which was a publicly traded (NASDAQ) for profit company.

Alex has extensive experience in investment and merchant banking. He served as a Managing Director, General Counsel and CFO for several years of Richard C. Blum & Associates, which grew from $10 million to over $450 million under management. He also participated in several partnerships that acquired companies and was active in investing in several public companies.  Alex held the position of First Vice President, General Counsel and a director of Sutro & Co. Inc., a NYSE member broker dealer and investment banking firm.  Earlier, Alex was an associate with the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.

Alex holds a BA degree from Yale University, and a JD degree from The University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), where he was an editor of the California Law Review.

Max Rayner - Advisor

Max Rayner is currently Chief Technology Officer at Travelzoo Inc., the largest publisher of travel deals on the Internet, where he led the creation of Fly.com, a leading travel meta-search engine.  Max cut his teeth in manufacturing systems at Allied Signal in the 1980s, in financial control for Xerox’s Microelectronics manufacturing in the 1990s, and running corporate infrastructure including application delivery for Sun Microsystems in the early 2000s. 

Max joined the SaaS revolution as Vice President of Systems Architecture for Salesforce.com, where he led systems architecture and product/platform re-engineering to future-proof the on-demand CRM leader which created infrastructure capable of over 100,000,000 transactions/day at an average of 250 milliseconds/transaction.  Prior to Travelzoo he was Executive Vice President of Products and Services at SurfControl plc, where he led the transformation of SurfControl plc’s products and technical infrastructure from primary dependence on on-premise software to a portfolio including truly global on-demand information security solutions. 

Max is a global citizen, born in Africa and educated in Europe and the United States.  He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, where he graduated Cum Laude, and went on to win the Kemeny Computing Prize at Dartmouth College.  He received his M.B.A. in Finance with highest academic honors from UCLA.

Randy Wheeler - Advisor

Randy Wheeler is the founder and CEO of Valley Oak Systems (acquired by Aon Corp in 2007) and has over twenty-five years of experience in the technology industry with the last thirteen years focused on the design, development, and implementation of Claims and Risk Management Information Systems.  Valley Oak Systems is the fastest growing national provider of Claims and Risk Management solutions to the insurance industry. Randy is the chief architect for the company’s products and oversees development. Prior to Valley Oak Systems, Randy was the Director of Sales and Client Services for Marathon Systems where he managed sales and technical professionals providing installation, training, custom report and interface development, release management, testing, and client support services. 

Before entering into the claims management systems area, Randy held multiple Regional Client Services Manager positions for Saddlebrook and GRiD Systems.  While at GRiD Systems, Randy led a group supporting the President of the United States through the White House Communications Agency (WHCA).  The WHCA used over 300 portable GRiD computers to provide all computer and communications services used by the Presidential staff during worldwide travel.

Randy is a recipient of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® 2004 award in the “Realizing Business Potential” category.