Leadership

No one goes into business to break even. Sustainable profitability requires the ability to measure, evaluate, adjust and repeat to maximizing production and performance. Creating and managing a platform that provides users with a simple and solid solution requires subject matter expertise beyond technology; it requires an understanding of the specific processes and challenges faced in their industries and sub-industries.

xTuple isn’t ERP for every company. xTuple was designed for manufacturing and distribution companies by subject matter experts. Our team, made up of technology pros with expertise in systems architecture and development, includes professionals with deep roots in manufacturing operations, strategy and management. The strength of our team and what we bring to customers rests in diverse backgrounds representing startup and growth companies in b2b, b2c and b2b2c.

Ned Lilly
CEO

In October 2001, Ned co-founded xTuple, originally called OpenMFG, with the aim of bringing the worlds of open platform software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) together to solve the unmet needs of small to mid-sized manufacturers. In 1999, he was a co-founder of Great Bridge, an early business built around the PostgreSQL database which is also the core technology for xTuple today. Great Bridge was incubated inside Landmark Communications, a mid-sized media company where Ned directed corporate venture investments, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and startup activity. Prior to Landmark, Ned worked for a regional technology group in Washington D.C. and had a brief first career in political media — television, radio and a non-partisan news wire. He holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. from George Washington University.

Matt Peterson
COO

Matt is a software tech executive with 20-plus years of both leading and advising startup and growth stage SaaS companies consistently to double & triple digit revenue growth. Extensive experience in recruiting talented leaders and building teams in sales, marketing, finance, operations, IT, customer experience, product development, and BI dashboard analytics. Experienced in converting company revenue engine from perpetual license to SaaS MRR and ARR. Experienced in raising investment capital. Most recently led a software company that has been named an Inc. Magazine’s “5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America” for 3 straight years and Mountain West Capital Network’s (MWCN) “Utah 100” for the fastest growing companies in Utah for 3 straight years. Interviews have appeared in publications such as, Forbes, Entrepreneur, eWeek, Huffington Post, CFO Magazine, and Fox Business. He graduated from the University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business with a B.S. in Business Management & Finance.

Ciara Rogers
Vice President of Product

Ciara has a passion for quality software that's efficient for all users and works to ensure continuous improvement of all xTuple products. She meets with customers to gather requirements relating to feature requests or bugs and writes comprehensive specification documentation for the development team. Ciara also works closely with the Sales and Marketing team to identify business trends for future product development. Ciara monitors the constantly evolving needs of customers today and tomorrow. Her goal is to work closely with customers to prevent headaches and reduce pain-points in manufacturing and/or distribution workflow. Ciara graduated from Towson University with a B.S. in Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice and earned her M.A. in Applied Sociology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Jennifer Shea
Vice President of Marketing

With more than 20 years of creative and strategic marketing and communications expertise, Jennifer understands the integration of technology in the manufacturing and distribution industries and strives to help SMEs take full advantage of proven and emerging technology to fight above their weight class – and achieve sustainable profitability. Jennifer is a former NYT journalist; she has worked almost exclusively in the B2B/B2C tech space for the past decade, with proven strategies and content creation for social media, digital, eCommerce, thought-leadership, go-to-market, and sales enablement for ERP, PLM, PDM, and disruptive technology solutions.

She is an alum of Baruch – CUNY with degrees in Journalism and English.

Sarah Spangler
Vice President of Customer Success

Sarah leads the team consisting of support and professional services, dedicated to providing a stellar customer experience from on-boarding and training through day-to-day use to managing business growth. She's an enthusiastic and driven professional with a passion for people, knowledge, leadership, collaboration, and results. Sarah has a proven successful track record in bringing teams together to facilitate an excellent customer experience, demonstrated ability to build customer relationships; develop and implement effective go-to-market strategies; identify client growth opportunities; and deliver top-notch customer service, process improvement, product training and education. Sarah holds a M.A. in English Language and Literature from the California State University in Fullerton and a M.A. in Professional Writing from Old Dominion University. She’s working on her M.B.A. at the College of William and Mary.

Wally Tonra
Vice President of Sales

A 25+ year technology veteran, Wally has spent more than 20-years in ERP working with manufacturers. A true subject matter expert, he possesses an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by manufacturers of every size and complexity. More than two decades working across industries to ensure clients have the solutions they need to impact their processes and performance, Wally is uniquely qualified to quickly and effectively address the primary areas of “pain” faced by manufacturers when they are considering, evaluating and selecting an ERP system.

xTuple Leadership Team

About xTuple's Leadership Team

Meet the xTuple Team