Louis Tetu, Chairman and CEO
Louis Tetu is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Coveo. Prior to Coveo, Mr. Tetu co-founded Taleo Corporation [NASDAQ: TLEO], the leading international provider of on-demand Internet software for talent and human capital management, where he held the position of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors from the company's inception in 1999 through 2007. In 2004, Taleo was recognized the 11th fastest growing technology company in the United States within the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.
Prior to Taleo, Mr. Tetu was President of Baan SCS, the supply-chain management solutions group of Baan, a global enterprise software company with more than 5,000 employees. This followed Baan's acquisition of Berclain Group inc., which Mr. Tetu co-founded in 1989 and where he served as president until 1996. Mr. Tetu is an Engineering graduate from Laval University of Canada in 1985 and in 1997 was honoured by Laval for his outstanding social contributions and business achievements. He also received the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year award in the Technology and Communication category.
Outside of his professional career, Mr. Tetu is a private equity investor involved in technology and infrastructure projects within emerging countries, as well as a commercially licensed helicopter pilot. He lives in Quebec with his wife and their three children, and currently serves on the Board of Entraide Mutual Life Insurance Company of Canada.
Laurent Simoneau, President and CTO
Laurent Simoneau is President and CTO of Coveo, and is considered one of industry’s top enterprise search experts. Prior to Coveo, Mr. Simoneau was CTO of Copernic, an early leader in desktop search, where he oversaw the company’s product strategy and directed the research and development of core technologies. Mr. Simoneau also served as Chief Operating Officer at Copernic during which he successfully orchestrated the spin-off of the company’s enterprise search division in 2004 into what is now Coveo.
Mr. Simoneau is a graduate of Université du Quebec, where he holds an MBA degree. He resides in Quebec City with his wife and children.
Lawrence Pentland, Former Leader of Americas International Division, Dell Inc.
Lawrence Pentland is a former executive at Dell Inc. where he led the Americas International division with full P&L responsibility for operations spanning 40 countries and five thousand employees, including manufacturing operations in Brazil. During his 10 years at Dell, revenues in his division grew from $750 million to $4.6 billion.
Prior to joining Dell, Mr. Pentland held various industry roles and was a partner at Bain & Company Consulting in Boston and Toronto serving Fortune 500 companies in North America and internationally on issues of strategy, manufacturing and performance improvement. He is now a private investor in emerging technology companies.
Mr. Pentland has also served as a Director at Telus Inc. and currently serves on several private technology company boards as well as on the Board Research Committee at the University Health Network in Toronto.
Mr. Pentland holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in Honors Business Administration from the Ivey School, University of Western Ontario. He is married and has three children.
Patrick O'Leary, Former VP, Business Strategy, Cognos
Patrick O’Leary possesses over thirty years’ experience in the computer software industry, particularly in the sectors of enterprise applications, business intelligence, enterprise search and relational database management systems (RDBMS). He was employed by Cognos—a leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions—for seventeen years and served as Vice President for Strategic Alliances for six years, up to his retirement in 2006. During this time, he managed strategic partnerships with key platform providers such as IBM, Oracle and SAP. Prior to working with Cognos, Mr. O’Leary was Vice President for Sales and Marketing at McLeod Bishop Systems—a division of SHL SystemHouse (acquired by EDS)—where he helped provide industry-specific software to the mid-market. Mr. O’Leary holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Western Ontario.
Robert Talbot, Managing Partner and Vice President Investor Relations, Telesystem
Since 1977, Robert Talbot has played a leadership role as portfolio manager and venture capitalist in dozens of early-stage investments in the information and communication technology sector. Prior to joining Telesystem in 1995, Robert Talbot held senior positions at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada’s largest pension fund manager, where he was one of the founding members of the private equity investment group. At Telesystem, he was active in brokering the financing for Taleo, from seed stage to IPO (NASDAQ: TLEO). In addition to sitting on the boards of some of Telesystem’s portfolio companies, he has also filled board roles at Hydro-Québec Capitech, Groupe Vidéotron, Teleglobe Canada and Héroux-Devtek. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Montreal.
Serge Michaud, Portfolio Manager, Information Technologies and Telecommunications, Solidarity Fund QFL
Serge Michaud has a wealth of experience in operating technology and finance organization. He served as Vice President for Finance and Technology in several technology companies and has been Senior Manager for the Treasury department of the Laurentian Bank of Canada. For the Solidarity Fund QFL, he is involved in the identification and evaluation of new investments, as well as the management of current portfolios.
Howard Gwin, Chairman of Longview Solutions Corporation and Marqui Corporation
Howard Gwin serves as Chairman of Longview Solutions Corporation and Marqui Corporation, and is a board member with Cirba, Inc., Kinaxis, Inc., MKS, Inc., Taleo Corporation, and Blast Radius, Inc.
Mr. Gwin has previous experience on the boards of seven private and publicly held companies in the high tech marketplace. He has served on both Audit and Compensation Committees for TSX and NASDAQ-listed companies, and is considered an expert in board governance and effectiveness.
Mr. Gwin was President of Solect Technology Group, (billing, customer care and service management software for the telecommunications industry), where he helped orchestrate the sale of the company to Amdocs Inc., a world leader in customer management billing systems. The transaction (US$1.2B) was the largest ever for a private Canadian software company.
Prior experience includes a variety of senior and global executive management positions at PeopleSoft, Inc., that included responsibility for all the company’s revenue streams. During his tenure, PeopleSoft revenue grew from <$100M to $1.3B. Prior to PeopleSoft, he held senior positions in sales, marketing and operations at IBM and Xerox.
J. Alberto Yépez, Venture Partner, Trident Capital
Alberto Yépez is a successful and experienced entrepreneur, senior executive, board member, and private equity investor. He is currently working as a Venture Partner and entrepreneur-in-residence with Trident Capital and is a senior advisor to several venture capital firms and their portfolio companies.
Prior to Trident Capital, Mr. Yépez was Vice President of Identity Management and Security at Oracle. He joined Oracle through the acquisition of Thor Technologies, where he served as chairman, president and CEO from the pre-revenue stage to rapid growth and global expansion.
Previously, Mr. Yépez was entrepreneur-in-residence at Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm. He was co-CEO and a member of the board of directors of Entrust, Inc. (information security solutions), after the successful merger of enCommerce, Inc. (web access management and portal infrastructure), a company he co-founded and served as chairman and CEO from its inception. In addition, he has held senior management positions at Apple Computer and several other Silicon Valley-based start-ups.
Mr. Yépez experience in corporate governance comes from sitting on the board of directors of U.S. public and privately held companies, as Chairman of the Board, Chair of Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee, Chair of Special Committee, Chair of Compensation Committee, and member of the Audit Committee.
Mr. Yepez is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and holds a B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Electronic Physics from the University of San Francisco. He attended the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima, Perú.
