COLEMAN FUNG
Founder and Chairman of the Board
As Founder and Chairman of OpenLink, Coleman Fung has guided this leading provider of financial and energy trading, risk management, and operations/logistics software solutions through a decade and a half of extreme business and economic challenges.
Frustrated with traditional, “silo” trading and risk management technologies as a derivatives trader, Fung launched OpenLink to challenge market conventions with a robust and open technology platform based on a common cross-market risk architecture. As the initial business architect, he designed this cross-market risk architecture – which is still unique today – for a robust environment that seamlessly supports front- through back-office requirements for financial and energy/commodity markets. He marketed his vision and developed strategic partnerships with a wide variety of customers, from traditional banking institutions, insurance firms and corporate treasuries to utilities and global energy companies. Under his direction, the diverse requirements of OpenLink's strategic partners have reaffirmed and redefined the leadership position of the company's core products. OpenLink was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Risk Management Innovator of the Year by Platts in 2007.
Complementing his visionary ideas and risk management expertise is his unique “fellowship” management approach, where an organization is constructed using a hybrid model that combines a traditional corporate structure with a “flat,” egalitarian management team. Over the years, Fung has carefully cultivated this very talented and loyal fellowship team – with a strong and ethical culture – not only to manage the rapid growth of the business, but also to weather all the storms, from the burst of the dot-com bubble to the collapse of Enron and energy trading all the way to the current credit crisis.
Prior to establishing OpenLink, Fung was one of Fuji Capital Markets Corporation's (now known as Mizuho Capital Markets) founding members of the trading team and helped build its trading infrastructure. Previous jobs include positions with Chemical Bank's product development and derivative trading groups, and Solomon Brothers' Bond Portfolio Analysis Group. Fung also served three years active duty in the US Army.
Fung is also a social entrepreneur, devoting significant amounts of his energy and resources (personally and through the Coleman Fung Foundation) for a number of worthy educational and environmental causes, from creating the Coleman Fung Risk Management Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, funding a number of university and grade school chairs, developing/supporting creative educational programs for under-served minority kids, sending books and school supplies to Mali through a group of French high school students, funding the development of a nutrient trading protocol, supporting an integrated program to restore the water shed of Chesapeake Bay, to providing financial support to veteran housing and many other worthy projects.
Fung holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
KEVIN J. HESSELBIRG
CEO
Mr. Hesselbirg joined OpenLink in May 1999 as the Chief Financial Officer and two years later transitioned to Chief Operating Officer. In September 2007, Mr. Hesselbirg was appointed Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure at OpenLink, he has helped transform OpenLink to a multi-national industry leading commercial software and professional services organization with seven operating divisions located in seven countries.
Prior to OpenLink, Mr. Hesselbirg was a Vice President of Finance at Trex Medical Corporation, a publicly traded subsidiary of Thermo Electron Corporation. These companies were engaged in the design, manufacture, and distribution of high end and digital x-ray, mammography, and fluoroscopic products primarily used in hospitals, clinics and healthcare facilities. Mr. Hesselbirg’s responsibilities included all aspects of corporate reporting, acquisition due diligence, as well as Board of Directors and Investor presentations.
Mr. Hesselbirg began his career at Ernst & Young LLP, where he ascended to the position of Audit Manager in the specialized privately owned and emerging business group providing both audit and business advice to high growth businesses primarily in the medical technology industry.
He holds a BS from Fordham University where he graduated valedictorian of the class of 1987.
KEN KNOWLES
Executive Vice President, Financial & Risk Solutions
Ken Knowles joined OpenLink in 1996 to manage the company's research and development issues, assist with client support, and help facilitate system sales processes. As the organization grew, Ken assumed full responsibility for the risk and analytic elements of OpenLink's solution sets. In 2007, his responsibilities broadened to include commercial ownership of the Findur product line.
Current responsibilities include management and oversight of the Findur and Risk & Analytics products and services teams. As a chief architect of OpenLink’s financial trading and risk functionality, Ken continues to play an active role in software development and design, as well as lending support to client needs and sales initiatives.
Prior to joining OpenLink, Ken worked at Mobil Corporation as a trader in the Capital Markets Group, managing the interest rate and currency exposures of Mobil's global treasury portfolio.
Ken Knowles holds an M.S. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Systems Engineering with distinction from the University of Virginia.
Dr. WOLFGANG FERSE
Executive Vice President, Commodities & Energy Solutions
Wolfgang Ferse has worked with OpenLink since September 1998, first as a Solution Manager at IBM supporting the implementation of Energy Trading Solutions. He joined OpenLink in 2000 as Consultant and Account Manager at the London office. In 2001 Ferse built up the German office in Berlin which he has led as a Managing Director since November 2001.
During his time with IBM, as Solution Manager, Ferse was responsible for project management and solution development in the field of power trading, optimisation and power transmission in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. At this time he also led Energy Trading implementation projects.
For the 10 years prior to IBM, Ferse was in a research centre, as the head of a department with focus on application development and consulting. He led a department in long term projects for decision support systems in the environmental and power supply industries. His department was mainly involved in the design and development of program systems. Ferse also was responsible for several consulting projects at German utility companies regarding the business process of energy trading, optimisation and sale. Ferse holds a Masters degree and a PhD of Power Engineering.
MICHAEL GALLAGHER
CTO
Michael Gallagher is responsible for the technology and core functional architecture of OpenLink’s product offerings. Product specialists build upon this infrastructure for Trading, Risk and Physical Logistics. In addition to technology components such as database, distributed processing and the user interface, his Horizontal Development Group has responsibility for common processing, such as back office, workflow and integration, utilized across asset classes.
Responsibilities include oversight of all development activity at OpenLink to ensure development quality and consistency. In his current role, Gallagher also oversees all MIS functions including OpenLink’s OnDemand offering. He joined OpenLink in 1996 from Goldman Sachs, where he was a senior applications developer responsible for foreign exchange and commodities trading, and back office processing.
Prior experience includes working at Grumman Aerospace within the Corporate Research Department. This work included computational analysis and support for a team of scientists performing research in areas including atmospheric physics, molecular spectroscopy, image processing and computational fluid dynamics.
Michael holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology and has extensive industry experience with relational database technology, distributed processing, and transaction processing systems.
GARY KOCHE
Managing Director, Findur North America
Gary Koche is responsible for sales and service to capital markets clients in North America. Previous responsibilities since joining OpenLink in 1996 included managing implementation and development projects in the US, Europe and Latin America, quality assurance and training functions, and business development activities.
Prior to joining OpenLink, Koche served as manager of planning and financial services with Waste Management Inc. and as marketing specialist with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC). He received BS and MBA degrees from DePaul University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
ROBERT KALISH
Managing Director, Strategic Client Group
Robert Kalish joined OpenLink in 1992 as one of the founding architects and developers of the product. Since that time, he has been instrumental in the technology and architecture behind OpenLink’s cross-market trading and risk management solution sets.
Recently, Robert has assumed leadership of the Strategic Client Group responsible for corporate sales and consulting to strategic clients across all supported markets.
From 1986 to 1992, Kalish developed sophisticated medical electronics and signal processing software, and prior to that he was a consultant at Bell Laboratories where he designed communications software.
He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union.
JOHN D'ALEO
Managing Director, OpenLink, Americas
John D’Aleo joined OpenLink in 1998 as a fixed income specialist and was instrumental in implementing OpenLink’s solution offerings at numerous client sites, as well as revamping and creating streamlined implementation and delivery processes. In 1999, D’Aleo assumed responsibility for the management of all North American client services, and OpenLink’s customer support and help desk operations. In addition to these responsibilities, D’Aleo continued to play an active role in new business development.
In 2001, D’Aleo was charged with developing, building, and managing the New York division of OpenLink, targeting financial, commodity, banking, insurance, and pensions firms. The subsequent success of the division in 2001 resulted in the 2002 opening of OpenLink’s Manhattan location, where besides running the day-to-day operations; D’Aleo oversaw all sales and client service activities. In 2005 D’Aleo was charged with expanding the reach of OLF to include Latin America and as such worked towards the successful opening of the São Paolo office in addition to running the New York Division. In 2007 D’Aleo was promoted to Managing Director of the Americas whereby he was placed in charge of the Houston Office in addition to New York and São Paolo, thereby overseeing the day-to-day operations, sales activity, and consulting services for North, Central and Latin America for OLF.
Prior to joining OpenLink, D’Aleo was a senior fixed income analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman and Co.
D’Aleo holds a master of business administration with a concentration in banking and finance from Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University, and a bachelor of business administration in accounting from Villanova University.
JEAN-CLAUDE RISS
Managing Director, OpenLink, United Kingdom
Jean-Claude Riss has worked with OpenLink since 1995, first as a consultant with mpct Solutions, Ltd. marketing the company's integrated risk management systems. He joined OpenLink in 1998 as Managing Director of OpenLink International when the company opened its London office.
During his tenure with mpct Solutions, formerly Internet Systems, Ltd., Riss also acted as General Manager, responsible for the product direction, sales activities and project management. He co-founded and managed this software company, which developed a real-time risk management system for front-office treasury trading.
For the 15 years prior to founding, Riss was involved in a number of risk management trading areas for Manufacturers Hanover Trust, including Capital Markets, Treasury, Operations, Controllers and International Audit.
Dr. MARKUS SEISER
Managing Director, OpenLink, Central Europe
Dr. Seiser became CEO of IRM in 2001. IRM was acquired by OpenLink in January 2007. In addition to his ongoing responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of the IRM subsidiary, Dr. Seiser currently serves as Managing Director of OpenLink’s Central European regional office.
Prior to OpenLink, he joined Landis & Gyr where he worked as a project engineer and project manager for several years. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the optimization of energy utilization within the framework of a customer project. As a co-founder of IRM in 1999, a leading energy solution provider in Europe with more than 40 clients in 16 countries, Dr. Seiser was responsible for establishing the Product and Project Management teams (focusing on physical trade and risk management), for defining the product portfolio and for the development of the IRM trading software.
Dr. Seiser majored in Electrical Engineering at the Graz University of Technology in Graz, Austria.
PHIL WANG
Senior Vice President, Product Management
Phil Wang joined OpenLink in 1997 as a business analyst. In his current role, Wang heads the Capital Markets Product Development Team and is responsible for the strategic direction of the Findur product.
Prior to this role, Mr. Wang spent 3 years working in OpenLink’s London office as the Findur Product Manager. In addition to these responsibilities, Wang has been involved with numerous Findur related client implementations where his roles ranged from account manager, consultant, and project manager.
Prior to OpenLink, Mr. Wang worked in the Treasury department for Boeing where he was responsible for cash and risk management.
Phil holds a Master of Finance from St. Louis University, MBA from Maryville University, and MS and BS degrees in Engineering from Georgia Tech.
RICH GROSSI
Senior Vice President, Global Client Services
Rich Grossi has held several management positions since joining OpenLink in 1998. During his tenure, he has managed various business and development teams focusing on end-user requirements and overall client satisfaction.
In the first few years at OpenLink, Rich worked heavily on client-driven development projects crossing various areas throughout OpenLink’s product suites. As a development manager, Rich oversaw various technology teams aimed at improving system technology and overall functionality. Since that time, he has been instrumental in the development of trading desktops, integration functionality, and overall system improvements crossing front, middle, and back-office areas. He has also managed core development and general enhancement teams improving the underlying technology and cross-market system functionality.
In his current position as Senior Vice President of Global Client Services, Rich oversees operations and client-facing initiatives, including global client support and services. His responsibilities include managing and improving the overall system quality, documentation, training and support of internal staff and OpenLink’s global client base.
Throughout his time at OpenLink, Rich has been involved in all aspects of project lifecycles, including implementation, application design and coding, training and documentation, project management and client support. Rich has extensive experience with handling client requirements and managing the full system design cycle, paying particular attention to client deliveries and end-user deliverables.
Prior to joining OpenLink, Rich worked as a VP of Development at KWI, where he was charged with technical management of internal software applications for a variety of dedicated clients.
Rich holds a B.S., Computer Science from Hofstra University.
JONATHAN STOCHEL
Senior Vice President, Commodity & Energy Solutions
Jonathan Stochel joined OpenLink in 1995 from New Windsor Associates, LP, where he was Director of MIS. Drawing on his additional experience as a registered trader, Stochel has led the Design and Development of all of OpenLink’s Endur product sets.
Stochel started his career as a Software Specialist for East Coast Computer Systems and went on to develop proprietary trading models at New Windsor Associates, LP before being promoted to Director.
He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Rutgers University.
DIANE W. MONTARULI
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Diane Montaruli has acquired over 20 years of experience in a wide breathe of human resource functions with primary emphasis on recruitment, benefits, compensation, policy development & implementation, employee relations, and regulatory compliance.
Prior to joining OpenLink, Ms. Montaruli worked with an international software company actively participating in their growth from start-up through IPO. In addition, she was a leader with a human resource consulting firm implementing and developing the human resource function for companies in a variety of industries such as insurance, manufacturing and retail.
Along with obtaining a Masters of Business Administration, she is a professional member of the Society of Human Resource Management.
