LEADERSHIP

David Wortman - Executive Chairman

Dave Wortman is an experienced executive and entrepreneur. He serves as a director, advisor and CEO for emerging technology and life sciences companies, providing assistance in strategy development, fundraising and execution. In addition to Akoya, Wortman serves as Executive Chairman of SonarMed, an early stage medical device company. Wortman is a Venture Partner with Spring Mill Venture Partners, an Advisor to ARCH Development Partners and a Managing Partner with Midwest Venture Partners, a fund in formation.

Wortman previously served as CEO of Mezzia, a developer of a capital spending management system used by healthcare delivery organizations, initiating the process that resulted in the company’s sale to VFA. He also served as chairman and CEO of Made2Manage Systems, a developer of enterprise business systems for small and midsize manufacturers and distributors, where he led the company’s initial public offering and subsequently took the company private in a transaction with Battery Ventures. Wortman was a co-founder and director of Pritsker Corporation, an internationally recognized leader in computer simulation-based decision support software for business, industry and government, until the company’s sale to Symix.

Wortman was a director of Cohesia, a software company delivering solutions for managing manufacturing specifications across distributed supply chains, until its sale to Powerway. He was a director of publicly-held trade management solutions provider Vastera until its sale to J.P. Morgan Chase. He is a former director of Walker Information, a privately-held developer of customer loyalty management solutions.

Mr. Wortman has received numerous honors during his career, including the Ernst & Young Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year Award in technology. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from Purdue University.

Karen Caswelch – Chief Executive Officer

Karen Caswelch commands more than 20 years of cross-industry and global success in progressive senior-level capacities. She is an award-winning and quality-focused professional who has proven herself capable of thriving in fast-paced and challenging environments.

In her previous role, Caswelch served an 8-year tenure with Allison Transmission as Vice President of Purchasing, where she headed all related functions, including supplier quality, controlled the $16M expense budget, and developed and led a purchasing plan to build low-cost products in China and Korea. Caswelch also headed a department restructuring by instituting a zero tolerance standard for defects, ensuring overall product excellence. She also achieved a $12M reduction in materials costs, 30% improvement in supplier defect rate, and $2M in departmental budget savings within 1 year.

Caswelch functioned in various management capacities during her 16-year term with General Motors Corporation (GM). As Director of Order to Delivery, she developed Asia-Pacific regional strategies for supply chain management, led a 7-member regional team, and monitored the establishment of order to delivery across Japan, India, China, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Thailand. In this position, Caswelch realized more than $12M in savings across a 3-year project lifecycle by recommending a new project structure accepted by 75% of the global team.
As Director of Manufacturing & Quality Planning for GM in Asia-Pacific, Caswelch led manufacturing functions and built high-caliber teams for pertinent initiatives. In this role, she realized a 30% improvement in “JD Power Initial Quality” metrics, launching regional quality plan initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. She was also recognized as a manufacturing expert and was requested to lead a Y2K readiness initiative for all regional manufacturing plants across 6 countries.

Caswelch holds an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and a BS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has also earned awards for her top performance and dedication, including the Managerial Excellence award from National Women of Color, Quarterly Diversity Champion Award from Allison Transmission and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Center for Leadership Development. Caswelch served as Chief Marketing Officer for the International School of Indiana in 2009.

Alan Stacklin - Chief Technology Officer

Alan Stacklin is a seasoned technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in developing and commercializing advanced software products. His proven ability to translate market needs into commercial software applications has been critical to Akoya's product development and ongoing customer satisfaction.

Prior to joining Akoya, Stacklin served as Executive Vice President of Information Resources. During his tenure, Stacklin developed a state of the art technology vision and product platform strategy to replace multiple aging and vertically focused product offerings. Additionally, he developed and validated a product segmentation strategy along with a pricing program that allowed for a 20% revenue gain over the current product offerings while creating a successful go-to-market strategy, leading to 3 new customers and over $30 million in new revenues.

While at MetFabCity, a B2B exchange focused on business process innovation for the metal fabrication industry, Stacklin served as Chief Technology Officer. Stacklin developed and presented the corporate technology vision and strategy to investors, suppliers, and fabricators, securing $10 million of investment. He defined business requirements, use cases and work flows to expedite the business process of metal fabricators, saving over 20% of operating costs.

Stacklin held increasing levels of responsibility at Element K and Ziff Davis, culminating in his role as VP of Technology. Stacklin led the commercialization of zdu.com, a B2B on-line technology education platform. His work was critical in growing revenues from $0 to $12 million in two years and establishing a significant competitive advantage by launching new, innovative end user capabilities every 12 weeks. Stacklin also launched a custom online bookstore integrated with Oracle Manufacturing which allowed orders to be shipped within 2 hours. He successfully reduced the total cost of ownership of internal systems by 25% through process improvement and automation projects.

Stacklin earned an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester's William E. Simon Graduate School of Business, an M.S. from Union College and a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Martin Nowakowski – General Manager, Manufacturing

Every company needs someone who "makes things happen" and for Akoya, that person is Martin Nowakowski. A former Application Engineer and Mechanical Engineer Specialist, Nowakowsi understands all aspects of manufacturing and uses this knowledge to help customers take full advantage of the Akoya approach.

Nowakowski has more than twenty years experience, helping companies both large and small. In the past, Nowakowski has worked for such companies as Computervison Corporation, Harris Corporation, Wavefront Technologies, PTC, NexPrise/Ventro and several start ups.

Nowakowski earned a B.S.M.E from Wayne State University.

Steve Osterlind – Chief Statistician

Steve Osterlind is a nationally recognized expert in statistics. In the past, he has found many ways of bringing the power of knowledge to many applications. He is now applying his considerable experience to manufacturing.

Osterlind has published extensively on statistics and is a frequent speaker on the subject. He holds a B.A. from California State University, an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and is an American Scholar’s Fellow from Yale University. He has numerous awards and honors including the Leadership in Research award from Phi Delta Kappa, the Golden Chalk Award and the IDEA Distinguished Educator Award. He is also a Fulbright Scholar.

Brett Holland - Co-Founder

Brett Holland was a pioneer in developing online marketplaces, founding BoxDirect and later managing new product development for PaperExchange. In these positions he specialized in developing efficiency tools—a skill that he uses daily to help Akoya clients. He also has a thorough knowledge of manufacturing operations, having served as the Vice President of Operations for Summit Container Corporation.

Holland earned a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.S. and a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.