Management Team
First and foremost, mBLAST is made up of marketers, PR experts, and Influencers. We understand what marketers need from Influencers, how Influencers need to interact with marketers, and how to make it all happen via technology to make everyone more effective and efficient.
On top of that, we are experienced software professionals with strength leveraging leading-edge technologies to develop business solutions, driving results through organizational leadership, and growing businesses from start-up infancy to broad-market success. The mBLAST leadership team has collectively led nearly 10 firms and been involved with more than 100 early-stage companies in the high-tech arena.
Present members of the management team are Mark Hatch, Alexey Sadovoy, Edward Ferris, Yuriy Gumen, Michelle Finn.
Chief Executive Officer
Mark comes to mBLAST with over twenty years of experience in software engineering and high-tech management along with an impressive start-up background. Recently he has led software teams in developing the on-line storage services space at Carbonite and Intronis. At ICC and OneCore Financial, he contributed to the development of Internet banking, brokerage, and customer service applications for the Financial Services Industry.
Prior to that, Mark designed and built software applications for multi-lingual Machine Translation systems (where he holds a patent on design), large-scale on-line database searching, and Internet-based interactive gaming software.
In addition to being a certified Scrum Master, Mark earned an MBA from Northeastern University and also attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He has taught Computer Science and Mathematics in the Massachusetts State College System for the past 20 years.
Vice President, Information Technology
Ed manages mBLAST's relationships with its outside IS partners. He brings over two decades of Information Systems design and management to mBLAST, with extensive experience as a CIO, CTO, IS director, network manager and consultant.
Ed focuses on innovative and robust solutions to support the company's distributed and mobile work force, as well as supporting mBLAST's client base through the company's Web sites and other electronic products.
Prior to joining mBLAST in 1999, Ed was Director of Information Systems for the Professional Development Group, a technical training firm where he successfully created and managed an IT department through a period of over 200 percent growth, while simultaneously rolling out new systems company-wide and overseeing the development of custom applications. He developed process and work-flow systems to support the company's growth. He also helped define products and develop new product delivery systems to shorten deliver times to customers.
Previous to his tenure at the Professional Development Group, Ed was IT Manager and Consultant for Analysis Group / Integral Inc. Ed helped develop group communications systems and knowledge sharing environments in support of a highly mobile, global consulting group.
He has also been a Project Manager at Media 1, Inc. and the proprietor of his own multimedia design and consulting firm.
Vice President, Application Development
Alexey has been with mBLAST since the very beginning, and has been building and guiding the technical progress of all key products for the past seven years. He is responsible for leading all technical development teams utilizing Agile/Scrum methodologies as well as being an integral architect in the design of all major systems for mBLAST's suite of products.
Prior to joining mBLAST, Alexey was a software engineer at the publishing agency Blitz-Inform where designed and coded database processing systems, and also at Infopulse where he worked on marketing and business process systems.
Alexey received his Master's degree in Computer Science from the National University Kyiv Mohyla Academy in Kiev, Ukraine.
Vice President, Product Management
Yuriy has over 12 years of experience in tech development, marketing, and executive management in high-tech companies. He received his Master's degree in Computer Science from the National University Kyiv Mohyla Academy in Kiev, Ukraine. He has been with mBLAST since the very beginning, and has been taken part in building and guiding the technical progress of all products.
Before joining mBLAST, Yuriy took part in development of web-based solutions for social media companies as group leader of the 20+ members teams. He was responsible for guiding products throughout the execution cycle, focusing specifically on analysing, positioning and promoting solutions.
At mBLAST, Yuriy is responsible for execution of the product development process, helps increase margins to established business goals, and ensure worldwide product standards. He is flexible, results-oriented manager who is consistently challenged to bring innovative, world-changing products to market.
Vice President, Finance
Michelle has over 20 years of financial industry experience. She has laid the groundwork for several Telecom and IT companies, growing them from a few start-up employees to multi-state, international organizations. At mBLAST, she manages all the financial and administrative activities of the firm which include accounting, audit, tax, purchasing, legal, and human resources.
Michelle began her financial career as a commercial and retail banker with Chase and Bank of America. Her knowledge of lending and accounting gained in the banking industry has been invaluable in her corporate years. As a commercial banker with Chase, she was in the Private Banking Group, catering to the Bank's most valued customers, handling all of their credit and investment needs. As a retail banker with Bank of America, Michelle was a Branch Manager, supervising branches and their lending and sales forces.
Before entering the banking industry, Michelle worked on Capitol Hill, doing research for Congressman Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., recently retired Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and French from Denison University.