I’ve gotten quite a few responses and additions to yesterday’s list of “Qpass mafia,” an influential group of former Qpass employees from the Seattle area. So far, nobody has sent me a Sicilian message (like a dead fish through my window), so I must be on the right track. But feel free to comment on this story if you have further additions or amendments to the Qpass family tree.
Qpass is the Seattle-based digital commerce company that was acquired by Amdocs for $275 million in 2006. Its homegrown talent has spawned a whole legion of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and new startups, which I detail below in a more complete table of “ex-Qpassions,” as they call themselves.
The table includes quite a few people I missed the first time around, including Michael Cockrill of Atlas Accelerator, Kevin Brown of Symform (and previously Tableau Software), John Bito of Entertonement, Martin Herdina of fatfoogoo, and Claudia Poepperl of adaffix.
I also heard some intriguing news from Chase Franklin, the Qpass co-founder and former CEO. “Having spent the last couple of years working on my golf game in Tucson, I’m returning to Seattle this month and in discussions regarding a couple exciting CEO roles,” Franklin wrote in an e-mail. “Time to get back on the horse.”
Here’s the updated Qpass family tree (up to 30 people, including 9 CEOs):
| Employee |
Former role at Qpass |
Current position |
| Rob Agee |
Director of business development |
Business development manager, Microsoft |
| Jeff Arrowsmith |
Senior director of finance |
COO, Tax Credit Group, Marcus & Millichap |
| Pat Behrens |
Controller |
CFO, Full Slate |
| John Bito |
Chief technical architect |
CTO, Entertonement |
| Scott Blanksteen |
Head of business and corporate development |
VP of product strategy, IceBreaker |
| Kevin Brown |
VP of sales |
VP of sales and marketing, Symform (previously with Tableau Software) |
| Bill Bryant |
Co-founder |
Venture partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson |
| Michael Cockrill |
VP product, VP solutions architecture, chief technical strategist |
Managing partner, Atlas Accelerator |
| Thomas Enochs |
VP of services |
Senior vice president, Globys |
| Damian Evans |
VP of product development |
VP of engineering, Ontela |
| Ron Faith |
VP and general manager |
CEO, Datacastle |
| Chase Franklin |
Co-founder and CEO |
On board of directors, Ontela |
| Eric Harber |
VP of corporate and business development |
President and COO, HipCricket |
|
Martin Herdina
|
Director of product management |
CEO, fatfoogoo |
| Tom Huseby |
Chairman |
Investor with Voyager Capital, SeaPoint Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, Hunt Ventures |
| Blake Ilstrup |
General counsel |
Senior attorney, Cooley Godward Kronish |
| Melanie Keisor |
Senior director of HR |
Senior HR role, Amazon |
| Rich Koehler |
Product manager |
VP products, Amdocs |
| Bill Lange |
Director of product management |
CEO, Full Slate |
| John Lauer |
CEO of Simplewire (bought by Qpass) |
CEO, Zipwhip |
| Scott Mahan |
Controller, VP finance |
CFO, Bsquare |
| Jon Matsuo |
SVP of sales |
CEO, DropStation |
| Mark McNeely |
Co-founder |
CEO, Intelevision |
| Roger Parks |
VP of products |
Co-founder and vice president, Doxo |
|
James Patmore
|
VP of sales (Europe) |
Managing director, EMEA, Boku |
|
Claudia Poepperl
|
Director of marketing (Europe) |
CEO, adaffix (Yellix) |
| Steve Shivers |
SVP of corporate strategy |
CEO, Doxo |
| Steven Smith |
VP of business development |
VP of customer operations, Appature |
| Erika Weber |
Director of business development |
GM-ish role, Microsoft |
| Sterling Wilson |
President |
CEO, Ground Truth |
.
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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