Leadership
Executive Leadership
Sam Gilliland
Chief Executive Officer
Sam Gilliland
Sam Gilliland is CEO of Cherwell Software, setting the company’s strategic direction and driving its customer-first vision. Sam leads the company’s continued growth beyond IT Service Management (ITSM) and into new markets across the enterprise. Sam draws on his knowledge of and passion for technology to improve customer service experiences and make peoples’ lives easier. For nearly a decade, Sam led more than 10,000 employees in 60 countries as chairman and CEO of travel industry technology giant Sabre Corporation and Travelocity.com. Sam has served on the boards of Sabre Corporation and Travelocity.com, Brinks Home Security Holdings, Carlson, Inc., Gogo, Inc., Rackspace Hosting, Inc., Digital River, and BookingPal. Under U.S. President Barack Obama, Sam served on the President’s Management Advisory Board and on the Energy Security Leadership Council. He also served as chair of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. Sam holds an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas.
Alison Alfers
General Counsel
Alison Alfers
Alison Alfers is Cherwell’s General Counsel. Before joining Cherwell, Alison was the Chief Legal Officer at HawkEye 360. HawkEye 360 operates a constellation of small satellites used to provide analytic products and services on the use of radio frequency spectrum. Alison also held positions as the Chief Legal Officer at TwentyEighty, Inc. She also served as senior vice president and General Counsel for DigitalGlobe, Inc. where she also held the position of vice president, Defense and Intelligence. Before DigitalGlobe, she served as General Counsel for Knowledge Learning Corporation and SpaceImaging Inc. Alison holds a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State and a law degree from University of Arizona.
Andre Cuenin
Chief Revenue Officer
Andre Cuenin
Andre is a seasoned sales professional. He is the chief revenue officer of Cherwell Software. Andre was previously president of Americas and Europe operations for Integrated Research in Denver since 2008. He also was vice president of worldwide sales for two years for StrataVia, a Denver data center software company acquired by Hewlett Packard. He also spent 15 years in a variety of roles at CA Technologies. Andre has a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University Brugg-Windisch and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Strathclyde.
Scott Gainey
Chief Marketing Officer
Scott Gainey
Scott Gainey serves as Cherwell's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), driving all marketing activities aimed at increasing the company's brand within the enterprise service management marketwhile accelerating pipeline and revenue growth through close collaboration with sales. Scott came to Cherwell with over 22 years of experience gained while serving in CMO and other leadership positions for some of the most innovative and disruptive technology companies including Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, NetApp, Veritas Software, and Sun Microsystems.
Gary Golden
Chief Financial Officer
Gary Golden
Gary Golden is Cherwell’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Cherwell, Gary was CFO of Bottle Rocket, a leader in mobile app development and digital transformation consulting. Gary also held CFO positions for Westec Intelligent Surveillance and for Sabre’s European region. He has a broad background, having held senior leadership positions in corporate development, administration, business operations, and law. Gary has an undergraduate degree in business and a graduate degree in law, both from The University of Texas at Austin. He also has a corporate finance certification from SMU.
Jean Patrick
Chief Transformation Officer
Jean Patrick
Jean Patrick is Chief Transformation Officer at Cherwell Software. As a strategist, consultant and implementer, Jean leads activities within the organization focused on operational execution of key strategic initiatives based on priorities of the company and the CEO. As Chief Transformation Officer, Jean oversees the following teams: Strategic Initiatives, Customer Experience, Learning Services, Systems, Pricing, and Facilities. Jean arrived at Cherwell in early 2017 as the Chief of Staff, providing valuable oversight and guidance to projects of high strategic importance and leads the transformation of operational process and procedures focused on efficiency, financial impact, and business scalability. Jean has served in a variety of leadership positions specific to operations, sales enablement, account management, organizational development, software development and program management within a myriad of different industries. She has led large operational global teams up to 2,200 team members and have delivered on results with large telecommunication companies as well as customer-focused start-ups. Her experience, combined with her drive for customer service and operational excellence, is a strong match for Cherwell’s ability to continue to be the industry leader.
Steve Rodda
Chief Operating Officer
Steve Rodda
Steve Rodda serves as Cherwell’s Chief Operating Officer. He joined Cherwell in 2017 as Chief Product Officer, and has previously served in a variety of leadership roles relating to product development , support, professional services and strategic business planning. At LogicNow, a cloud-based ITSM solution provider for managed service providers, he led the MaxFocus development team, as well as the team that built AppControl, a cloud services management console. Prior to that, Steve served in key development roles at Webroot, Stanfield Systems, Jel, and Deloitte. With more than 17 years of experience, Steve’s strong leadership and ability to establish strategic business priorities, as well as his knowledge of product development and engineering, is a strong match for Cherwell’s vision to create customer-friendly, innovative service management solutions.
Board Members
Vance Brown
Board Member and Co-Founder
Vance Brown
Chairman and Co-Founder of Cherwell and CEO of the National Cybersecurity Center, Vance has over 20 years of experience in technology as a CEO and entrepreneur. Currently, Vance is the CEO of the National Cybersecurity Center and mentor to technology entrepreneurs, utilizing the Thrivers.com holistic framework. As co-founder of Cherwell Software, Vance served as CEO from its inception until 2016. Previously, he was CEO of GoldMine Software, now part of Ivanti. Vance co-founded The Classical Academy, the largest K-12th charter school in Colorado, and technology accelerator called Exponential Impact. Vance has been recognized for his business successes and philanthropic work. He currently serves on the board for charitable organizations such as Parents Challenge, Foundation of the Heart, and the Legacy Institute. He also is an Honorary Commander for the US Air Force Academy.
Arlen Feldman
Board Member, Architectural Advisor, and Co-Founder
Arlen Feldman
Cherwell Board Member, Architectural Advisor, and Co-Founder, Arlen Feldman is a renowned software developer in the help desk, service desk, and customer relationship management (CRM) software industry. With more than 30 years of experience, Arlen spearheaded many revolutionary software advances, most notably Codeless Business Application Technology (CBAT) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in Cherwell Service Management. Arlen served on the Microsoft® C# Customer Council—a small group of industry experts who advise Microsoft on the direction of .NET, Visual Studio, and the C# programming language. He also authored two books—ADO.NET Programming and WPF in Action with Visual Studio 2008. Prior to Cherwell, Arlen was the chief architect at FrontRange®.
Sam Gilliland
Chief Executive Officer and Board Member
Sam Gilliland
Sam Gilliland is CEO of Cherwell Software, setting the company’s strategic direction and driving its customer-first vision. Sam leads the company’s continued growth beyond IT Service Management (ITSM) and into new markets across the enterprise. Sam draws on his knowledge of and passion for technology to improve customer service experiences and make peoples’ lives easier. For nearly a decade, Sam led more than 10,000 employees in 60 countries as chairman and CEO of travel industry technology giant Sabre Corporation and Travelocity.com. Sam has served on the boards of Sabre Corporation and Travelocity.com, Brinks Home Security Holdings, Carlson, Inc., Gogo, Inc., Rackspace Hosting, Inc., Digital River, and BookingPal. Under U.S. President Barack Obama, Sam served on the President’s Management Advisory Board and on the Energy Security Leadership Council. He also served as chair of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. Sam holds an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas.
Timothy Pfeifer
Board Member and Co-Founder
Timothy Pfeifer
As a Cherwell Software co-founder, Timothy Pfeifer brings exceptional leadership to the team. At Cherwell, he has overall responsibility for the legal, HR and business development areas. Prior to Cherwell Software, Timothy served as the lead attorney for NetSpend Corporation, a TSYS Company, a senior managing attorney for First Data Corporation, and as vice president and general counsel for FrontRange® (formerly Bendata, Inc. and GoldMine Software Corporation). Timothy earned a J.D. degree from the University of Washington, School of Law, graduating as a member of the Order of the Coif; a management degree from Pepperdine University, graduating magna cum laude; and has attended an executive education program through Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.
Rob Salvagno
Board Member, Co-Head of KKR’s technology growth equity business in the Americas
Rob Salvagno
Rob Salvagno (San Francisco) is the co-head of KKR’s technology growth equity business in the Americas. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Salvagno served as Vice President of Corporate Development and Cisco Investments and was responsible for leading all M&A and venture capital investments for the company. Over his two decades at Cisco, Mr. Salvagno led a significant expansion of Cisco’s corporate venture efforts, including the formation and launch of Decibel – a multi-hundred-million-dollar early stage venture fund – and drove the strategy and execution for some of Cisco’s most impactful acquisitions. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Salvagno held technology investment banking roles at Donaldon, Lufkin & Jenrette and PaineWebber. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.
John Spiliotis
Independent Board Member
John Spiliotis
John Spiliotis is a go-to-market expert with extensive experience in sales leadership, partner and channel strategy, and enterprise technology operations. He was most recently responsible for driving all Palo Alto Networks direct and indirect sales engagement activities in the Americas as a Sr. Vice President. At Palo Alto, he grew a book of revenue to more than $1.8 billion. He has also held sales leadership positions at Cisco Systems, Avaya, and Ericsson. Mr. Spiliotis holds a master’s degree in finance and banking from Hofstra University and is also a graduate of The Citadel. Mr. Spiliotis is also a Senior Operating Advisor at LLR Partners, a private equity firm, and an advisor at other high-tech growth companies.
Dave Welsh
Partner and Head of TMT Growth Equity is his KKR; Cherwell board role: Chairman of the Board
Dave Welsh
Dave Welsh (Menlo Park) is a Member and is Head of TMT Growth Equity within KKR's Private Equity platform, where he serves on the TMT growth equity investment committee. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Welsh was a Partner with Adams Street Partners, where he focused on technology growth equity investments. Earlier in his career, he was an executive vice president of corporate development and strategy at McAfee, Inc., a general partner at Partech Ventures and a vice president of corporate development at Portal Software. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Five9, ForgeRock and is a Board Member of SEO Scholars SF as well as being Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Athenian School. He holds a B.A., cum laude, from UCLA and a JD, order of the coif, from UC Berkeley and Harvard Law Schools.
Drew Harman
Operating Partner, Insight Venture Partners; Cherwell board role: Member
Drew Harman
As an Operating Partner with Insight Partners, Drew manages enterprise SaaS portfolio companies as a board member and strategic advisor. Drew is also a Board Partner at Shasta Ventures and InterWest Partners, where he sits on the boards of Aria, NewsCred, CloudPassage and GoCheck. Drew has more than thirty years of enterprise software experience as a strategy, product, and marketing executive in early and growth-stage companies, including positions at Ariba as vice president of Product Management, and vice president of Corporate Strategy. Drew also serves on the board of the non-profit Foundation for Prader-Willi Research. Drew received his MBA from INSEAD, and his BA from Harvard.