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The GridIron Team
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About GridIron Software

What is GridIron Software?

GridIron Software is a leading provider of workflow and performance tools for creative applications. Our mission is to provide tools for creative professionals that leverage a unique background in parallel computing, networking, and system optimization. We pride ourselves on creating user-centered tools that let users control their workflow and productivity.


Executive Team

Steve Forde - President
Warren Gallagher - Chief Technology Officer
Michelle Van Tol - Chief Financial Officer
Tom Goguen - Chief Marketing Officer
Bill Love - VP Product Development


Steve Forde - President
Steve is a recognized leader in high performance technical computing and has actively participated in organizations such as the Open Grid Forum and iCore and helped to develop Geant4 for high energy physics research. Steve became fascinated with grid computing in 1996 and is enthusiastic about the opportunities for parallel computing for creative professional and consumer applications. He is driving GridIron Software to deliver solutions that help creative professions take advantage of increasingly powerful multi-core personal computers to meet the explosive demand for digital media.

Previously Steve was the founder and chairman of Creative Shack Inc., an Ottawa-based software firm that was acquired by Mitel Networks in October of 2001. With over a decade of experience in application design, he has worked with development teams at companies such as Apple Computer, Adobe Systems, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Mitel Networks, Tundra Semiconductor, Philsar Semiconductor and MDS Nordion.

Steve studied Radio Broadcasting at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada and Radio Engineering while serving with the Canadian Armed Forces.


Warren Gallagher ® Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
With over 20 years of industry experience, Warren is an expert in high-performance computing, data and voice networking and speech recognition software and holds a number of related technology patents. As CTO for GridIron, he manages all research and development activities and is responsible for turning GridIron's vision into reality.

Previously Warren co-founded and was CTO of SpeechFront where he focused on building speech-activated applications for wireless telecommunications carriers that combined the power of Internet-based instant messaging with the ubiquity of the telephone network. SpeechFront was acquired by Nuance Communications, the world's leading provider of speech recognition technology. Warren began his engineering career at Northern Telecom working on digital switching technology.

Warren holds a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology from Sheridan College.


Michelle Van Tol - Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Michelle has over 20 years of experience as a finance executive and has been instrumental in the growth of numerous technology companies overseeing their financing, and mergers and acquisitions activities.

Previously Michelle served as CFO for Symagery Microsystems, which was acquired by Psion PLC in 2005 and CFO at Kinaxis, which obtained $50 million in financing through a private placement. Michele began her career as a senior accountant at KPMG and later served in a number of roles at Newbridge Networks including assistant vice president.

Michelle holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University, and is a Chartered Accountant and member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA)
Tom Goguen, Chief Marketing Officer
Tom has over 20 years of marketing and engineering experience and a solid record of developing innovative new products and successfully bringing those new products and services to market. As GridIron's Chief Marketing Officer Tom has responsibility for all GridIron branding, marketing and business development activities from product concept through to demand creation and sales.

Prior to joining GridIron, Tom was vice president of Sun's Solaris software marketing organization. He had overall responsibility for managing Sun's Solaris software business including Solaris 10 and the OpenSolaris community, Sun Cluster, and Sun's storage software products. Tom also led product marketing for Apple Computer's move into the server, storage and desktop management software markets with responsibility for popular Apple software products including Mac OS X Server, Apple Remote Desktop and Xsan.

Tom studied electrical engineering and holds a master's degree from the University of Ottawa and a bachelor's degree from the University of New Brunswick.



Bill Love, VP Product Development
 Bill has over 20 years experience in software development, in a wide range of environments from successful startup ventures to large corporations. As VP Product Development at Gridiron Software Bill is responsible for overseeing the development and release of all GridIron Software products.

Previously Bill was a co-founder and VP Product Development at SpeechFront, a software startup in the instant messaging and speech recognition space which was acquired by Nuance Communications in November of 2000. Bill began his career at Bell Northern Research, and has since worked for a number of companies in areas as diverse as audio conferencing, call center telecommunications, speech recognition, speech generation, grid and cluster computing, high performance computing, instant messaging and social computing, and motion graphics. Currently Bill is a technical advisor to FaveQuest inc.

Bill studied computer science and holds a mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada


Board of Directors:

Dave Longbottom - Chairman
Dave is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience building successful technology companies. He is currently chairman of the board for GridIron Software and serves on the boards of a number of Ottawa area companies including Zeligsoft and T-Base Communications. As a principal at Hot Towel Strategies, he advises local companies on their growth and development challenges.

Previously he was President and CEO of Chrysalis-ITS, where he successfully built the company into the market leading security appliance maker attracting an acquisition by Rainbow/Safenet (NASDAQ:SFNT) in late 2003. Prior to that he advised SpeechFront, a developer of speech recognition applications. SpeechFront completed a successful acquisition transaction with Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN) after only 6 months of operation. Between 1995 and 2000, Dave served first as vice president, sales and marketing, and then as COO for ObjecTime, a maker of advanced software development tools. ObjecTime merged with Rational Software (NASDAQ: RATL, now IBM) in early 2000.

Dave studied electrical engineering and holds a bachelors degree from Queen's University and holds a US technology patent for networking technology.


Steve Forde - President
Steve is a recognized leader in high performance technical computing and has actively participated in organizations such as the Open Grid Forum and iCore and helped to develop Geant4 for high energy physics research. Steve became fascinated with grid computing in 1996 and is enthusiastic about the opportunities for parallel computing for creative professional and consumer applications. He is driving GridIron Software to deliver solutions that help creative professions take advantage of increasingly powerful multi-core personal computers to meet the explosive demand for digital media.

Previously Steve was the founder and chairman of Creative Shack Inc., an Ottawa-based software firm that was acquired by Mitel Networks in October of 2001. With over a decade of experience in application design, he has worked with development teams at companies such as Apple Computer, Adobe Systems, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Mitel Networks, Tundra Semiconductor, Philsar Semiconductor and MDS Nordion.

Steve studied Radio Broadcasting at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada and Radio Engineering while serving with the Canadian Armed Forces.


Tom Lunan - Director

Tom Lunan is Chief Financial Officer for BEST Funds, a leader in venture capital since 1996. Tom is also a director of the Canadian World Fund Limited, a TSX listed closed-end fund and a director of several private companies. Prior to joining BEST Funds in 2000, Tom was a Manager of Company Listings at the TSX and previously was at the Ontario Securities Commission in the Corporate Finance Branch.

Tom is a past director of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts and chairs the society's Candidate Education Program. He is a Chartered Accountant and a CFA Charterholder.