Business in General Contributors

Tim Berry Founder and President of Palo Alto Software and a renowned planning expert. He is listed in the index of "Fire in the Valley", by Swaine and Freiberger, the history of the personal computer industry. Tim's days are filled with writing at his blog Planning, Startups, Stories and contributing regularly to Up and Running, HuffingtonPost, Small Business Trends and the Bplans Blog. His full biography is available at www.timberry.com.

Sabrina Parsons is CEO of Palo Alto Software. Before joining Palo Alto Software, Sabrina was co-founder and co-owner of an entrepreneurial business that eventually became Palo Alto Software in the UK. That company was founded in London in 2001 and was purchased by the parent company in 2002. Sabrina previously was the Director of Online Marketing at Commtouch Inc. and later joined Epinions.com as Senior Producer. She is a graduate of Princeton University. Sabrina also writes at her own blog: Mommy CEO

Noah Parsons, currently Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Palo Alto Software, was previously co-founder and co-owner of an entrepreneurial business that eventually became Palo Alto Software in the UK. That company was founded in London in 2001 and was purchased by the parent company in 2002. Currently Noah focuses on developing new products and managing both internet and retail sales channels. Noah previously was founder and co-director of a successful internet consulting company based in the Silicon Valley, with a focus on web usability, interaction design, and business strategy. Noah had been Director of Production at Epinions.com (since absorbed into the eBay network) and Senior Producer at Yahoo!, managing the profitable classifieds section of the Yahoo! site network. Noah was awarded a BA from Princeton University in 1996.

Cale Bruckner, Vice President of Product Development for Palo Alto Software Inc. has developed a strong insight for what works and what doesn't work when it comes to business plans and marketing plans. Business degrees in marketing and management from the Charles H. Lundquist School of Business at the University of Oregon backup his insight with a solid background in business management and product marketing. Cale has real-world experience writing business plans and marketing plans for small business. He wrote the popular JavaNet business plan included with Business Plan Pro and listed on the bplans.com web site in 1995, hoping to establish the up-scale internet cafe in Eugene Oregon. Cale also has experience writing marketing plans for small business and government, including a plan for the Eugene Public Library. Managing the Palo Alto Software Inc. product line for four years makes Cale a key expert in the area of product development and product marketing. Expertise include: product development, product marketing, team management, resource allocation, human resources management, and business content development. Read Cale's blog at Palmit.com

Beth Anne Whalen has 13 years of sales, sales management, and marketing experience. She has worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, First Advantage Corporation, and Raymond James. She was also co-founder and president of www.forsalemagnets.com. Beth Anne is currently the Director of Business Development for Palo Alto Software, where she focuses on retail product management, corporate sales, and new channel development. She also serves as a guest lecturer in sales development at the University of Oregon. Beth Anne received a BS in Economics from Florida State University in 1994.

Steve Lange is Senior Editor at Palo Alto Software. He recently received the Entomologist EXCELlante award in recognition of searches for bugs in product tables and features. Outside of work, he is a polymath and information generalist who enjoys seeking and finding intuitive correlations in information between different fields of study. A voracious reader, he has been known to scrawl edits in the archaeology, history and aviation books he reads for personal pleasure. Naturally, Steve is an inveterate player with words, having a Pollyanna-ish preference for polysemous polysyllabic polyphonic vocabulary and regularly puts the "p u" back into pun. With a degree in Journalism (a BS as you might well guess), Steve has previously written on astronomy, the bicycle manufacturing industry and employee relations in public education. After a long day in front of a mesmerizing multiple pain screen he prefers reading books in the evening as the pages move at a more sedate pace, and don't putsch unanticipated screens in front of the desired content.

Josh Cochrane is Director of Online Marketing at Palo Alto Software, where he manages the company's network of online properties. He writes for this site and elsewhere on Web marketing, search engine optimization, small business and entrepreneurship, and related topics. Josh joined Palo Alto from FabTrol Systems, a leading provider of MRP software for the steel fabrication industry, where he served for most of a decade as Marketing Manager and later Product Manager. He was responsible for marketing communications, product marketing, and new product development. Josh has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Oregon's Clark Honors College. Before finding his rightful home in software, he also attended the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta and served as an editor for several magazines in the publishing industry.

As Director of Client Services for Palo Alto Software, Jake Weatherly focuses on staying closely connected to his roots in customer evangelism through direct interaction with users of Business Plan Pro, Marketing Plan Pro, and our partner products and services. Jake started his business career with Palo Alto Software in the mid-1990's and recently returned to the company after spending time as a top senior account manager in the corporate business unit at WebEx Communications, Inc. (acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007). During his previous ten years with Palo Alto Software Jake was the head of Partner Engineering, Product Marketing Manager, and Customer Care Manager as well as Lead Evangelist and Manager of Product Education. These positions took him all over the world to teach business and marketing planning to strategic partners, consultants, enterprises, university professors, and government organizations.

Kristen Langham is the Marketing Manager for Palo Alto Software, where she focuses on retail product management along with administering and developing the organization's academic, government and non-profit programs. Kristen joined Palo Alto Software after six years in the fields of Human Resources, Sales and Marketing and was promoted from Associate Marketing Manager to her current role of Marketing Manager within her first year of employment. Kristen brings with her a knack for customer service and developing client relationships and enjoys the opportunity to foster these relationships during the course of her job. She represents Palo Alto Software throughout the year at trade shows, conferences and seminars. Kristen graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Psychology.

Alan Gleeson is the Managing Director of Palo Alto Software, Ltd. based in London, England. He joined Palo Alto Software from Barclays in September 2004. Alan originally joined Barclays on their graduate Business Leadership Programme back in 1998 and worked in a number of roles within the group. During his time at Barclays, Alan was seconded to Freeserve where he worked as a Business Development Manager on the start-up Clearlybusiness.com . He has been writing on business planning and entrepreneurship for a number of years and in recent years has contributed to Irish Entrepreneur Magazine and Enterprise Review in Ireland, along with Start Your Business Magazine and the Essential Business Guide in the U.K. He holds an MBA from Oxford University, along with an MSc in Strategic Management and Bachelor of Commerce Degree from University College, Cork, Ireland.

Chelle Parmele is the Social Media Marketing Manager at Palo Alto Software. She started with Palo Alto five years ago in the sales department and worked her way up into the BizDev office, then back to sales, this time as the Sales Manager. She has now taken over the media and PR department where she is empowered to badger people to write more blog posts.

Brian L. Mackley is a Co-Founder of the Technology Advocacy Group. His background as a record setting sales professional in the SaaS environment, and as a professional sales trainer enable him to share the inside knowledge with his clients. He has trained thousands of technology sales professionals over the past decade and now shares his secrets with organizations to help level the playing field when buying technology. As an expert in SaaS and negotiation techniques, he teaches executives how to adopt technology without getting taken advantage of by clever commissioned sales reps or purposely confusing contracts. He has developed the sales methods and training for some of the largest technology companies in the US.