Leadership Team
Christian Heidelberger, Chief Executive Officer
Chris is a high energy, results-driven leader with more than 20 years experience leading and growing high-technology companies into strong, independent and profitable businesses. Since joining Nexaweb in the Spring of 2006, Chris has lead Nexaweb to 50% average annual sales growth and profitability by shifting the company’s focus away from the development of RIA tools to a provider of application modernization and enterprise business solutions that leverage rich internet technologies as a key ingredient.
Prior to joining Nexaweb, Chris served as CEO and president of ChannelWave Software. He guided the company through $63M of venture capital funding and several acquisitions before selling the company to Click Commerce in February 2005. Prior to ChannelWave, Chris served as Vice President and General Manager of Software House, a subsidiary of the security company, Sensormatic Electronics Corp. (TYCO), where he led the growth of the company from $15 million to $40 million in annual revenue in four years.
Chris is very active in the entrepreneurial community, serving as a mentor for second year MBA candidates at the Carroll School of Business at Boston College as well as with TechStars – Boston. Chris is also an executive advisor to Sonian Networks and serves on the board of Dynadec. Chris a graduate of the University of South Carolina, is a frequent speaker and panelist on operational leadership in high-growth companies.
Katsushi Yagata, Managing Director
Nexaweb Japan KK
Katsushi Yagata is an accomplished direct and channel sales, marketing and business development executive with more than 19 years of experience helping to grow revenues and distribution models for high-technology companies. As general manager of Nexaweb KK Nexaweb Technologies, Inc.’s Japanese division, Yagata-san oversees all business operations, sales, marketing and business development activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Prior to joining Nexaweb in 2009, Yagata-san was director of sales for New System Technology K.K., a distributor of database security software. In just 9 months, Yagata-san created significant new channel relationships with Toshiba Business Solutions, Beacon IT and Fujitsu. Yagata-san led country operations including new product delivery and channel sales development for LexisNexis Japan K.K. and Business Object K.K. (now SAP) after holding executive sales roles with Tivoli K.K. (now IBM) and Computer Associates K.K.
Yagata-san began his career with Ashisuto, the Japanese pioneer of sales and support for computer software products, where he significantly grew the core software business. His efforts have led to the company’s expansion into such markets as Development, Databases, IT management and Business Intelligence.
Yagata-san is a graduate of Japan’s National Defense Academy in Yokosuka city, Kanagawa.
Robert Gagne, Vice President of Engineering
Since joining Nexaweb in 2005, Rob has successfully extended the company’s product line to include open, web-based offerings and an installable framework that delivers key enterprise functionality. He also drove development of FX Accelerator, a fully-featured FX and money market trading system delivered to market in under a year, and scaled up Nexaweb’s offshore and onshore development teams. Rob joined Nexaweb from Atabok Inc. (formerly a division of Mitsubishi), where he served as vice president of engineering and CTO responsible for developing and implementing a secure system for moving financial and manufacturing securely via the internet for Global 500 companies. Rob’s background combines extensive experience in designing, developing and promoting reliable distributed network computing systems with extensive operations experience and deep industry knowledge. Previously, he held senior engineering and management positions at software development and business services companies, including Chase Manhattan (formerly Chemical Bank N.A.) and Stream International Inc. Rob holds five U.S. patents and has a BA in finance from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MS in computer science from Northeastern University.
Sue Infante-Despo, Vice President of Finance
Sue brings more than 20 years of financial leadership experience to her position of VP of Finance at Nexaweb. Sue’s responsibilities at Nexaweb include management of the company’s administrative, financial, and human resource operations. Prior to joining Nexaweb in September 2006, Sue was the Senior Director of Finance and Administration at Amicore where she was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and was involved in company’s sale to Misys Healthcare Systems. Before her time at Amicore, she was Vice President and Corporate Controller at Zaiq Technologies. Prior to Zaiq Technologies, Sue was the Finance, Planning and Analysis Manager for Nortel Networks in the Enterprise Data Solutions Division. Sue has also held senior financial and accounting positions with Software House, a subsidiary of Sensormatic Electronics Corporation, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Sue earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Assumption College and an MBA from Nichols College.
Eric Green, Vice President of Sales
Eric is a highly accomplished sales executive with more than 21 years of experience in leading and managing large, complex consultative sales efforts. As vice president of sales at Nexaweb, Eric is responsible for North American and European sales, including the U.S. Federal government, as well as forming strategic partnerships with leading Systems Integrators and technology companies for geographic and vertical solutions. Prior to joining Nexaweb, Eric has served in sales and account management roles with IBM-PricewaterhouseCoopers and Cognizant. During his 14 years at IBM, he was very successful in his role of new customer acquisition and growing existing enterprise accounts. Prior to joining IBM, he held account management and sales roles with ADP. He is a graduate of Colby College in Maine.
