Executive Leadership Promotion and Appointment Positions the Company for Continued Success in Big Data and Mapping Technology Space
SAN DIEGO, Calif. … February 8, 2016 … RippleNami, Inc., a provider of a map-based data visualization platform accessed via the cloud, announced today that the board of directors has appointed Jaye Connolly-LaBelle president and chief executive officer and Kendra Berger chief financial officer.
Connolly-LaBelle served as RippleNami’s president and chief operating officer from March 2015 to January 2016 and was promoted to assume the CEO role, effective immediately. She succeeds Bill VanDeWeghe, who will remain on RippleNami’s board of directors as its newly appointed co-chairman.
Connolly-LaBelle brings a 30-year proven track record for both turning around as well as building successful companies, specifically those engaged in the disruptive technology arena. Her expertise lies in strategic direction and oversight of senior management, operations, finance, mergers and acquisitions and business development. In her new role, she will oversee management of the Company including operations, sales, marketing, finance and development.
Prior to joining RippleNami, Connolly-LaBelle was president and chief executive officer at PathCentral, a medical technology company in the global pathology space. She turned the company around and helped position the sale of its assets and intellectual property to XIFIN, Inc., a financial cloud computing company involved in healthcare diagnostics. Earlier, Connolly-LaBelle served as president and chief executive officer at A-Life Medical, Inc., the pioneer and leading provider of computer-assisted coding products and services for the healthcare industry, which was acquired by UnitedHealth Group while under Connolly-LaBelle’s management direction. Connolly also was vice president of business development of mergers and acquisitions at InSight Health Corp., a Lake Forest, Calif.-based nationwide diagnostic imaging leader. In 2009, Connolly-LaBelle was named CFO of the Year by the San Diego Business Journal and in 2010, she was cited as the Most Admired CEO by the same publication. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Texas Tech University.
Concurrent with Connolly-LaBelle’s promotion, the Company named Kendra Berger to the post of chief financial officer. Berger, a certified public accountant, is a seasoned financial executive with more than 25 years of experience. She has headed the finance function across a range of both private and public companies engaged in the technology, bio-technology and entertainment sectors. During the course of her career, as a public company CFO, she led a variety of debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructurings while also implementing and maintaining compliance activities customary to those organizations with public company status.
Prior to joining RippleNami, Berger was chief financial officer and corporate secretary at NTN Buzztime, Inc., a leading, social entertainment and integrated marketing platform. In this capacity, she handled all financial functions and compliance matters for this publicly traded company. Prior, she was executive director of finance and controller for Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corp., a role in which she handled accounting, financial reporting, cash management, compliance and several other operational functions relating to finance. She has also held various board seats for nonprofit organizations in the San Diego area. Berger earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Accounting from Ohio University.
“As co-founder of this rapidly growing, dynamic technology organization, I am pleased with these leadership changes and excited about what the future holds for our Company. Both Jaye and Kendra are seasoned experts in their respective areas, who bring energy and vision coupled with deep knowledge for growing technology companies to RippleNami. I am confident they will help take our Company to the next level, and look forward to the contributions they will make in their new roles,” said Phil Gahn, RippleNami co-founder and chief business development officer.
“I am honored to lead RippleNami as it further embarks on its quest to connect people with real-time, easily-accessible information around the world through cutting-edge technology. I look forward to the positive change RippleNami can affect worldwide through its technology and expertise,” Connolly-LaBelle said.
“Furthermore, we are extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Kendra as RippleNami’s new CFO. Her decades of hands-on experience leading both finance and related administrative functions at fast-paced, private companies as well as publicly traded entities in the technology, bio-tech and entertainment industries, make her the perfect candidate for the role with RippleNami and will bode well for our continued success. At the same time, we thank Bill for the efforts he put forth in shaping RippleNami early on including
setting the right tone, establishing the right energy and developing the right foundation for success. He has been instrumental in helping with RippleNami’s formation over the past year,” she added.
About RippleNami
An industry game changer, RippleNami believes that, empowered with real-time, easily-accessible information, people around the world can connect and foster positive change. RippleNami is redefining mapping with the first visualization platform that consolidates big data and provides information that really matters to users and their organizations. The Company’s cost-effective, device agnostic cloud-based platform delivers millions of real-time actionable data points on an intuitive map to customers across enterprises, universities, nonprofits and emergency management agencies, enabling critical decision making and enhanced collaboration. With seamless integration, limitless customization and scalable architecture, RippleNami lets people chart their own world, streamlining communication and improving operational effectiveness. For more information about RippleNami, visit www.ripplenami.com.
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