Board of Directors
The Rootstock Board of Directors brings vision, drive, and commitment to deliver the leading Cloud ERP solution for manufacturing, distribution and supply chain.
Alex is a private equity investor in several enterprises, including two SaaS companies. He is a consultant to one of those companies whose software is used in auto and equipment lending companies. He is Chairman of the Board and active in the workout of a defined benefit plan financial services and software company.
Previously, Alex was the co-founder and President of Career Choices, Inc., a successful company in the for-profit postsecondary education business. Career Choices, Inc. was sold to a major NYSE-traded company in 2003. Before that, Alex was the CEO of the California Culinary Academy, which was a publicly traded (NASDAQ) for profit company.
Alex has extensive experience in investment and merchant banking. He served as a Managing Director, General Counsel and CFO for several years of Richard C. Blum & Associates, which grew from $10 million to over $450 million under management. He also participated in several partnerships that acquired companies and was active in investing in several public companies. Alex held the position of First Vice President, General Counsel and a director of Sutro & Co. Inc., a NYSE member broker dealer and investment banking firm. Earlier, Alex was an associate with the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.
Alex holds a BA degree from Yale University, and a JD degree from The University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), where he was an editor of the California Law Review.
Pat Garrehy is the Founder, President, and CEO for Rootstock Software® and has an extensive background as a software architect and engineer. With over 30 years of management, sales and technical experience, Mr. Garrehy brings a unique blend of analytical focus and business savvy to the table.
As CEO, Mr. Garrehy has applied his extensive background to the development of Rootstock’s nimble and powerful cloud based (SaaS) solution. In addition, Mr. Garrehy sets the company’s strategic direction and provides overall leadership for the entire management team.
Mr. Garrehy is also the founder and former CEO of Relevant Business Systems, a client-server ERP software provider with an exclusive focus on discrete manufacturing companies. Relevant, which was sold in 2006, remains the most profitable division of the acquirer to date. The software is currently utilized in a number of business operations, including major divisions of Lockheed and Solectron with sales of over one billion dollars.
As a University of California at Berkeley graduate, he holds a BS degree in business and mathematics as well as a MBA in finance from the University of Southern California.
Donald Caldwell is the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cross Atlantic Capital Partners Inc., based in Radnor, PA.
Don serves on the board of several publicly and privately held companies and civic organizations, including Quaker Chemical (NYSE), Rubicon Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ); Management Dynamics; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; the Committee for Economic Development and has been a principal in 15 IPOs.
Until March 1, 1999, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. where he also previously served as Executive Vice President. Prior to joining Safeguard in 1993, Mr. Caldwell held a number of executive and financial positions, including Chief Administrative Officer of a predecessor company of Cambridge Technology Partners, Inc. (Massachusetts), a provider of information technology consulting and software development; Executive Vice President and then President of Atlantic Financial; and as a partner in the national office of Arthur Young & Co., a predecessor to Ernst & Young, LLP.
Brent has served as a Managing Director of Northgate Capital since co-founding the firm in 2000. He has been an investor in Silicon Valley’s premier venture capital funds as well as an angel investor in several silicon valley start-ups including Data Domain, Nvidia, VA Linux, and Verisity.
Brent’s current activities include overseeing investments in Palo Alto Networks, Solexel, Kovio, Aoptix Technologies, Clearwell Systems, AdMob, and Meraki among others. Brent currently serves on the board of directors for Zazzle, a Kleiner Perkins-backed portfolio company. Brent also serves as an advisory board member to US Venture Partners.
Active in the community, Brent is on the board of the Stanford Hospital Stroke Center, and also serves as a proud board member for the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks.
Executive Council
The Rootstock ERP Executive Council is made up of founding members Jan Baan, Jim Bensman, Bill Happel and T. Lee Wylie. This high-powered group of industry giants serves as advisors to the company and brings many decades of IT and manufacturing executive experience.
T. Lee Wylie is the former CIO of Gartner and the creator of the ERP concept and has over 40 years of experience in IT and manufacturing. He held manufacturing and engineering leadership roles in General Motors and IBM. Mr. Wylie led the team that designed, developed, and implemented the plant floor systems for GM’s Saturn startup. Mr. Wylie currently serves as the chairman of the ERP Executive Council for Rootstock. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Penn State and an MBA from the University of Detroit.
Jan Baan is the former chairman and CEO of Baan Software. Jan’s vision led Baan to an industry leadership position in the ERP market and, ultimately, a Fortune 500 company. Baan was co-founder of Cordys which focused on solving IT implementation and change issues challenging today’s extended enterprises. Baan currently directs the Vanenburg Group whose focus is on high tech innovative companies. He was an early investor in WebEx, acquired by Cisco Systems, and Top Tier, acquired by SAP.
Jim Bensman is the former president of SAP America responsible for creating SAP’s American operations. He was the founder of Western Data Systems, an enterprise software company that was acquired by Manugistics. Bensman’s other leadership positions include CEO of Geotrain Corporation and CEO of Eventra Corporation. In addition, Bensman served on the boards of Spectra Securities Software, Changepoint Corporation, Probaris Technology and Longview Solutions. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Bill Happel is the former vice president of General Motors and general manager of the GM Locomotive Group. Bill worked in various disciplines at General Motors Corporation including manufacturing, engineering, information technology, sales, college relations and general management. He worked in several divisions of GM including automotive components, power train, sheet metal fabrication, railroad locomotives and defense products. He earned a BS Industrial Engineering from Penn State, an MS Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan and the Senior Executive program at the Sloan Business School of MIT.
