Granicus Management Team

Tom Spengler
Chief Executive Officer

Tom co-founded Granicus, Inc. as Chairman and CEO in 1999. He currently heads up Granicus' senior management team and will lead the company in its next stage of growth. Prior to co-founding Granicus, Tom was a member of Anderson Consulting’s (now Accenture) premier Internet development group, performing Internet strategy and development work for Q-pass, E-trade, Anderson's R&D division, the United States Post Office and others. Prior to Anderson, Tom worked at Hewlett Packard to help develop leading Intranet communications tools used throughout the organization. Tom currently is a University Advisor for Cal Poly, a frequent public speaker, and also a certified teacher for the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC), teaching classes on minutes annotation and digital audio/video recording for local government agencies.

Emery Jones
Chief Financial Officer

As a co-founder of Granicus, Emery's focus is multi-faceted and far-reaching. In addition to building and expanding financial procedures, Emery's client-centered vision is at the base of Granicus' philosophical foundation. Emery brings a wealth of knowledge to his responsibilities in the financial sector. Before co-founding Granicus, Emery owned a successful financial consulting practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, offering financial advice and strategic planning to start-ups and small businesses. Emery received his B.A. in Accounting and Economics at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Javier Muniz
Chief Technology Officer

As Granicus' Chief Technology Officer, Javier draws on his broad knowledge of networking and application development technologies to provide direction and insight for Granicus application and infrastructure design. Prior to co-founding Granicus, Javier was a member of the Research and Development Team at Brodia.com and played a key role in developing their now flagship wireless and SmartCard products. Javier began his career at Sun Microsystems designing and managing remote access components of the Sun global network infrastructure, and later went on to WebTV Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, where he designed and developed applications used by the Network Operations Center to manage a network of over 600 nodes that supported over 1 million active WebTV subscribers.

Thao Hill
Director of Product Development

Thao Hill imparts a unique combination of expertise to Granicus' technology department with industry experience in both information technology and legislative content management. His primary objectives focus on the development and implementation of Granicus products; from product development and infrastructure, to Quality Control and Client deployments. Thao received his Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University. While in college, he served as President of the Student Government Senate, and was responsible for overhauling the organization’s rules based on Robert’s Rules of Order. After college, he joined Exxon-Chemical as an Advanced Control Systems Engineer, but found his passion for government drawing him back. He ultimately became the Chief Technology Officer for a legislative technology firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During his tenure there, he worked with many state and local legislative clerks to create software and technology to automate legislature processes.

Eskinder Assefa
Director, Business Development

Eskinder oversees the strategic vision and the management of Granicus’ partnership agreements. In working directly with the CEO and Granicus partners, Eskinder constantly looks for ways to increase the total value that Granicus customers derive from our products and services. Eskinder joined Granicus in August 2007 and brings over 12 years of enterprise software sales and marketing experience to the team. Prior to joining Granicus, Eskinder was Vice President of Business development for Silicon Valley software consultancy firm, where he grew the company’s pipeline of new business by over 300% in the first year. Prior to that, Eskinder held similar roles in other small software companies. Eskinder holds an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Charles Blanchet
Sales Director

Mr. Blanchet oversees Granicus' worldwide sales. After his arrival in 2004, Charles' first objective was to establish Granicus' presence outside of California through direct sales efforts. To accomplish this goal, Charles builds system processes, procedures and tools that allow the Granicus sales machine to scale on a global level. He preps new territories by building infrastructure and acquiring new clients before turning each territory over to a Regional Sales Director. Since Charles' arrival, Granicus has enjoyed a consistent yearly sales growth of 300%. Prior to Granicus, Charles served with AT&T where he was an account manager for 10 Fortune 500 clients. Charles also served as President and founder of Improve Safely, a preventative healthcare company and held several key positions within Sprint, where he encountered the founders of Granicus. Charles earned his bachelors degree in Business Management from the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business Administration.

Jay Kilian
Customer Advocacy Director

As the Director of the Customer Advocacy group, Jay is responsible for the success and happiness of all Granicus clients. He leads a group of exceptional trainers who travel the country building great relationships. His staff assists Granicus customers in the learning and adjustment process with their new software solution. Jay works to make the Granicus software more useful and feature-rich by collecting feedback and suggestions from customers. Before coming to Granicus in 2005, he worked for several years with the San Francisco Chronicle as a Technical Trainer and for CBS Outdoor Media selling transit advertising. Jay earned his Bachelor's in Communications from the University at Buffalo and is a frequent volunteer.

Dan Trimble
Marketing Director

Daniel Trimble joined Granicus as director of marketing in September 2007. Most recently, Dan was Executive Director of Lead21, a political and policy advocacy organization for entrepreneurs where he doubled membership and revenue in one year. Prior, he worked in technical, marketing and program management positions at Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK), Autodesk Foundation, Mercury Interactive (sold to Hewlett-Packard), Freshwater Software (sold to Mercury Interactive), and a variety of entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, he is a commissioned officer in the US Coast Guard Reserve, currently assigned as a “Sea Marshal” – a boarding officer at Sector San Francisco. He previously served in combat communications at PSU-312, and as one of the first Homeland Security Watch Officers for the Pacific Area Command Center. In that role he managed numerous incidents and threats across a 73 million square mile region of ports, waterways, and militarily and economically strategic ports, including the terrorist bombings of London, Madrid and Bali, as well as numerous domestic maritime threats. He began his Coast Guard career as a Search and Rescue Duty Officer where he managed more than 2,000 cases and helped save the lives of 322 people. Mr. Trimble studied international business and public administration at Golden Gate University.

Zucu Bermann
Director of Employee Advocancy

Zucu is the director of Employee Advocacy for Granicus, a department she started from the ground up. In this capacity she has company-wide responsibility for all traditional functions of human resource management, recruiting and on-boarding, benefits administration, facilities, compensation planning, performance management, employee and leadership empowerment. She also works extensively with Granicus’ founders and executives to continue fostering its unique corporate culture and serves as an advocate for the company’s people—proactively seeking to ensure the success of their careers and livelihood. Zucu joined Granicus as a Special Projects Coordinator in December 2005.  In that role she worked directly with Granicus executives and co-founders to develop the company’s first policies, programs and procedures for human resources, and the first formal recruiting program. She has since seen the company through growth from only a few employees to nearly 100. Zucu is an HR professional who also brings a disciplined, operational business perspective, having earlier worked with other Granicus departments to launch company newsletters, plan and execute its first national user’s conference, and coordinate complex office/facilities transitions. Zucu graduated cum Laude from Smith College with a BA in Government.  As a student, she presided as president of both Feminists of Smith Unite and Wilson House, and was also a top fundraiser for the 2004 presidential campaign. Her love of politics and leadership make her truly passionate about Granicus’ products and their role in the public realm.

Benjamin Lucchesi
Chief Software Architect

As Chief Software Architect, Ben directs the strategic vision of application development in the Granicus' legislative management platforms. His mission is to continually advance and improve Granicus’ software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for clients to use. Ben has several years of experience in building robust, interactive web and client-server applications. Prior to joining Granicus, Ben was the e-Design Manager at IQ Systems, where he designed and developed custom business solutions for electronic commerce and inventory management applications for major industries. Ben holds a Masters of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Reno.

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