• Jeff Snipes, Chief Executive Officer
• Susan Varnadoe, President
• Sandy Curry, Chief Financial Officer
• Nelda Mayberry, Vice President of Corporate Sales
• James Sharpe, Vice President of Strategic Learning
• Tina Meinig, Vice President of Marketing
• Craig Laviano, Regional Vice President, Consulting
• Bonnie Lervaag, Senior Director, Learning Services
• Lisa Marshall, Senior Director, Content Design and Development
• Ramon Cajina, Senior Director, Technical Services
• Jeff Small, Senior Director, Engineering and Technology

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Jeff Snipes, Chief Executive Officer

Jeff founded Ninth House in 1996 with a vision for combining the benefits of the Internet with movies, video games and Accelerated Learning Theory to establish a modern and measurably more effective approach to leadership development and behavioral change. Today Ninth House impacts more than 100,000 learners each year and is ranked by Forbes and Gartner as one of the leading providers of learning solutions and as one of the fastest growing companies in the industry.

Jeff works closely with senior human resources and organizational development leadership to design enterprise learning strategies that drive behavior change and accelerate employee productivity. Some of these clients include American Express, Citigroup, Ford, and Gap.

Prior to founding Ninth House, Jeff helped build InterActive Media Solutions into a major e-learning solutions developer before its sale in 1997. Additionally, Jeff spent two years as a consultant in Madrid, Spain following a career in investment banking in New York.

Jeff has been named one of the "25 Rising Stars of the Internet" by Internet World magazine, is a contributing author to CLO Magazine and frequent speaker at industry events. Leadership Excellence Magazine rated Jeff #45 in the Top 100 thought leaders on leadership in 2007. He was a President's Scholar at Southern Methodist University where he received a Bachelor in Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. He has participated in Executive MBA Programs at Stanford University, GSB (2002, 2003), is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and actively contributes to several education related non-profit organizations.

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Susan Varnadoe, President

Susan joined Ninth House after serving as the Executive for Learning in IBM's Integrated Technology Services Division. Susan started and grew the Services segment of IBM Learning Services into a $100M+ business that provided e-learning content, services, consulting, technology and custom development solutions. Major clients included SBC, Cingular, Circuit City, Kroger, Pep Boys, Siemens Corporation, and MCI.

Prior to IBM, Susan was President of InterActiveMedia, one of the country's largest e-learning solutions companies. She transformed what had been a division into a separate subsidiary and managed several acquisitions, including InterActive Media Solutions of Corte Madera, California. The parent company took the name of its acquisition, InterActiveMedia, and contracted a host of major projects including the development of U.S. Navy interactive courseware for the Naval Training Systems Center, the Space Shuttle Maintenance training for Kennedy Space Center, and Helicopter Maintenance Training for the Royal Australian Navy and Army. Other major contracts were signed with large commercial clients including Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, MCI, and SBC.

Susan was also Senior Vice President of Analysis & Technology, Inc. She holds an M.A. in Instructional Design from the University of Central Florida in Orlando and her doctoral work is in Curriculum and Instruction, also from the University of Central Florida.

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Sandy Curry, Chief Financial Officer

Sandy brings more than 20 years of finance and operations experience with software, hardware, and technology consulting companies ranging from rapid growth start-ups to internationally-based global conglomerates. Sandy is responsible for Ninth House’s finance & accounting, legal, long range planning, IT and facilities operations.

Prior to joining Ninth House, Sandy built a solid track record with companies such as Softek, Fujitsu and Amdahl in finance, operations, strategic planning, mergers & acquisitions and infrastructure development & implementation.

Sandy holds masters degrees from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, New York as well as a Bachelors degree from Boston University.

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Nelda Mayberry, Vice President of Corporate Sales

Nelda brings more than 20 years of leadership development experience to Ninth House. Prior to joining Ninth House, Nelda directed one of IBM’s most strategic accounts as the Client Executive in the communications industry.

At Ninth House, Nelda leads the national sales organization that delivers strategic sales and support to customers in the enterprise markets with an emphasis on customized leadership solutions, services and deployment.

Nelda has extensive credentials in the telecommunications industry and her knowledge of voice and data communications includes structuring and developing programs for companies to improve how their businesses run locally and globally.

Nelda’s background also includes a tenure at MCI where she served in various roles in Technical, Global Customer Service, Global Sales Management, and Channel Support worldwide. While with MCI, she was instrumental in helping launch MCI’s Virtual University.

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James Sharpe, Vice President of Strategic Learning

James has a broad portfolio of global experience focusing on applying technology to transform human performance and learning. During the past 25 years, James has developed operational and thought leadership strategies on learning & performance in the corporate, government, military, higher education and compulsory education markets.

Prior to joining Ninth House in 2007, James was IBM’s lead global executive in developing and executing IBM's worldwide learning strategy including technology, learning models, methodologies, advanced architectures, systems integration and solution design associated with over $2 billion in revenue annually.

During his 16-year+ career at IBM he focused on providing numerous global clients in the Americas, Europe and Asia with solutions that leverage key services, advanced software and systems to provide enterprise solutions that increase human effectiveness and learning. Prior to IBM, James was the Manager of Advanced Systems at General Dynamics Tactical Systems Division San Diego, CA

James holds several IBM patents including Operationalizing a Learning Solution, Knowledge Management System Automatically Allocating Expert Resources, and Blended Learning Experience Tools and Method. Founder of the Customized Learning Experience Online (CLEO) Lab, a research collaboration initiative between Cisco Systems, IBM, Microsoft and Thomson, which conducted focused, applied research on technical and pedagogical issues related to the ADL Sharable Content Reference Model (SCORM).

He has won numerous industry awards and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. James holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and course work at University of Southern California in pursuit of a Masters in Systems Management.

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Tina Meinig, Vice President of Marketing

Tina’s 25+ years experience as a marketing professional includes planning, strategy, management and implementation of marketing disciplines and programs including: positioning, brand strategy, solution development, media planning, communications, advertising, direct marketing, interactive marketing and events.

Tina founded, grew and sold a successful e-marketing company that pioneered the development of interactive, technology-based marketing, sales and training programs for Fortune 500 companies. She also led the development and implementation of marketing strategies and programs for numerous technology-based, emerging businesses.

Prior to joining Ninth House, Tina led marketing planning and execution for IBM America’s HCM Learning and Development practice. Previously, as IBM America’s Marketing Director for Learning Solutions, Tina developed marketing plans and strategies and led the execution of high-profile, external conference and event programs that positioned IBM as the learning leader.

Tina holds a Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University, Newhouse School of Public Communications.

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Craig Laviano, Regional Vice President, Consulting

Over the course of his eighteen year career, Craig has helped senior business leaders create vision and implement learning initiatives that align with their business goals. In the learning field, Mr. Laviano has built a reputation as a polished and highly engaging strategist, trainer and facilitator, whose extensive business fluency informs his learning solutions.

During his time as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Strategic Change practice, Craig helped develop the national organizational change practice in the firm. In this capacity he traveled around the globe to train consultants in the areas of business strategy, process reengineering, change management, team development, facilitation, and creative thinking. He quickly became the most highly rated trainer in the network, and a benchmark for world class instructional delivery.

In 2000 Craig joined DigitalThink (now Convergys), a leader in the e-learning industry. During his tenure, he led the development of enterprise-wide custom learning solutions for Fortune 500 clients, addressing business issues that included new hire assimilation, leadership development, sales force effectiveness, and organizational capability development.

His clients have covered a wide range of industries that include Technology, Retail, Financial Services, Entertainment, Healthcare, Oil & Gas, and Utilities.

Craig received his MBA from Peter F. Drucker Center at The Claremont Graduate School. He received his BA in Economics from UCLA.

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Bonnie Lervaag, Senior Director, Learning Services

Bonnie and her team are responsible for partnering with clients to develop targeted implementation plans for their learning initiatives that utilize our Ninth House best practices. They also provide implementation support, classroom facilitation and custom ILT design services.

Prior to joining Ninth House, Bonnie spent six years as a Senior Learning Consultant in IBM’s Financial Services Practice where she supported clients such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Her other key experience includes serving as the Director of Customer Service and Technical Support for an internet-based technology company, heading up the Training department at Harris Corporation’s Headquarters Division, as well as a stint in the Air Force.

Bonnie holds a B.S. in Technical Communication from Florida Institute of Technology and an M.A. in Instructional Design from the University of Central Florida.

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Lisa Marshall, Senior Director, Content Design and Development

Lisa has over 10 years of experience overseeing projects and teams responsible for producing engaging online training experiences for the corporate marketplace.

In her current position at Ninth House, Lisa is responsible for the design and production of all off-the-shelf, high-end blended leadership training products as well as custom online products for major, global corporations. She oversees an award-winning team of instructional designers, executive producers for video, creative design and project management. Such projects developed under her management at Ninth House have been Retaining Talent, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Resolving Interpersonal Issues and High Impact Hiring as well as numerous custom solutions for a variety of industries.

Prior to joining Ninth House, Lisa served in management and project management roles at VitesseLearning and DigitalThink.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Masters Degree from Boston college in Social Work Policy and Administration.

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Ramon Cajina, Senior Director, Technical Services

Ramon joined Ninth House in 2003 and serves as the Senior Director of Technical Services and is responsible for managing customer support and technical implementation services. Additionally, he works with Sales and Learning Services to assist customers in developing a deployment strategy that addresses all customer requirements. His responsibilities include developing a detailed technical implementation plan and managing the technical deployment project through system installation and training of the client’s internal IT/IS staff.

Before joining Ninth House, Ramon was a Sr. Product Consultant at Saba Software where he teamed with Account Executives in preparing and executing sales strategies and was responsible for mapping Saba software solutions to the customers’ business and technical requirements. Additionally, Ramon acted as the e-learning content standards Subject Matter Expert and the Life Sciences Industry Subject Matter Expert for the North American product consulting team. Prior to Saba, he was the Manager of Engineering Services at Flomerics Inc. where he managed customer services including training and customer support for all North American customers and a staff of 9 engineers. Additionally, Ramon was responsible for the operation of Flomerics IT infrastructure at headquarters and at its regional offices in the U.S.

Ramon holds a B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Diplome Post-Universitaire in Aerospace Engineering from the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics and a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

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Jeff Small, Senior Director, Engineering and Technology

Jeff Small, Sr. Director Technology - Jeff joined Ninth House in May of 2005 and leads the technology development and innovation efforts for the company's course offerings and services.

Prior to joining Ninth House, Jeff held numerous technology positions developing and managing teams in mobile, web, and desktop technology development including a 14+ year career at Autodesk, Inc, as one of their Chief Engineers developing Computer Aided Design and Drafting software.

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