Speaker Profiles

Nathaniel D. Burgess
Executive Vice President
Corum Group
Nat Burgess joined Corum in 1996 and brings a diverse background in technology M&A and law. While with the Enforcement Division of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Nat helped identify and build cases against securities fraud schemes. With the Strategic Development Division of Morgan Stanley's M&A group, Nat worked on cross-border acquisitions of US and European companies by Japanese firms and on financings by large Japanese public companies. Nat moved to Morgan Stanley's Tokyo office, where he reported directly to the President of Morgan Stanley, Japan Ltd. and focused exclusively on cross-border M&A.

After Morgan Stanley, Nat co-founded Postcard Software, a creator of advertiser-driven bilingual (English and Japanese) Internet content. At Activision, Nat lead the company's on-line business development. Nat earned an undergraduate degree in Japanese literature from Yale College and a law degree from UCLA. While in law school, Nat wrote articles for the International Forum at Yale, Tokyo Journal. Nat is frequently quoted in industry publications, a highly sought after speaker at industry conferences, and Chairman of the World Financial Symposiums.

Dave Ireland
President, OpenEdge, Progress Software
Dave Ireland is responsible for the worldwide business strategy and operations for the company's current and future product lines. Ireland joined Progress Software in 1997 as vice president, core products and services, responsible for the development and product management groups that supported the Progress client/server and WebSpeed Internet product lines. He most recently served as vice president, worldwide field operations, responsible for the company's sales, services, support, documentation and education operations in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Japan.

Prior to joining Progress Software Corporation, Mr. Ireland served as vice president and general manager of PRISM products and services at Marcam. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from Richmond College, City University of New York.

Bruce M. Richardson
Chief Research Officer
AMR Research, Inc.
Bruce Richardson brings more than 20 years of experience to his current role at AMR Research. Mr. Richardson has spent most of his career analyzing the software industry with a distinct emphasis on ERP and supply chain. Since joining AMR Research in 1988, he has been responsible for spearheading new market research and contributing to the company’s analysis of leading market trends in areas such as: ERP, supply chain management, service-oriented architectures, and software-as-a-service.

Mr. Richardson is a sought after public speaker, having lectured and presented worldwide on the firm’s behalf nearly 500 times. He has covered and analyzed SAP since 1991 and made many early market predictions that have been realized, such as the rise of the advanced planning market and the evolution of MRP to ERP. Mr. Richardson also coined the term MES early in his role at AMR Research when he was responsible for all the written research that came from the firm.

Prior to AMR Research, Bruce held senior marketing management positions within the software and networking industries. He currently serves on the New England Business Technology Association (NEBTA), Leadership Roundtable Series Advisory Board, and is an active member of the Boston College Technology Council. Mr. Richardson graduated cum laude from Boston College.

Colleen Smith
Director, Software as a Service
Progress Software
Colleen Smith joined Progress Software in 2005 as Director, Software as a Service bringing with her 20 years of software and technology experience. In this role, she works on developing new business opportunities for Progress around the Company’s Software as a Service business initiative.

Prior to joining Progress, Ms. Smith was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Bristol Technology, responsible for the company's marketing, strategy and business development operations, worldwide. Prior to joining Bristol, she was Vice President and General Manager of the Business Process and Technology Practices at AMR Research, a provider of independent analysis and actionable advice to more than 5,000 supply chain and technology executives worldwide. Previously in her career, she held the role of Vice President of Research & Development at Geac Computer Systems, and held other sales and marketing roles at D&B Software/M&D.

Ms. Smith holds a bachelor's degree in Business and Computer Information Systems from Stonehill College, and an MBA from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. She has published many research articles on technology best practices and is a frequent guest speaker at Industry events. Her current area of focus/expertise is on Software as a Service (SaaS)—the growth opportunities and technology challenges associated with this new business model.