Executive Team
Zack B. Bergreen
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Zack founded Astea in 1979, and continues to serve as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board. Under his leadership, the Company has grown from a consulting firm specializing in field service applications to a dominant global provider of service-centric CRM solutions, integrating all customer-facing business processes for companies that manage mission critical assets. In addition to setting corporate direction, Zack oversees daily operations and plays an active role in nurturing relationships with major customers, partners and investors worldwide. His reputation as an industry pioneer and visionary is the result of his extensive background in applications and professional services. Prior to Astea, Zack held senior executive positions with such leading companies as Gould Electronics, Bechtel Corporation and General Signal. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.
Fredric (Rick) Etskovitz
Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Rick Etskovitz joined Astea International in June 2000, when he was elected chief financial officer and treasurer. Responsible for the firm's financial planning, investor relations, and executive guidance to help drive corporate performance, Rick brings to his position 25 years of experience in financial management and reporting. A certified public accountant, he previously served Astea for seven years as the engagement partner from an independent accounting firm. Before beginning his career in private practice, Rick was part of the financial management team at Dupont where he held responsibilities for Mergers and Acquisitions, Financial Planning, Corporate Accounting and Benefits. Rick received his Bachelor of Science from the Pennsylvania State University and his Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania.
John Tobin
President
John Tobin joined the Company in June 2000 and serves as President, General Counsel, and Secretary. Mr. Tobin is responsible for general management of the Company, along with handling legal affairs of the Company and various corporate development and business development initiatives. Prior to joining Astea, John worked at the Philadelphia law firms Pepper Hamilton LLP and Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis Cohen LLP, specializing in corporate transactions and intellectual property. Prior to returning to the Philadelphia area in 1998, he worked as a corporate and entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, specializing in motion picture, television and music transactions and licensing, most recently with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Mr. Tobin received his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, and received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992.
Vice President, Marketing
Debbie brings more than 17 years of progressive technology, healthcare and consumer product experience in marketing. Prior to joining Astea, she held a marketing management position for Draeger Medical, a Draeger and Siemens Company, responsible for developing, implementing and leading the global strategic and tactical marketing communications and launch plans for acute point-of-care software. She has also worked as an independent marketing consultant, working with clients that ranged from small start-ups to larger more mature service and product technology companies, providing both strategic and tactical marketing services. Debbie began her career in consumer products, holding both sales and marketing positions with Lever Brothers and ACNielsen. Debbie earned her BS degree in Marketing from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and MS degree in Information Systems from Drexel University.
John Roache
Vice President, Sales N.A.
John is a high-performance sales executive skilled at developing dynamic sales teams by increasing sales, profits and shareholder value. He has successfully held a variety of sales, sales management and executive management positions for both publicly traded and privately held firms in the areas of Supply Chain Planning, ERP, Project Planning, Applications Lifecycle Support, IT Outsourcing, Business Continuity Planning, Disaster Recovery and Consulting. Most recently, John was a Vice President of Sales at SunGard Availability Services, a leading provider of managed hosting, business continuity planning and disaster recovery services. Prior to that, he was Vice President North American Sales at Diversified Software Systems, a batch applications lifecycle support organization serving Fortune 500 clients. He earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in Business Administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Tom Swider
Senior Vice-President, Professional Services N.A.
Tommy is responsible for leading the North American professional services organization.. He has a very strong background in leading service and support organizations to high levels of profitability through improved operations, people management and team building. He will also be chartered with coordinating the Service and Support Delivery processes with our other global regions to maximize the collaboration and operational efficiency gains. For the past 4 years, Tommy was vice president, technology services for the North American operation of Info Vista, a large French software company. There he had responsibility for managing the professional services organization, training, maintenance and pre-sales. Prior to that, he held positions as a director at Hyperion Solutions and a vice president of technology services at Computer Associates.
Hideo Yamazaki
Managing Director, Japan
Hideo Yamazaki joined Astea in 2009 and successfully launched a new Japanese regional entity of Astea – Astea International Japan Inc. He is responsible for marketing and deploying business in the second largest marketplace globally. Before joining Astea, he was at a Japanese reseller of Astea for 10 years. With his leadership, approximately 50 large enterprises have engaged with Astea. Astea International Japan Inc. took over and continuously serves these customers. Prior to that, he held multiple positions at a Japanese trading company, Kanematsu Corp. At Kanematsu he had various responsibilities, including the management of several subsidiaries in multiple industries. Additionally, he worked in the in U.S. for many years where he managed their machinery, IT, software and service divisions. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Waseda University.
Ian Evans
Managing Director, EMEA
As managing director, EMEA, Ian is responsible for growing Astea's business in the European, Middle Eastern and African regions. Ian is a diversified senior executive with global CRM technology applications and services experience. Ian has 20 years experience in the software industry and over 10 years in direct and channel sales. He has a reputation for helping companies achieve their forecast goals by structuring sales and operation processes and then coaching and energizing sales teams to deliver multi-year, million dollar contracts. Prior to joining Astea he worked at a number of global private companies. Ian was Sales Director at Pivotal software, a subsidiary of China.com for many years. He left Pivotal to become VP for Infor Global Solutions, where he focused on increasing sales in EMEA. He then became managing director, EMEA for O4 Corporation, a global software company that focuses on delivering mobile sales solutions to the consumer goods and retail industry. He holds a degree in Computer Science.
Steve Scott
General Manager, APAC
Steve has been involved with Astea since 1999, initially as a contract Project Manager, managing implementations for many of Astea’s customers including Marconi Australia, Port of Portland and Sagem Australasia. In 2002, Steve came onboard with Astea in the full time capacity of Professional Services Manager. In his current role, Steve works closely with customers to provide professional services including business process and business re-engineering consulting and software development.Prior to working with Astea, Steve spent 16 years working for Repco Equipment Company, firstly in the capacity of National Service Coordinator and then as National Technical Manager. In these roles Steve had the responsibility of managing field technicians nationally, managing computer repair facility, product software development and enhancement, training for service personnel as well as customer relations. From 1985 until 1987 Steve worked for a few companies as an Electronics Technician refining his equipment service and repair skills. Steve holds an Associate Diploma of Electrical Engineering, a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Science (Computing) degree from Macquarie University.