Officers of Hootsgo
Vivek Ratna, Ph.D. – Founder & President
Dr. Ratna is a senior executive with Big 4 management consulting background and over 30 years international experience in all aspects of the informational technology industry including learning systems, operations management, application development, risk management, IT effectiveness assessments. He has proven capabilities in solving business problems, analyzing technical environments, preparing strategic plans, conducting statistical analysis, and improving operational processes. Experience in delivering information services, while minimizing risk, from both an outsourcing services practice and an internal IT perspective. He is an accomplished executive with a comprehensive background and outstanding performance in a broad range of industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, construction, high technology, communications, publishing, consumer products and education. He has been very active in supporting Children’s education by coming up with innovative technology platform/solutions to provide the 21st Century education to children around the world.
Archie C. Smith III (Trey) - Treasurer
Archie C. Smith is currently the President of GaltwayIndustires that he founded to become the premier manufacturing sales representative firm to the Oil and Gas industry. In the past two years, since forming GaltwayIndustires, he has successfully built a team of sales professionals with industry experience, as well as a vast network of executive contacts. He currently manages over $60 Million in annual sales.
Suresh Dixit, Ph.D. – Secretary
Dr. Dixit is CSO and Principal Consultant has strong leadership skills and is an experienced pharmaceutical development executive. He has a track record of over 30 years experience. Dr. Dixit has a doctorate in Physical Industrial Pharmacy from the University of Tennessee. He is an expert in advising and facilitating change within an Organization. Most recently, Dr Dixit served for over five years as Vice-president of research and development at NexgenPharma Inc. Under his supervision, the R&D operation was relocated to a new site resulting in increased productivity and high double digit profits. Previously, he held management positions as Vice-President at Sovereign Pharmaceutical, Director at Taro Pharmaceutical, Associate Director at Alcon Research and PDC, Section Head at IVAX and Research Investigator at Hoffmann La-Roche. He is a hands-on executive who is an ardent supporter of Education and is the co-founder of a not-profit school in India for the under-privileged.
Hootsgo Board of Directors
Angela Bicknell, Ed.D.
Dr. Bicknell has spent over 20 years in public education as a teacher and administrator. As a high school English teacher, Dr. Bicknell worked with varied student populations from gifted and talented to at-risk students. She integrated technology in lessons, earning a Texas Teacher Technology Competencies Certification. Eventually Dr. Bicknell earned her master’s degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment and helped to write district standardized testing benchmarks. While teaching, Dr. Bicknell served as cheerleader coach for 10 years, gaining extensive experience in budgeting and fundraising. She also oversaw the High Schools That Work grant, which included grant writing and monitoring. During this time Dr. Bicknell helped design a school-wide advisory period and a grade-level book project.
After teaching for 13 years, Dr. Bicknell moved into a district-level position as the Smaller Learning Communities coordinator, a federally funded grant with goals to increase student performance at the high school level, focusing mostly on ninth grade. Dr. Bicknell oversaw programs at the three district high schools, which included providing professional development to teachers on how to integrate technology tools in the classroom. After the grant ended, Dr. Bicknell moved to an assistant principal at an elementary campus, where she was in charge of new teacher training and student special population committees. The following year Dr. Bicknell became the director of the 21st Community Learning Centers Grant, a federally funded program administered by the state of Texas. She has been in charge of 20 campuses across the district, elementary to high school. She directly supervises 23 employees and is responsible for budget oversight, data collection and reporting, and instructional improvement. During the five years of the grant, Dr. Bicknell has implemented student data folders, instructional best practices, numerous training opportunities, and professional learning communities.
Dr. Bicknell received her doctorate in Administrator Leadership for Teaching and Learning. Her dissertation, The Correlation of Students’ Classroom-Assigned Social Networking with TAKS Literacy Scores, explored the ideas of a knowledge/informational society, the flat world concept, digital natives, and the theory of connectivity.
Morgan Kay Sherman
Morgan has a 25 year history of working in education, as a teacher and in administrative positions in Counseling as an Academic and College Career Advisor. Her undergraduate degree is in Physical Science and her Masters is in Educational Related Counseling are from the University of Houston.
When Morgan has extra time she can be found hiking in nature. She is an active advocate for the World Wildlife Foundation. Morgan's favorite quote is from Ghandi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world".
Steve LeClair
Steve is currently the Business Development Manager for VMware Service Provider Program. In this capacity, Steve supports Service Provider development and go-to-market initiatives leveraging VMware Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud technologies.
Prior to VMware, Steve was the Financial Sector Sales Director for Savvis Communications. Steve’s information technology sales and business development career has spanned 34 years with key management roles with BT, Symantec, EMC, KPMG and Cisco Systems.
Steve has leveraged extensive experience in Business Development and consults to Museum Management. Steve is also a founding member of TieniDuro Junior Cycling Development Team, a member of USA Cycling.
Michael Robinson
Over more than 20 years, Michael Robinson has led marketing, branding, communications, product design and marketing, and business development for diverse companies such as Associa, Allegro Development, Campus Living Villages, Electronic Data Systems, Ernst & Young/Intellinex, and Hitachi -- and influencing profitable growth in both B2B and B2C markets.
His depth in technology, business and consumer services, and consulting to multiple industries provides a wide base of knowledge and experience for Hootsgo.org. In addition to advising Hootsgo on launch and growth, he is also assisting the company with relevant product/market fit, optimizing user experience and interface design, and deriving short and long term audience needs by analyzing site analytics and use.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Baylor University and his Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University. He also serves on the SMU Cox Associate Board, mentoring full time and executive MBA students.
Bob Simoldoni
Bob Simoldoni has over three decades of executive-level relationship building, face-to-face negotiations and closing profitable revenue deals. He’s an expert in IT Sales, Business Development, Strategic Account Management and C-level relationship building and related processes, workflows and business analysis.
With a resume that includes Oracle Corporation, KPMG, and Merrill Lynch, Bob has a proven track-record of combining a strong product knowledge with excellent negotiation skills to identify and maximize sales opportunities and deliver results in high-pressured target-based environments. He also brings deep expertise to Hootsgo with research, analysis, strategic planning and negotiation skills to successfully develop business initiatives while maximizing profit, minimizing cost and driving revenue to the bottom line.