About Us
The system is so easy to use that our faculty can decide to record any class, something that students appreciate because they use the online lectures to increase their overall comprehension."
John DiPippa
Associate dean UA-LR
Bowen School of Law
Management Team
Corporate Headquarters
21000 Atlantic Boulevard
6th Floor
Dulles, Virginia 20166
tel: 1.703.667.7500
fax: 1.703.450.1936
Fred Singer
CEO
Fred Singer is an internet pioneer who has played a broad set of roles ranging from CEO, executive, entrepreneur, advisor, board member and investor. He jumped into online media and advertising as it was emerging in the early 1990's, tapping into the hyper-growth of narrowband online services with America Online. Mr. Singer was with Softbank Corporation since 2003 as a Senior Advisor to Masayoshi Son, President and CEO of Softbank Corporation in Japan. Previously, Mr. Singer worked in a variety of leading operating roles as a Senior Vice President at America Online where his primary focus was on turnarounds and content companies. During his six year tenure at AOL, some of his roles included COO, AOL Studios/Interactive Services (Content), COO, ICQ (Instant Messaging) and SVP of emerging products. He started his career with the Washington Post Company in 1992 where he was a founder of the Washington Post Online Service (now WashingtonPost.com).
Mr. Singer is currently serving on the boards of DoubleClick, Motley Fool Company, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (International Committee), Queens School of Business, and Upper Canada College. He has also been active with Sunderam TagoreArt Gallery in New York City and Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C. where he has funded pioneering work on Autism Spectrum Disorders. He has an MBA from Harvard and a LLB, MA Philosophy, BA Philosophy with Distinction and B. Commerce with Honours from Queen's University in Canada.
Geoff Allen
Chairman and Founder
Geoff Allen has over 20 years experience in high-technology sales and marketing, product development and business operations. As founder of Echo360, Allen promoted the vision for next-generation lecture capture and conceived of the EchoSystem capture appliance. Prior to founding Echo360, Allen founded its sister company, Anystream. Anystream is now the world leader in digital media production and workflow management systems for top media companies, including Turner, NFL Films, NBC, MTV and countless more. Prior to Anystream, Allen was the general manager of Enterprise Solutions for the Anystream development group at Integrated Computing Engines, Inc. He has an extensive background in Internet cutting-edge video applications, previously serving as chief technology officer of iXL's Washington D.C. office. He founded and served as president and chief executive officer of Axicom, a developer of digital video advertising insertion systems, and Source Digital, a systems integrator focused on digital video production systems.
Allen is a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO). He is a former member of the Young Entrepreneur's Organization where he served as the vice president of technology for its International Board. Allen attended George Mason University's computer science program and the Birthing of Giants Entrepreneurial Management Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mark Jones
President and General Manager
Mark Jones has over 20 years of marketing, product management and development experience spanning the enterprise software and education markets. Jones was most recently VP Marketing/Business Development with the National Student Clearinghouse, the nation's leading provider of outsourced technology solutions for the postsecondary Registrar and Financial Aid communities.
Prior to joining the Clearinghouse, Jones was Vice President of Product Management at Mercator Software, a leader in the Enterprise Application Integration market, where he was responsible for the flagship B2B integration product and ERP integration solutions. Jones has also held varied sales, marketing and product management roles with Pearson/NCS and IBM where he began his career.
Jones earned a BS in business from the University of Minnesota and has completed coursework for the Master of International Management program at the University of Denver.
Steven Geyer
Founder, Senior Vice President of Technology
Steven Geyer has over 20 years experience in the design and development of complex software and hardware systems. His experience spans parallel and distributed architectures, high-speed networking, client-server architectures, database exploitation and artificial intelligence. Geyer has served as an independent developer on a variety of projects, including the architectural design of a TV-based Web delivery system, autonomy and collaboration technologies for NASA's space flight program and a high-performance, distributed computing environment to detect fraudulent billing practices in a 300 million record database. Geyer also served as a senior software developer for MRJ Technology Solutions where he was the technical lead for a fault-tolerant, distributed digital video-on-demand architecture.
Geyer received a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in computer science from the University of Illinois.
Tony Abate
Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development
Tony Abate brings 21 years of experience in the technology, digital media and converged services fields, serving in product management, senior executive, investment and advisory roles. As an investor at Battery Ventures and Whitney & Co, Abate served on the board of several venture backed start-ups creating entirely new markets from the digital and Internet revolutions. His seasoned guidance on how to profitably scale in nascent markets helped companies like Homestore; Usinternetworking; NBX; RelevantKnowledge; and Cbeyond Communications go from concept to a successful IPO or exit. As a consultant at McKinsey & Co and Mercator Partners, Abate advised both leading publicly traded companies and venture-backed start-ups on how best to exploit the ensuing business opportunities of digitization and convergence. As an officer in the US Air Force, Abate developed an advanced computer platform for the then classified stealth aircraft program.
Tony holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from Duke University (summa cum laude) and an MBA from Harvard Business School with honors.
Chris Huff
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
Chris Huff has more than 23 years of successful sales and business development leadership experience in public and venture-backed technology companies. He has built and scaled direct sales organizations in early-stage application software companies, as well as indirect sales channels including resellers, distributors and sales agents. Huff has more than 12 years of international sales management experience and has generated significant and sustained revenue streams in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Prior to joining Echo360, Huff served as VP, Sales for JacobsRimell Ltd., a leading UK-based provider of advanced IP provisioning software solutions to the telecom industry (subsequently purchased by Amdocs). Before JacobsRimell, Huff was the VP, Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Cerebrus Solutions Ltd., a UK-based leader in fraud management software solutions. Huff has also held sales and business development executive positions at TeleKnowledge, Saville Systems, Comshare and IBM, where he began his career.
Huff received a bachelor’s degree in history from Dartmouth College.
Mike Fardon
Vice President, Product Management
Mike has 15 years experience working in the emerging technologies in universities in Australia. Throughout this time he has demonstrated a high capacity for architecting software solutions for education. This includes desktop multimedia applications, content-based multimedia CD-ROMs, web-based learning tools, and the enterprise lecture capture system that is Lectopia.
Mike has been the Lectopia Project Director, Chief Architect and Lead Inventor since the projects inception in 1998. He has held both technical and academic positions during this time, having authored and co-authored many publications and participated in many workshops, seminars and conferences around the globe. Mike has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Adelaide, a Graduate Diploma in Education from Flinders University of South Australia and is currently completing a Masters in Education at the University of Western Australia.
The wealth of specific and related knowledge and experience that Mike brings to Echo360 is paralleled by few individuals in the global context. He has played a significant role in the emergence and evolution of the classroom capture market.
Jonathan (Jody) Bell
Vice President of Engineering
Jonathan (Jody) Bell has over 20 years experience in high-technology engineering and over 10 years experience building and leading elite engineering teams. Prior to joining Echo360, Bell was a technical director at America Online. There he led the development of the AOL 5.0 client, Internet Devices, Windows Media Center development, AIM Pro, and a variety of other media and web service projects. The Gateway Internet Appliance with Instant AOL won best of show at Comdex in the fall of 2000. Prior to AOL Bell worked as a mathematician and system analyst at SAIC on research projects in submarine design, acoustics, and ocean optics primarily for the John's Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Bell received a master of science degree in mathematics from the University of New Hampshire and a bachelors degree in mathematics from Mansfield University in PA.
