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Management Team
Wes Shepherd, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer | Weblog
A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Shepherd has over 12 years of proven experience in starting and growing businesses.
Prior to co-founding ChannelVelocity, Mr. Shepherd held executive positions as a founder at
numerous technology enterprises, including two that ended in successful acquisitions. Among these companies
were the first online home improvement e-commerce company, an automotive software firm, and an online comedy
entertainment site. He started his first company at age 20 and reached profitability and approximately $1 million
in sales in the first year of full-time operations. Mr. Shepherd has been featured in a recent Northwestern
University publication as an entrepreneurial technologist and has received both state and national recognition
for his entrepreneurial and marketing efforts. Mr. Shepherd graduated "cum laude" from the University of
Washington Business School with a focus in Finance and Entrepreneurship and minor in Geographic Information Systems.
He is completing his MBA at Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg School of Management.
Todd Chalem, Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Chalem joined Channel Velocity as Chief Operating Officer in June 2004. Previously he spent ten years in the
securities industry as an equity derivative market maker. In 1998, he helped found SecondCity Trading, LLC, a
broker/dealer that concentrated on derivative market making, securities trading and clearing services. The firm
merged with a competitor in 2001 to grow to 70 traders with operations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and
Amsterdam. As a Managing Member, Mr. Chalem oversaw the firm's equity and index option trading and its financial
operations. He is also a residential real estate investor. He received his M.B.A. at the Kellogg School of Management
at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in June 2004. In 1990, Mr. Chalem graduated with a B.A. in political
science and English from the University of Iowa. In 1989 he attended the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, England
to study politics and literature.
Joe Blasingame, Vice President of Business Development
Mr. Blasingame has over 35 years experience in operations for the public and private sectors. As the Director of
Client Services for Returns Online, a leading returns management company, Mr. Blasingame maintained 100% customer
satisfaction ratings and was instrumental in managing facility operations. While at Returns Online, he led the
company's entrance into online auction liquidation services for leading enterprise clients. At EMC Security,
Mr. Blasingame created and grew the Commercial Services Division, reducing false alarm rates to industry-leading
levels and resolving customer issues to 100% satisfaction. Mr. Blasingame also held various leadership roles
in the State of Georgia Police and Fire Departments.
James Boccarossa, National Director of Sales | Weblog
Mr. Boccarossa joined Channel Velocity in 2005 as its National Director of Sales with almost 10 years of experience finding solutions for his clients. His professional career began with Ernst & Young LLP in their Management Consulting group. He helped develop, implement and manage large scale custom built and packaged applications for many major corporations including R.R. Donnelly, ABN/Amro and Eli Lilly. Mr. Boccarossa then made the move into enterprise software sales, where he specialized in selling native XML database solutions. He has been invited as a guest speaker to many conferences such as: Sun Microsystems Java One Days and the American Bar Association. He received a B.S. in General Engineering from the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL and earned his M.B.A from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg School of Management with a concentration in Strategy & Management and Marketing.
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