Spectra Board of Directors

Nathan Thompson

Spectra Chief Executive Officer

Nathan Thompson is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Spectra Logic, an industry leader in delivering innovative data storage systems and solutions that help organizations protect and preserve their digital assets forever.

Nathan founded Spectra Logic in October 1979 at the age of 19, while attending the University Of Colorado College of Engineering in Boulder, CO. Originally called Western Automation, the company later acquired the assets of an interface firm known as Spectra Logic and, in 1993, the combined company was renamed Spectra Logic Corporation.

For nearly 40 years, Spectra Logic, a privately held corporation, has served the needs of data-intensive industries, global corporations and government agencies by providing them with a continuous stream of advanced data storage and archive solutions based on ever-evolving deep storage requirements.

In 1996, Nathan’s business achievements were recognized when Ernst & Young and USA Today named him Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (DEAA) from the University of Colorado. In 2011, Nathan was invited to deliver the commencement speech at the University of Colorado Boulder for the Leeds School of Business, and in 2012, he was inducted into the prestigious Boulder County Business Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Nathan authored a book, along with Spectra colleagues Bob Cone and John Kranz, titled, “Society’s Genome: Genetic Diversity’s Role in Data Preservation.” In the book, Nathan draws on the lessons of history and nature in addressing civilization’s unquenchable thirst for information and our need to find genetically diverse methods to preserve this collective knowledge base – society’s genome – for future generations.

Active in local business and civic communities, Nathan is a member and former chairman of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Young President’s Organization (YPO). He is also a member of the YPO Gold and the Colorado Thirty Group, and serves on the University of Colorado’s Electrical Engineering Advisory Board.

Nathan is a licensed commercial instrument pilot with approximately 2,500 flight hours logged. He also collects and restores vintage pinball machines, some of which are on display in Spectra’s headquarters.

Nathan holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Jennifer Hopkins

American Medical Chief Executive Officer

Jennifer is a Managing Partner at Crescendo Capital Partners LLC, a private investment company. Crescendo invests in mature businesses that offer an opportunity to accelerate growth and enhance profitability. She is currently CEO of one of Crescendo’s portfolio companies, American Medical. American Medical is one of the largest internet providers of prescription long term oxygen therapy equipment.

Prior to forming Crescendo, Jennifer was employed at Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies. Over her 20-year career, she led functional teams in R&D, Marketing and Manufacturing, and Executive General Management roles for hardware, software and services organizations. Most recently she was Vice President of the Global Solutions Business Unit, a $900M organization with 4 divisions and over 1500 employees in 35 countries. From a product perspective, she has led teams in categories ranging from Computers (workstations & servers), to semiconductors to electronic test equipment.

She is currently on the boards of Spectra Logic Corporation and Sartori Cheese, a third generation family retail and industrial provider of cheese. She is also a member of the Colorado Forum, a non-partisan business organization working to further governmental policy issues that benefit Coloradoans.

She is active in several nonprofit organizations including Craig Hospital Foundation, the NDSU Development Foundation, and the American Lung Association.

Hopkins holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from North Dakota State University, and master’s degree from Stanford University.

Jennifer lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, Mark. She is an active ultra runner, golfer and downhill skier.

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Sherri Leopard

SYPartners Senior Advisor & Entrepreneur in Residence | Retired Founder, Leopard Communications

As founder and CEO of a boutique consultancy, Sherri has spent more than thirty years as a strategic partner to CEOs, senior marketing leaders, and sales leaders primarily in the technology and telecommunications sectors. Her firm’s blue chip client list included IBM, SAP, Siemens, Motorola, Level 3, and Intrado. In 2006, after 22 successful years, Sherri sold her company to WPP and the firm became part of Ogilvy & Mather.

Upon honorably concluding her earn-out in February of 2014, Sherri retired. That short-lived experiment lasted 10 weeks, the highlights of which include breaking her wrist while skiing in the back bowls of Vail, a short trek in Nepal, and being recognized as BMA Colorado’s B2B Marketer of the Year.

Always up for a new challenge, Sherri joined SYPartners, a strategic brand and culture consultancy, as Senior Advisor and Entrepreneur in Residence in September of 2015.

Sherri serves on the Board of Directors of privately held Spectra Logic Corporation, the market leader in deep storage solutions.

She co-chaired the Innovation Committee for the Board of Advisors of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado – helping to increase the focus on Big Data and Analytics in the Leeds curriculum. She also co-chaired the Leeds School’s Board Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

In 2017, she was inducted into the Association of National Advertisers, B2B Marketing Hall of Fame.

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Barry Rudolph

VelociData Chief Executive Officer

Long-time IBM executive, Barry Rudolph has held numerous senior level positions within IBM including Vice President, Strategy and Stack Integration for IBM Storage; Vice President for IBM’s WW Disk, SAN & NAS Storage Systems; and Vice President of Tape Storage, with responsibility for IBM’s WW Tape business. He also has served on multiple boards including Dot Hill Systems, Spectra Logic and FalconStor. In July 2014, he was named CEO of VelociData, Inc., a firm that specializes in high-performance data transformation and process offload in large corporations.

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Mike Sausa

Spectra Senior Vice President of Organizational Development

Mike Sausa is the Senior Vice President of Organizational Development at Spectra Logic. He assumed the role in 2015.

In this role, Mike is focused on helping Spectra’s global employees connect and contribute to the organization by advancing Spectra’s software-defined, automated and intelligent CRM and Training platforms to increase business effectiveness.

Mike has more than 30 years of leadership proficiency.

Over his three decades of experience with Spectra Logic, since its inception, he has served in a variety of roles, including manager of finance and operations, European sales (based in the UK), global vice president of sales operations, and president and chief operating officer.

Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Jim Tholen

BroadSoft Chief Financial Officer

Jim Tholen brings more than 20 years of financial and strategic management experience to BroadSoft. As CFO, Jim oversees a number of BroadSoft’s strategic and financial planning initiatives, including areas in accounting, tax, legal, human resources, investor relations, acquisitions, real estate and risk management operations. Jim has been instrumental in ensuring BroadSoft’s continued growth and long-term viability. In 2010, he guided BroadSoft into launching a successful IPO.

Prior to joining BroadSoft, Jim served as CFO and chief operating officer (COO) at NetSec, Inc., a managed security services company acquired by MCI (now Verizon Business). He has also served as chief strategy officer and CFO for CareerBuilder.com and was a founding member of CareerBuilder’s board of directors.

In 2012, Jim was named as CFO of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland, and in 2009, he was selected as CFO of the Year by the Northern Virginia Tech Council. Jim is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Millennial Media (NYSE-MM) and Spectra Logic.

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