IVANS Leadership
Reid Holzworth
Chief Executive Officer
Reid Holzworth, Chief Executive Officer, leads IVANS strategic direction. He is a prominent insurance industry leader with extensive insurance experience in both broker and insurer distribution environments. Holzworth was the founder and CEO of TechCanary, an InsurTech leader that Applied Systems acquired in 2019. TechCanary built an innovative set of insurance solutions on the Salesforce platform to create choice and flexibility for agencies who prefer Salesforce.com, which has since been incorporated in Applied’s portfolio under the name Applied Epic for Salesforce. Holzworth’s extensive industry experience, innovation-first mindset and commitment to simple, valuable customer experiences will be hallmarks of his leadership of IVANS and the expansion of its compelling innovation strategy.
Pat Forgione
Chief Technology Officer
Pat Forgione, Chief Technology Officer, leads IVANS overall technology strategy and implementation functions. Prior, he served as vice president of Platform Development at Applied. Forgione also served as chief technology officer of TechCanary where he led the development of the industry’s leading management system built on Salesforce.com. He has previously founded and led several start ups, including Lendful and Thinking Capital, to successful acquisition.
Bob Bardwell
Chief Operating Officer
Bob Bardwell, Chief Operating Officer, leads IVANS day-to-day operational functions of the business. Prior, he served as vice president of Strategic Initiatives at Applied where he was responsible for supporting the international growth of the business. Bardwell also previously led SMS Assist’s Commercial vertical as senior vice president and general manager of operations, as well as held strategic leadership roles at Rackspace.
Saima Shaukat
Chief Revenue Officer
Saima Shaukat, Chief Revenue Officer, leads IVANS sales and services functions and will be instrumental in IVANS’ go-to-market strategy. Saima brings more than 21 years of SaaS sales and marketing experience, with a proven track record of scaling revenue strategies. She also brings deep domain expertise from her roles as TechCanary’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Salesforce’s General Manager and Vice-President of Financial Services.
Ben Goodman
Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer
Ben Goodman, Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer, leads IVANS overall strategy, including partnerships and acquisitions. Prior, he served as vice president of Corporate Development at Applied. He previously held strategy roles at Johnson Controls and PowerPlan, and was a management consultant with Accenture. He holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and a bachelor’s in Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Thad Bauer
Vice President and General Manager
Thad Bauer, Vice President and General Manager, leads IVANS Services and Support functions. He has 25 years of property and casualty experience and has played a key role in furthering the adoption of ACORD standards to exchange data within the industry to improve efficiencies. Prior to his current role at IVANS, Thad was president and co-founder of NxTech, a leading provider of agency-MGA-carrier interface and data integration solutions. Prior to NxTech, he spent nine years with BWC Systems and IVANS, Inc. and has worked with more than 350 insurance carriers throughout North America.
Global Leadership
Taylor Rhodes
Chief Executive Officer
Taylor Rhodes, Chief Executive Officer, leads Team Applied and is responsible for the company's overall strategy and operational execution. Rhodes joined Applied in 2019 after serving as chief executive officer of SMS Assist, the leading cloud-based software platform for multi-site property management. Previously, he was CEO of Rackspace, where he led the Company’s growth from a cloud pioneer to an industry leader with more than two billion dollars in revenue, while establishing the company as a mainstay on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®. Prior to Rackspace, he served as a leader in enterprise, financial and corporate strategy roles at Electronic Data Systems Corporation. Mr. Rhodes is a former United States Marine Corps infantry officer and holds a MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves on the board of directors for Applied, Zenoss and Liquid Web, LLC.
Rich Belanger
Chief Technology Officer
Rich Belanger, Chief Technology Officer, leads the Product Development and Quality Assurance teams for Applied Systems. Previously, Rich led ProQuest, a global SaaS company with over 100 million users, through a complex migration to a modern cloud architecture and deployed world-class software development processes. As a result of his leadership, ProQuest achieved significant improvements in performance and reliability, as well as meaningful improvements in the speed and quality of new product development. Rich also held prior leadership roles at Target Software and Forrester Research.
Graham Blackwell
Chief Financial Officer
Graham Blackwell, Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for financial and administrative functions, as well as acquisitions, partnerships and strategic planning activities at Applied. Graham joined Applied in 2020 from SMS Assist, where he led the company’s strategy, pricing, marketing, and sales organization as chief revenue officer. Prior to SMS Assist, Graham was executive vice president with Bain Capital’s North American Private Equity Team where he worked closely with the boards and management teams of Bain Capital’s portfolio companies to define and execute enterprise-wide strategic and operational transformation. His efforts resulted in accelerating revenue growth and strong investor returns across a wide-ranging set of businesses. Recent companies where he spent considerable time include Blue Nile, an e-commerce retailer; and BMC Software, a global software provider. Before that, Graham was an associate partner with McKinsey & Company, specializing in retail; and a consultant with Accenture. He holds an MBA degree from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Trevor Bunker
Chief Customer Officer
Trevor Bunker, Chief Customer Officer, leads Applied’s customer experience organization, including the strategic direction for the company’s services, support, and customer success programs. Trevor joined Applied in 2020 with more than 20 years of customer service leadership experience. In his last role, he served as CCO at RealPage, a vertical SaaS company serving the real estate market, where he oversaw a team of 1,000 responsible for all post-sales customer experience functions. Prior, Trevor spent 13 years at CA Technologies where he rose to be Senior Vice President of Product Success, Customer Adoption and Software Subscription Renewals.
Tom Needs
Chief Executive Officer, Applied Systems Europe
Tom Needs, Chief Executive Officer of Applied Systems Europe is responsible for leading the company’s UK and Ireland strategy, operations and regional growth mission. Tom brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in the B2B technology sector serving multiple industries, including the European Insurance industry. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Node4 Ltd., a leading private equity backed technology services company comprising private and public cloud services, connectivity, and collaboration solutions, where he was responsible for driving customer growth and retention and for scaling operations. His experience leading rapid organizational growth and transformation will provide great value to our employees, customers, and the broader insurance ecosystem as we continue to scale our operations and deliver world-class technologies and services.
Alana McGovern
Interim Chief People Officer
Alana McGovern, Interim Chief People Officer, oversees the Human Resources function in Europe and the People Business Partner Team globally, working closely with the chief people officer, and the Executive and Senior Management teams to ensure that HR priorities are aligned with key business objectives. She is an effective and self-motivated director with extensive experience, and is highly competent in developing and implementing HR strategies and initiatives aligned with the company’s overall business strategy. Alana holds a Master of Human Resource Management (Business Partnership) from Charles Sturt University (Australia) and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of Ulster (Ireland).
Michael Howe
Chief Product Officer
Michael Howe, Chief Product Officer, is responsible for the strategic direction of the Applied product portfolio. Howe joined Applied in 2013 with more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software. He formerly served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Aptean, a global provider of industry-focused enterprise software. Prior to Aptean, Howe held senior executive management positions at SAP and other leading software companies. Howe began his career as a software engineer at Great-West Life Assurance, where he was responsible for developing custom-built Oracle applications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Jeffrey D. Purdy
Chief Revenue Officer
Jeffrey D. Purdy, Chief Revenue Officer, is responsible for the strategic direction of Applied's sales organization. Purdy began his career in the company’s Canadian operations in 1989 and has held various executive positions in Canada and the USA, including running our international operations prior to taking on the executive sales role. He has led Applied’s global expansion and entry into the United Kingdom and Ireland markets. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.
Courtney Rains
Chief Marketing Officer
Courtney Rains, Chief Marketing Officer, is responsible for Applied’s global marketing strategy. Rains has held a number of leadership positions at Applied and led the Company’s brand transformation, helping to position Applied as the technology company revolutionizing the insurance industry. With more than 10 years of experience in technology marketing and crisis communications, her expertise and unrelenting commitment to growth ensure that she brings the best out of those around her for the success of the team and broader company. She has prior marketing experience at big tech companies like Qualcomm and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Rich Cohan
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Rich Cohan, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, is responsible for the legal and corporate governance activities of Applied. He joined Applied in 2019 and brings more than 20 years of experience in legal and business roles, including in both the software and insurance industries. Prior to Applied, Cohan ran European Operations for Workiva Inc., a SaaS provider of corporate reporting solutions. Previously he was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Athene USA (formerly Aviva USA), a leading provider of life insurance and annuity products. Previous experiences include a corporate attorney at the law firms of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Katten Muchin & Zavis, as well as a CPA with Price Waterhouse. Cohan received his law degree from the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.