Team
Guidewire Software's management team combines proven expertise building and delivering applications for Fortune 1000 companies with deep knowledge of, and experience in, insurance and financial institutions.
- John Raguin, Chief Executive Officer
- Karen Blasing, Chief Financial Officer
- Pete Espinosa, Vice President, Worldwide Sales
- Marcus Ryu, Vice President, Products & Strategy
- Alex Naddaff, Vice President, Professional Services
- Priscilla Hung, Vice President, Corporate Development & Alliances
- Brian Desmond, Vice President, Marketing
- Jeremy Henrickson, Vice President, Product Development
- John Seybold, Chief Technology Officer
- Dan Gordon, Vice President, Product Management
John Raguin, Chief Executive Officer
As Chief Executive Officer, John Raguin has responsibility for the day-to-day company operations and future direction of Guidewire Software. John is a co-founder of Guidewire; has served in a number of leadership positions over the last five years, and has been instrumental in leading the company to a market leadership position. Most recently, John established and grew Guidewire's operations in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific markets. Prior to Guidewire, John was Vice President and General Manager of Ariba's Sourcing Solutions division, where he oversaw major new product releases and led successful sales to Global 2000 customers. John came to Ariba from SupplierMarket where he was instrumental in designing, building, and marketing a leading solution for enterprise sourcing. At PSDI (now MRO Software), he was responsible for the company's flagship product MAXIMO and its strategic extension into MRO.com, and successfully led its international sales and marketing programs. He previously held management positions at Work Technology and Westinghouse. He has been published in various leading periodicals and has spoken at multiple insurance and technology conferences. John has a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business.
Karen Blasing, Chief Financial Officer
As Chief Financial Officer, Karen has overall global responsibility for Guidewire's Finance and Administration Operations. Karen brings more than 20 years of experience in creating and implementing corporate strategic plans, executing mergers and acquisitions, and building finance, accounting, legal, and human resource programs and systems. Prior to joining Guidewire, Karen was CFO at Force10Networks, Nuance Communications and Counterpane Internet Security. She also held senior finance roles at salesforce.com, Informix Corporation (acquired by IBM), Oracle Corporation and Syntex Pharmaceuticals (now Roche). In 2008, while working at Force10, Karen was named (San Francisco) Bay Area CFO of the Year for venture-backed companies. She holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Business Administration, Finance from the University of Montana and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Pete Espinosa, Vice President, Worldwide Sales
As Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Pete is responsible for sales execution and results for all Guidewire products, globally. He has more than 25 years experience in global sales leadership, sales execution, results management, client relations, industry solution sales, and building and leading high performing sales teams. Prior to joining Guidewire, Pete was Executive Vice President of Sales for Pay By Touch, the global leader in biometric payment and loyalty marketing solutions to the retail industry. Prior to that, Pete was SVP of Global Sales and Operations for Retek, the leading application provider to the retail industry, and also held the same position at Vignette, the leading provider of web content management and application solutions. Pete began his career at IBM where he worked for 17 years. During this time he held various sales positions, culminating in his role as Executive Assistant to IBM Chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
Marcus Ryu, Vice President, Products and Strategy
Marcus Ryu has overall responsibility for development, product management, and marketing. As a co-founder of the company, he played an instrumental role in defining and communicating Guidewire's mission. He has considerable experience analyzing the underwriting and claims operations of insurance carriers, and is a frequent speaker to industry audiences on technology and operational issues. Marcus also serves on Guidewire's Board of Directors. Before Guidewire, Marcus was Vice President of Strategy at Ariba and an Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company. He has an A.B. from Princeton University and a B.Phil. from New College, Oxford University.
Alex Naddaff, Vice President, Professional Services
Alex Naddaff plays a key role at Guidewire Software in both designing technology solutions for the insurance industry and ensuring successful customer implementations. He brings more than twenty years of experience building, implementing, and managing mission-critical systems for major financial institutions. As Vice President for Claims Technology at Hartford Financial Services, Alex established a multi-year strategic direction and directed the implementation of claim technology for more than 6,000 claims people supporting the auto, property, general liability, and workers' compensation business lines. Prior to the Hartford, he was First Vice President of Credit Systems at MBNA America, where he developed systems for credit line management, credit application processing, and imaging. He was previously a Vice President at J. P. Morgan. Alex has been published in National Underwriter and Insurance Executive Technology and has a B.S. from Wagner College.
Priscilla Hung, Vice President, Corporate Development & Alliances
Priscilla Hung is responsible for Guidewire's corporate development and worldwide partnering strategies and execution. Priscilla has extensive enterprise software experience at both startups and global companies. Prior to joining Guidewire, Priscilla held several management positions at Ariba Inc.: as the Director of Operations, she was instrumental in driving the strategy, operations and execution of the company's first Supplier Membership Program; as the Director of Global Channels & Alliances, she oversaw worldwide technology and channel partnerships. Priscilla also previously held several channels, business development and product marketing positions at Sun Microsystems, Uniface/Compuware, Pyramid/Siemen's Nixdorf and Oracle Corporation. In additional to her high technology career, Priscilla was a founder/managing director of a global trading company that trades merchandise between US and mainland China. Priscilla holds a M.Eng Industrial Engineering & Operations Research degree from Cornell University.
Brian Desmond, Vice President, Marketing
As Vice President of Marketing, Brian Desmond is responsible for the development and execution of global marketing strategy including demand creation, positioning, branding, public relations and product marketing. Brian brings extensive experience in corporate and product marketing to the company. Prior to joining Guidewire, Brian served as Vice President of Marketing for PeopleSoft's Supply Chain solutions, where he led global marketing efforts for a division with $300M in annual revenue. Prior to PeopleSoft, Brian led marketing at Ketera Technologies, playing a key role in establishing Ketera as a leader in the “software as a service” space. Prior to Ketera, Brian served in a variety or product marketing roles at Ariba and Tradex Technologies (acquired by Ariba). Brian began his career at Accenture, and managed project teams implementing SAP R/3 at Fortune1000 companies. Brian has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Economics and Marketing from University College of Cork, Ireland.
Jeremy Henrickson, Vice President, Product Development
As Guidewire’s Vice President of Product Development, Jeremy is responsible for the planning, design, and development of products that enable Guidewire’s customers to realize their aspirations. Jeremy previously held a number of roles at Guidewire. He served as the platform Program Manager, where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of and strategy for Guidewire’s core technology group. Prior to that he was a founding member of the European sales team and prepared the products for the global insurance market. He also served as the Senior Product Manager for ClaimCenter which grew from three to 14 customers under his leadership. Prior to Guidewire, Jeremy was Director of Technology Services at Reactivity, Inc. (later acquired by Cisco) and held various technical and research roles at Apple. Jeremy holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
John Seybold, Chief Technology Officer
John Seybold has a successful track record designing large-scale, mission-critical enterprise applications. As a co-founder at Guidewire, he designed much of the core platform infrastructure that provides performance, scalability, flexibility, and ease of integration across the product suite. He has also been instrumental in establishing Guidewire's test-driven development strategy, which allows the company to deliver provably reliable and high-performing software on a highly predictable schedule. Before Guidewire, he worked at Kana Software as a software architect responsible for Kana Response, the company's flagship product deployed at more than 500 active customers. He successfully re-architected Response as a distributed, fault-tolerant, multi-server system for mission-critical services operations. Prior to joining Kana, John was the first employee of Lexicus, where he developed advanced handwriting recognition technology that led to an acquisition by Motorola. John has an A.B. from Harvard University and a D.Phil. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Dan Gordon, Vice President, Product Management
Dan Gordon oversees the definition and design of all Guidewire product releases. He is responsible for product strategy, closely collaborating with customers to define product requirements and usability, and assisting customers in making the best use of Guidewire's products. Dan and his team are committed to customer success as the top priority in product planning. Dan joined Guidewire from E.piphany, where he oversaw E.piphany Sales, a visionary sales force automation product. Prior to E.piphany, Dan worked at RealNetworks in a variety of roles spanning product marketing, e-commerce management, and strategic planning. Previously, he was a consultant at Booz Allen and Hamilton. Dan has a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A from Stanford University.