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. Guidewire is managed by a founding team that has been with the company since 2001.
- John Raguin, Chief Executive Officer
- Mike Shahbazian, Chief Financial Officer
- John Seybold, Chief Technology Officer
- Ken Branson, Vice President, Product Development
- Brian Desmond, Vice President, Marketing
- Pete Espinosa, Vice President, Worldwide Sales
- Priscilla Hung, Vice President, Corporate Development & Alliances
- Alex Naddaff, Vice President, Professional Services
- Marcus Ryu, Vice President, Strategy & New Products
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 while playing a primary role in all sales and business development activities. 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.
Mike Shahbazian, Chief Financial Officer
As Chief Financial Officer for Guidewire, Mike has overall responsibility for Finance and Administration strategy. Mike brings more than 30 years of diverse high technology experience, including CFO roles in public and private companies. Prior to joining Guidewire, he served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Embarcadero Technologies. He also served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Niku Corporation (acquired by Computer Associates), CFO of ANDA Networks, Inventa Technologies, and Walker Interactive. Prior to these roles, Mike spent nearly 20 years with Amdahl Corporation in a variety of senior finance positions. Mike holds a B.S. in Business from California State University, Fresno, and a MBA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
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.
Ken Branson, Vice President, Product Development
Ken Branson is a Guidewire co-founder. He has successfully released enterprise applications at both startup and established companies. He is responsible for the planning, design, and development of Guidewire's products, and plays a key role in understanding and fulfilling customer requirements. As Director of Product Management at Ariba, he was responsible for the platform infrastructure for Ariba Buyer and for Ariba Dynamic Trade, each delivered to hundreds of customers. He delivered the initial release of TradingDynamics, leading to an acquisition by Ariba. Ken previously worked in mergers and acquisitions at Cisco, in program management at Microsoft, and in consulting at Booz Allen and Hamilton. Ken has a B.S. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Stanford 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.
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 over 25 years experience in global sales leadership, sales execution, results management, client relations, industry solution sales, and building and leading sales teams that have accomplished extraordinary objectives. 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. At Pay By Touch Pete secured major partnerships, closed the first significant client deals, optimized sales resources from acquisitions of BioPay, Capture Resource, and S&H Solutions, and doubled revenue each year. 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’s services leadership experience is evidenced by the outstanding results he achieved while VP and GM of North American Operations at Cambridge Technology Partners, a progressive consulting and systems integration firm that was acquired by Novell in 2001. Pete began his career at IBM where he worked for 17 years. During this time he held positions as Sales Manager, Branch Manager, Trading Area General Manager, Vice President of Small and Medium Business, and finally Executive Assistant to IBM Chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Pete holds a B.A. degree in Speech Communication and Political Science from Luther 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.
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.
Marcus Ryu, Vice President, Strategy and New Products
Marcus Ryu has extensive experience in consulting, sales, and strategy in both enterprise software and financial services. A co-founder of Guidewire, he is currently Vice President of Strategy and New Products at Guidewire Software, where he plays a central role in developing and implementing leading solutions for the insurance industry. As Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Ariba, he had primary responsibility for Ariba's product strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate positioning. While at Ariba, Marcus also played a key role in multiple large sales into target vertical industries. Marcus joined Ariba from McKinsey and Company, where his clients included leading companies in financial services and software. Marcus has an A. B. from Princeton University and a B.Phil. from New College, Oxford University.
