LignUp Executive Team

Hector Saldaña, Founder, Chairman, & CEO
Hector brings over 20 years of notable accomplishments as a senior manager with extensive international business experience and relationships.

Hector served as General Partner at Inventity Group, LLC, a professional consulting and investment practice. Hector is a founder of EC-One, Inc., the leading developer of Java applications in Japan, and co-founder of enCommerce, an internet security company acquired in 2001 by Entrust Technologies.

Hector held executive positions at Taligent and Apple Computer where he spearheaded the growth of Apple Computer's international business in Latin America and Asia. As General Manager of Apple Latin America, Hector increased the business unit's sales tenfold. As Director of Sales and Marketing in Japan, he quadrupled Apple revenues from $300 million to $1.2 billion.

Hector received an MA in International Studies at the University of Madrid and a BA from San Jose State University. He has also completed the Strategic Marketing Program at Stanford University and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

Kevin Nethercott, Founder, President, & COO
Kevin brings over 20 years of experience in international sales and business development with more than 10 years of experience in the VoIP industry.

As founder and CTO of SkyWave, Inc., a Pulver 100 company, Kevin pioneered the deployment of VoIP technologies, established the first operational VoIP network in Japan and developed the first real-time VoIP billing engine.

As a recognized leader in the VoIP industry, Kevin was also responsible for the creation of the VoIP Forum of Japan and is a member of its board of directors.

Kevin is fluent in Japanese, is a regular speaker at VoIP conferences and holds a B.A. in Marketing from Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Monica Pal, Founder & Vice President, Marketing
Monica brings over 15 years of experience in technology marketing and software engineering. Monica oversaw strategic marketing for enCommerce, an internet security company acquired by Entrust Technologies. At Entrust, Monica managed global communications and led the re-branding of the newly merged company.

Prior to enCommerce, Monica was part of Apple Computer's pioneering Collaboration Products team which developed innovative mail, messaging, directory, and security technologies including unified mailbox and single sign-on keychain capabilities.

Monica holds her M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. in Computer Science from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Robert Lauridsen, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Robert has over 30 years of experience in marketing, business and corporate development, and consulting. Most recently, he was founder and principal of the Hawkridge Group, LLC, a consulting and investment firm, where a significant portion of his consulting work was for consumer premise telecom equipment vendors.

Prior to Hawkridge Group, Robert was a partner in the Silicon Valley consulting firm, R.B. Webber, where he worked with both venture-backed technology start-ups and Fortune 100 technology firms. Before R.B. Webber, Robert was a member of the Executive Management Team and Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development, at Apple. He led corporate-level strategic initiatives, including major partnerships, alliances, and new business development. In his capacity as head of corporate development, Apple entered into the historic software joint ventures with IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Robert and his team also led the corporation's moves into industry vertical marketing, personal electronics, and the expansion of their software business.

Robert has been a partner with The Boston Consulting Group and in the Technology Practice at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He was also founder and CEO of a specialty lines casualty insurance company incubated within the family of Berkshire Hathaway Companies.

Robert received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Terry Wise, Senior Vice President of North American Sales
Prior to LignUp, Terry lead the Worldwide SOA Program Office for Intel Corporation where he was responsible for innovative solutions and strategies based on SOA, Web Services and Web2.0 technologies. Terry came to Intel through the acquisition of Conformative Systems where he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Business Development.

Terry served as Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Forum Systems, a pioneer in the XML, SOA and web services security market.

Terry started his career with Cambridge Technology Group where he held numerous Sr. Level Sales and Business Development positions for Cambridge’s portfolio companies. He was an original member of C-bridge Internet Solutions that grew the company to $100M in revenue, 900 people and a $1.3B market capitalization following a 1999 IPO. He was also an original member of OneWave, and early contributor to International Integration Inc., and Open Environment Corporation.

Terry holds a BS in History from Middlebury College.