Company: Executive Management
Penny Herscher
President and CEO
Penny leads FirstRain with a passion for growing companies in new markets. As CEO since 2005, she has transformed FirstRain into the leading provider of search-driven research - search, analytics and reporting for business professionals solving the web information challenge facing institutional investors, marketing and sales professionals.
Prior to FirstRain, Penny was CEO of Simplex Solutions, an electronic design automation company serving the global semiconductor industry. As CEO, she grew Simplex from a few engineers in 1996 to a high-growth, profitable software company. She led the company to very successful IPO in 2001 and through the sale of the company to Cadence Design Systems in 2002. Penny then worked at Cadence as Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager of a major division of the company. From 1988 to 1996, Penny was an early employee and senior executive at Synopsys. She started her career in 1982 as an R&D engineer with Texas Instruments and then Daisy Systems and she holds a BA with Honors in Mathematics from Cambridge University.
Penny serves on the boards of JDSU and Rambus. She is also active in the non-profit world serving on the boards of the Anita Borg Institute and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte; she volunteers teaching business classes at Stanford Business School, Berkeley Haas School of Business and Santa Clara University as well as speaking on leadership and career growth at various industry organizations.
YY Lee
Chief Operating Officer
YY brings strong operational leadership and experience to her position at FirstRain. She leads engineering, marketing, modeling and analytics in the US and India . Under her guidance, our teams develop technology and analytic algorithms that comprise the FirstRain research engine.
YY was most recently vice president of worldwide services at Cadence Design Systems, leading that business into profitability. Prior to that, she co-founded the software company Aqueduct. After successfully building that business, the company was acquired by NetManage, which she joined as a director of engineering. She has also worked at Bell Labs, Integrated Information Technology (IIT) and Synopsys. YY earned an A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University.
David Frankel
Vice President, Business Development
Prior to joining FirstRain, David was vice president of sales at BNY Jaywalk, the independent research consultancy division of the Bank of New York, where he created a go-to-market strategy for a business line that targeted broker-dealers. Before Bank of New York, David spent more than 11 years at FactSet Research Systems, where he led the team that built the foundation for FactSet's current global product marketing strategy as vice president of marketing, and contributed to the creation of a new business development department focused on establishing key strategic alliances as vice president of content and partnerships.
David holds a B.S. in marketing and political science from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
Martin Betz, Ph.D.
Vice President, Technology
With over 15 years experience building algorithm intensive software applications, Marty brings management expertise with a passion for data-intensive analytics. Most recently he was a founding partner of Beon Software creating systems for the collection and analysis of real-time text-based communication. Marty previously led an EDA software product group at Credence Systems Inc. and managed development of software for their EmiScope product line. He's been a partner and associate at several technical consulting firms, delivering software in diverse fields ranging from drug development to document and customer categorization. Prior to choosing a career in software, Marty worked as a math professor and researcher at the University of Texas, Austin. Marty's perspective and technical acumen will add substantial depth to FirstRain's information delivery technology.
Marty holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University and an A.B. from Harvard University, also in math.
Udit Mathur
Vice President, FirstRain, India
Udit heads the India operations for FirstRain and brings strong leadership and management experience in research and analytics operations in the consumer and financial services industry. Prior to joining FirstRain, he was part of The Blackstone Group, a Chicago-based market research firm, where he built the knowledge services operations from the ground up. Earlier, Udit worked with leading market research organizations such as International Data Corporation (IDC) and AC Nielsen, as well as GE Capital where he led the development and deployment of portfolio strategies through analytics for financial products such as credit cards, insurance, and reinsurance.
Udit has earned an MBA in Marketing from Centre for Management Development and a BS in Computer Science from University of Delhi. He is also a certified Green Belt in Six-Sigma.
David CookeVice President, Analytics
David brings over 25 years of experience growing high-performance global organizations, most recently as an executive in the services organization at Cadence Design Systems, prior to which he co-founded business consultancy MarketSpeed, with additional prior roles at Sun Microsystems and Fairchild Semiconductor.
David holds a B.Sc. in Engineering Science and MEng in Microelectronics and Management from the University of Durham, England.
Eugene Tighe
Corporate Controller
Eugene has more than 15 years of finance and accounting experience in the high-tech industry, growing emerging companies through successful IPOs. Before joining FirstRain, Eugene worked in financial leadership positions with mBlox, Astoria Software, Trintech and Quickturn Design Systems. He is a certified chartered accountant and previously worked at Ernst & Young.
Eugene holds a B.B.S. in Accounting and Finance from the University of Limerick.
Michael Prospero
Director of Research
Michael brings over 15 years of financial industry experience to his position as the Director of Research at FirstRain. He leads the research team in developing models for our company, industry and ecosystem database. Under his guidance, he provides the team with direction on all matters dealing with web content and coverage. Michael began his career as a financial planner with American Express. Later, he held various analytical positions with several buy-side and sell-side equity research firms covering the auto, auto parts and house-wares industries as well as communications software companies. Michael most recently worked in a sell-side equity research firm, ThinkEquity Partners, covering digital and traditional media companies.
Michael holds a B.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. Michael is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of San Francisco.
Aparna Gupta
Director, Analytics
Aparna brings over 15 years of technical experience to her position at FirstRain. Joining FirstRain in 2001, Aparna has played a variety of technical leadership roles, most recently leading the product management function based in Gurgaon, India. Prior to FirstRain, Aparna was a Research Associate at International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB) and was with Logiciel Information System Pvt Limited, a software consultancy affiliated to the United Nations.
Aparna holds a Masters in Engineering Sciences from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai.