The Team

With executives from Intel and Ziff Davis on our advisory board and engineers from RSA Security and Doubleclick, we've built a team of industry thought-leaders focused on the secure delivery of premium web services.

• 

  Peter Soderling, CEO

  Peter Soderling, the founder and CEO of Stratus Security, has more than twelve years of experience developing enterprise-grade IT systems for companies in a variety of sectors, including Foxnews.com, SelectLeaders and the Ziff Davis online network.

  Prior to starting Stratus, Peter was the founder and CEO of mechanikal, an industry-leading software development agency that specializes in the development of rich Internet applications for mobile devices, desktops and the web. With clients such as IAC (Ask.com, Match.com, CitySearch) , and Ziff Davis, mechanikal has operated profitably since its founding in 2004. In addition to building enterprise systems that can scale reliably, Peter and his team conducted penetration tests, vulnerability assessments and security code reviews for clients looking for an added layer of security.

  Previously, as CTO of SelectLeaders, Peter architected a technology platform for the leading corporate real estate job site, transforming the online business from a single website into a partner network powering the career services of fourteen of the largest professional real estate associations.

  Prior to SelectLeaders, Peter served as a technical architect at Ziff Davis Media, a technology publishing company which attracted over 100M pageviews a month during his tenure there. As with any property of this scale, security and reliability of the online publishing infrastructure was critical. Peter lead a team to address these needs with a full security audit of the entire Ziff Davis suite of online applications, including their back-end publishing tools. Based on these findings Peter and his team designed and developed an enterprise-wide content management and online publishing platform, used to power more than fifty Ziff Davis online properties, including flagship sites pcmag.com, eweek.com and extremetech.com.

  Peter holds a B.S. in Information Systems Management from New York University where he graduated with honors. He is also active in the OWASP and WASC communities and is an advisor to the Professional Studies department at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

• 

  Chris Comerford, Lead Architect

  Chris has over fourteen years of experience building software security products and is an expert in web security, and identity and access management solutions. At Stratus he is responsible for research, product feature direction and implementation, and overall architecture of the platform.

  Prior to joining Stratus Security, Chris spent over thirteen years at RSA Security/EMC, developing network security and identity and access management products. As principal engineer and team lead on eight unique security products, Chris led teams that took them from the concept stage though the shipment of the final product. He also worked in the Advanced Development Group on new products and research.

  Chris graduated with honors from the Boston University College of Engineering and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

• 

  Matthew Loomis, Sr. Developer

  Matthew Loomis was the lead Project and Development Manager at mechanikal, and has worked on enterprise web application development for eight years in the marketing, pharmaceutical, financial services, and retail sectors.

  As the Senior Deployment Manager at SmartPath (acquired by Doubleclick), Matthew led development and deployment lifecycle efforts, designing enterprise workflow applications for clients such as Bristol Meyers Squibb, National Geographic Society, and TJX Companies. Matthew also played a key role in defining new functionality based on client needs, leading development efforts to ingtegrate custom functionality.

  Matthew holds a B.E. in Computer Engineering and B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Dayton, as well as an MBA from North Carolina State University.

• 

  Helen B. Poon, CFO

  Helen B. Poon is a co-founding principal of Ignition Point, LLC and has over fifteen years of experience providing professional advice in accounting, finance, strategy, operations and business development. Prior to Ignition Point, Helen was the CFO for a software development company and the Director of Business Development at a leading high school sports magazine.

  Helen is a CPA and holds a B.S. from New York University as well as an MBA from Columbia University.

• 

  Marc Matsumoto, Director of Marketing

  Marc Matsumoto is a marketing executive with over fourteen years of experience in the web technology space, and has spent the last seven years focusing on brand development and online marketing.

  With director and C level management experience at startups in the finance, ecommerce, and entertainment sectors, Marc brings a broad array of knowledge in consumer and B2B marketing. As the head of customer communications at Netflix, Marc spent over four years contributing to the growth of the company, from a venture funded startup, to a publicly traded company with over five million paying subscribers.

  Marc holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of California, Davis.

Advisory Board

• 

  Steve Orrin

  Steve Orrin is Director of Security Solutions, for SSG's SPI group at Intel, Corp. and is responsible for the strategy and product direction of security platforms architecture. Steve joined Intel as part of the acquisition of Sarvega, Inc. where he was their CSO. Prior to his roll at Sarvega, Steve served as an executive for companies such as Watchfire, Sanctum, Lockstar and SynData Technologies, Inc.

  Named one of InfoWorld's Top 25 CTO's of 2004, Steve is a recognized expert and frequent lecturer on enterprise security. He has spoken at RSA, ISACA conferences, N+I, TEPR, Vanguard, IDF, AFEI and SANS conferences. He has also developed several patent-pending technologies covering user authentication, secure data access and steganography and holds one patent in steganography. Steve has implemented security processes and procedures, risk mitigation, monitoring and remediation solutions for banking/brokerage firms, healthcare institutions, insurance, manufacturing, entertainment and high-tech companies as well as for both federal and state government.

  Steve holds an honors degree in research biology from Kean University and is published in several scientific and medical journals. Orrin is a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), the Computer Security Institute (CSI), International Association of Cryptographic Research (IACR), and is a co-Founder of WASC (Web Application Security Consortium) and a Co-Founder of the SafeSOA Taskforce. He participates in several OASIS and AFEI working groups.

• Jasmine Alexander

  Jasmine Alexander was most recently a Senior VP for Reader's Digest Association. Previously, she was the General Manager and Sr. Executive VP for Ziff Davis Media and the VP of Operations at OpenGlobe, a leading entertainment-services and media device-technologies provider, delivering home entertainment. Prior to OpenGlobe, Jasmine was the CTO at Musicplex.com and VP of Product Management for CarParts.com and has has also held management roles at Americast, Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., and ABC Radio Networks.

  Jasmine has a B.A. in Computer Science from New York University and an MBA from UCLA.

• 

  Chris Phenner

  Chris Phenner is SVP Business Development at Thumbplay, with over twelve years of experience in software, digital media and online subscription services. Chris drives new customer acquisition through integrated partnerships, including exclusive relationships with AOL, Clear Channel, Comcast, MSN & iLike. As business lead for Thumbplay OPEN, Chris has opened up a marketplace accessible to over 230M US wireless subscribers, enabling the self-service upload and sales of mobile content that's delivered over-the-air and billed to consumers' wireless bills.

  Prior to Thumbplay, Chris was Director of Business Development at Audible, Inc., Business Development Manager at CNET Networks' Download.com and Director of Business Development at the original Napster, and RollingStone.com.

  Chris has a B.A. in Political Science from Miami University, and an MBA from a dual-degree program with U.C. Berkeley and Columbia University.