Executive Management Team
Sue Dark , Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Daniel Jackson, President and Chief Operating Officer
James Binder, Vice President of Engineering
Tom Knight, Vice President of Worldwide Sales
Greg Jackson, Vice President of Technical Services
Hamid Karimi, Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Planning
Sue Dark, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Sue Dark is a technology development trailblazer with over 25 years experience. Her innovative software designs and significant knowledge in start-up ventures ensures that DeepNines security technology will remain the most aggressive in the industry. Under Ms. Dark’s leadership, DeepNines has produced proactive security solutions that advance the ability of corporations, government agencies and educational institutions to conduct business in a more secure environment.
Prior to founding DeepNines, Ms. Dark was a seminal member of Memorex, where she worked with clients such as New England Telephone, ITT Sheraton, IDC and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. Her background also includes participation with the instrumentation development team for the Apollo 11 and 12 groups at MIT-Lincoln Laboratories/USAF.
Ms. Dark is an active participant in the AeA, which has been the voice of the U.S. technology industry since 1946 and currently has more than 2,500 members. She currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AeA Texas Council and is a member of the National Board of AeA and the AeA Executive Committee. Ms. Dark serves on the Greater Dallas Chamber’s Technology Business Council, which provides oversight of both policies and programs for the Technology Business Development Department of the Chamber and reports to the Board of Directors, as well as co-chairs the CIO/CTO Forum.
In addition, Ms. Dark is a donor to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas, which sponsors community projects. As one of the leading female entrepreneurs and executives in the Internet security space, Ms. Dark regularly participates on panels and forums about issues that confront businesses in general and the computer security industry in particular. Ms. Dark works with the Homeland Security Alliance and local colleges and universities to stress the necessity of network security in order to protect the nation’s productivity, assets and citizens.
Daniel Jackson, President and Chief Operating Officer
Daniel Jackson joined Deep Nines, Inc. as president and COO in 2001. In this role, Mr. Jackson maintains overall responsibility for all aspects of the organization from operations, product management, marketing, sales and business development. As a strong leader with a proven track record, he has focused DeepNines to operate strategically and grow through distinctive product offerings in the security market. Over the last five years, the company has delivered excellent performance, growth and profitability with a compounded annual growth rate of over 150%. He has also assembled a strong management team and raised over $25 million in venture capital and mezzanine funding. He continues to focus the company on customer growth, market penetration and development of innovative security products.
Mr. Jackson has over 18 years of experience in leading significant growth for North American companies. Prior to DeepNines, Mr. Jackson was senior vice president of corporate development and strategic planning for Kinetics, and he played a key role in Kinetics’ leveraged buyout from Vivendi for approximately $545 million. Prior to Kinetics, Mr. Jackson was global senior vice president of sales for Vivendi, responsible for global sales and strategic account management. Prior to Vivendi, Mr. Jackson was senior vice president of sales for USFilter. During his tenure, USFilter grew annual revenues from $3.4 billion to more than $5 billion. Mr. Jackson’s main focus at USFilter was the successful alignment of a 1,500 person, multiple-channel sales organization that was created by over 230 acquisitions into a streamlined, focused sales force. Mr. Jackson was also a part of the team responsible for negotiating the sale of USFilter to Vivendi in April of 1999 for over $8 billion. Prior to US Filter, Mr. Jackson was executive vice president of sales for Glegg Water Conditioning, Inc., where he lead the company’s growth from a $25 million dollar capital equipment company to a $150 million dollar technology and solutions company that was sold to GE Power Systems.
James Binder, Vice President of Engineering
James Binder leads the company’s research and development center in San Jose, CA. His depth of knowledge and experience in creating innovative technologies guides the development of the DeepNines products to shape the future of the company. Mr. Binder brings over 20 years of product development expertise in networking and security to DeepNines.
Prior to DeepNines, Mr. Binder was the senior engineering director of the LAN access business unit at Extreme Networks. At Extreme he was responsible for product development and architecture strategies. He also led his team to deliver patented technologies in a highly competitive market. Prior to Extreme Networks, Mr. Binder served as vice president of engineering at Bytemobile Inc., where he was responsible for the rapid growth and success of the engineering department. In addition, Mr. Binder served as vice president of software engineering for Nexsi Systems Corporation, where he led the software development team and was awarded Best-in-Show honors at the 2001 Networld/Interop show for the ability to route application data and speed-up Internet connections. As holder of four U.S. patents and a participant in IETF and IEEE standards working groups, he held multiple directorial positions and completed numerous software development projects during his 11-year tenure at 3Com Corporation.
Mr. Binder holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Central Michigan University.
Tom Knight, Vice President of Worldwide Sales
Tom Knight serves as DeepNines vice president of worldwide sales. In this role, he is responsible for driving market penetration by developing new sales opportunities and coordinating direct and indirect sales strategies into market segments and territory alignment.
Mr. Knight joins DeepNines from Sage Software with over 18 years experience in the IT industry. During his tenure with Sage Software, Mr. Knight served as the vice president of sales for the Americas with the Sage Accpac business unit managing both direct and indirect sales teams, professional services, customer care and pre-sales engineering. Mr. Knight brings to DeepNines significant experience in areas of leadership, sales strategy and performance management.
Prior to joining Sage, Mr. Knight served as director of North American SMB channel sales at McAfee where he executed on the North American strategy to migrate from a direct sales model to an indirect sales model. During his eight year tenure at McAfee, he served in multiple regional sales roles including regional sales director for the Americas West and the Southeast, and brings to DeepNines international experience including managing director of PGP Security for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Mr. Knight directed enterprise sales operations as a managing director for the PGP Security business unit in EMEA. Prior to joining McAfee, Mr. Knight served in sales management and major account roles with the Mailing and Logistics Division of Pitney Bowes.
Mr. Knight holds a B.S. in Marketing from Georgia State University and a M.B.A. in Finance from Pepperdine University.
Greg Jackson, Vice President of Technical Services
As vice president of technical services, Greg Jackson is responsible for managing all aspects of pre- and post-sale technical efforts, professional services and new product enhancements. His responsibilities also include managing customer support, pre-sales engineering, post-sale implementations, project management and consulting services, and the product development lifecycle. All client and channel partner technical relationships, training and certification processes are within Mr. Jackson’s domain.
Mr. Jackson previously served DeepNines in both sales and technical roles. As a key contributor during the beginning stages of DeepNines, he was instrumental in securing a wide range of critical customers and developed and maintained important channel relationships. In his current role, Mr. Jackson brings a unique combination of sales expertise and a wide variety of product expertise to contribute to the future development of product releases.
Prior to joining DeepNines, Mr. Jackson was a senior account executive at Verado/First World Inc., where he negotiated large contracts with Fortune 1000 clients, managed the National Accounts Program and developed strong partnerships with market leaders in the industry. His background includes a leading technical understanding of networking and security technologies, the ability to develop strong business relationships and strong core competencies in marketing, account management, new product introduction/promotion and negotiations.
Mr. Jackson holds a B.B.A. in Business Marketing and Management from Texas Tech University.
Hamid Karimi, Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Planning
Hamid Karimi is responsible for business development and strategic planning. Mr. Karimi collaborates with product development, sales and marketing teams to identify new business opportunities and create strategic alliances. Mr. Karimi focuses on creating new relationships with networking and systems integration companies, while expanding and maximizing the value of DeepNines' existing partnerships.
Prior to DeepNines, Mr. Karimi was in charge of strategic business development at nCipher, where he devised corporate strategy in the areas of identity management, standards positioning and key management. He was also responsible for maintaining, expanding and building relationships with key industry players. In addition, Mr. Karimi held executive marketing and business development positions at 3Com Corporation and Infineon Technologies. While at 3Com, he championed industry’s first port-based authentication, which later became the IEEE 802.1X standard. He was also a key member of company’s security policy team.
Mr. Karimi has over 18 years of industry experience, has interacted with many standards organizations and presented at industry events. In addition to many technical and managerial certificates, he holds a B.A. in Electrical Engineering from SFSU.
