Our Team
A. Executive Management
James Mitchell
Founder and CEO
Keith MacKay
Chief Technology Officer
B. Managers/Editors
C. Web Designers
D. Software and Web Developers
A. Executive Management
James has a background as a software developer and systems architect, an entrepreneur, chairman of a private equity firm, and essayist. He spent much of his career in the computer industry, having been a Research Associate at Harvard Business School (“HBS”) and a Software Specialist at Digital Equipment Corporation, the leading minicomputer manufacturer. At HBS, he did research in computers and information systems and was a teaching assistant for second-year MBA classes. At Digital, he supported major New England customers of Digital on Digital commercial operating systems. He was also a management consultant in information systems to many of the large commercial banks in Boston and several high technology companies in Massachusetts. He has been active in high technology entrepreneurship, as an entrepreneur, venture advisor and as a consultant to Venture Founders Corporation, a venture capital fund.
James’ life-long interest in law began when he was 15. His father was a prominent trial attorney in Los Angeles. For his father, James conducted legal research and wrote first drafts of briefs, as well as second chaired in many trials. For his great uncle, Donald R. Wright, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, James wrote analyses of petitions of writs of certiorari as well as merits briefs submitted by the appellants and respondents. He regularly has discussions with some of the top plaintiffs’ attorneys concerning emerging types of cases and their suitability as a mass tort.
James studied political philosophy and economics at Pitzer College (the Claremont Colleges), international relations (specifically, defense policy and arms control) at Harvard University, and management at MIT and the Wharton School of Finance. At Harvard, he was a Graduate Student Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and was a member of two working groups in national security issues at the Belfor Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government. In addition, he was a research assistant in statistics for Gary Orren in the Government department.
Many of his applications and templates have been used by Microsoft to debug future versions of Microsoft Office, and he is one of the world’s leading experts in Microsoft Word and Excel. (Don’t blame him for any of the numerous bugs in Office — Microsoft doesn’t always listen to him.)
James has been interested in business since elementary school, and he is probably the only person you’ll meet that was reading The Wall Street Journal as a teenager. (Some would say it’s written for teenagers, but that’s a different story.) His business interests include corporate strategy, competitive analysis, business process reengineering, project and team management, knowledge management, and commercial applications of the Internet. He remains interested in politics, international relations and microeconomics.
Keith is Chief Technology Officer (“CTO”). He is a professional problem-solver, particularly skilled at managing both local and distributed teams, scoping problems, architecting solutions, and facilitating communications between team members. He teaches a course in Northeastern University’s online MBA program on “Managing Information Resources” and he speaks regularly about managing projects and motivating volunteers.
Keith has worked as part-time CTO for several internet startups, and he served as Managing Director of Village Software, Inc. for over 10 years, where he managed or overseen the management of over 1000 projects, including over a dozen for Microsoft and 90+ projects for Harvard Business School. While at Village, Keith became one of the world’s foremost experts at Microsoft Excel. He and his team wrote the spreadsheet solutions distributed with Excel, and he co-authored a book on Microsoft Office from Que publishing (Keith wrote the programming chapters). He also developed training materials for Microsoft on how to program Microsoft Exchange forms.
Keith was given the U.S. Presidential Scholar’s award by the Reagan administration. He also participated in the U.S. Department of Energy Super-Computing Honors Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He received a Bachelor of Science in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the Hansard Scholars Program for Parliamentary Government at the University of London, Birkbeck College. He did artificial intelligence work for the U.S. Dept of Energy (he was granted a “Q” Clearance, working on nuclear treaty verification tools), and has consulted to MIT, Tufts University, Coopers & Lybrand, and many others.
Keith is expert in most Microsoft development tools, including SQL Server, VB.Net, C#, C++ and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), as well as various older languages, such as VB6, FORTRAN, raw PostScript, 8080/ Z80/6502 assembly language, C, Common LISP, Turbo PASCAL, and PAL/ObjectPAL. He speaks HTML, XML, and XSLT, and is (finally) getting up-to-speed on CSS. He has programmed for the Palm in MechWarrior, and has done middleware development with ATG Dynamo. He wrote QuickTemplates for Borland using their proprietary scripting language, and wrote SmartTemplates for Lotus/IBM using LotusScript. He has even written code in APL. His current learning agenda focuses on WordPress and PHP as well as the LAMP software stack.
Keith has been an active MIT alumnus. He has served as President of the MIT Club of Boston, a 1500-strong all-volunteer organization tasked with connecting MIT alums with MIT and each other. He serves as an alumni mentor for MIT’s “Solving Complex Problems” course, and also serves as an international grad student mentor for MIT. He’s also been an a capella singer, a drummer in a rock’n'roll band, and once built a robot that danced the Macarena while beeping the tune for same. Keith and James have a long-standing contest to see who can be doctrinaire about following best practices.
B. Managers/Editors
Victoria has loved words from a young age when she could often be found with her nose stuck deep in a book. So, it came as no surprise to anyone who knew her when, in 2000, her career turned to technical editing. Having been online and working with computer languages since the early 90s, the jump from print-based editing to online was a natural progression for a woman who is always looking for a challenge and to learn new things.
While Victoria enjoys working with other writers, she also enjoys writing herself. Taking the plunge and leaving the corporate world has given her the freedom to pursue the projects she is most passionate about. Besides her role as Managing Editor, Victoria also writes for other companies and websites, including Stiletto Woman, a new media communications portal providing fresh content on topics affecting women today.
C. Web Designers
Bert is President and Creative Director of HamiltonBerchman Design Group, which provides both web and print design for small and medium size clients. His clients have included Vivometrics, The Thatcher School, Studio-on-Hudson, Quartermile Films, Monica Ros School, Teach The Teachers Collaborative, and Awesco. His two design websites are www.hamiltonberchman.com and www.berchman.com. In additional to traditional Web design, he focuses on WordPress and PHP Web development.
Bert began his design career as an advertising artist at The Record, a local newspaper in Troy, New York, and then at the Albany Times Union. He then became Art Director at On the Boulevard Publishing, after which he was Systems and Production Manager and Web Developer for Jensen Design Associates, Inc. After that, he joined The Thatcher School as Director of Cross-Media Publishing.
Bert received his B.S. in information science and his B.A. in fine arts from Hartwick College. He is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
D. Software and Web Developers
George Durkee has more than 30 years of experience in developing software applications for business, education, and automotive entities in Michigan and Texas. George is highly trained and experienced in relational database design and programming, specializing in MS Office interactions.
George was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He is a graduate of Michigan technological university, with a degree in Biology. After a stint in the Air force, George went back to a technical specializing in computer programming and operation.
He started with a company that sold computers to accountants, working in sales support. That company moved him to Houston, TX, where he became the branch office lead programmer.
After that company folded, George moved to the Houston ISD, working in the Department of Technology (DOT.) The Dot purchased and installed computers in the Houston schools. In order to assist the administration and the schools communicate, George lead the team in the development of a communication system that allowed for e-mail, news posting, bulletins, and so on. In short, he led a team that developed a small internet system for the ISD.
The Dot shut down due to budget limitations and a change in administration. This allowed George to change jobs again and move back to Michigan. This new position was with EDS, where he supported General Motors by developing a number of applications for the dealerships, the environmental staff, the legal staff, and other corporate staffs.
George took a team of new programmers and lead them through the development of an internal tool for tracking projects and the resources assigned to them and then billing for them. This project turned a multi day task into a task that took a couple of hours per month and minutes to produce the bills, re3sulting in a massive productivity increase.
George has been doing formal project management for 15 years and has concentrated on that for the last couple. He is a PMP certified project manager and is looking to continue in that specialization area.
During my undergraduate studies at California State University, Fresno for Computer Science I began my technical journey. I interned at Pacific Gas and Electric (1989-1990), gas and electric company, for one year with primary duties including installation of the network (hardware and software), general software support and software training. Upon graduation, I accepted a position at Data Consultants (1990-1994), automotive financial software company, to provided support and programming for their financial software. During those early years I was constantly design and developing various entrepreneurial projects.
Looking to branch out into the Microsoft Windows programming platform I moved to Silicon Valley and took a programming position with InfoSoft (1994-1995), a consulting company, to develop a Personal Information Manager (PIM). While continuing to explorer the fast paced environment of the San Jose technology sector I began my consulting career with InStep Technologies (1995-2000) as my primary consulting company. During my consulting time with InStep, I worked for many high tech companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, financial institution Well Fargo, and public sector Washoe County (Reno, Nevada). It was during these times that I developed and perfected my software and entrepreneurial mindset that continues to propel me forward into the next generation of software. Looking for a more stable environment, I took a position with a client, Timely Data Resources (2000-present), a research and development company. Currently, I am the CTO and directly responsible for the day to day operation of our company with respect to the technology and I’m the instrumental force to continual progression of our software.
Mr. Starnes, a well-known, results-oriented Internet consultant, loves research, development and management of high technology. With over 20 years of experience, he developed a strong business acumen and excels at implementing technology in creative new ways. He is marketing minded with strong leadership and negotiation skills and has a demonstrated, consistent track record of success in industry and the Internet.
He has enjoyed success with several startups and enjoys developing strategy then implementing the strategies into real-world, high pressure situations.
Mr. Starnes, married for 25 years, lives with his wife and children in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.
