History
Swype was developed by founders Cliff Kushler and Randy Marsden, along with a very talented team of software programmers and linguists.
Cliff is the co-inventor of T9, the standard predictive text-entry solution used on over 2.4 billion mobile phones worldwide. He is the named inventor on multiple patents related to alternative text entry.
Randy is the developer of the onscreen keyboard included in Windows, with an installed base of over a half a billion units. He is a recognized leader in the field of assistive technology and alternative computer input.
Together, their experience is unmatched in developing onscreen keyboard-based text input solutions for mobile touch-screen devices.
Executive Team
Mike McSherry – CEO
Mike McSherry is an experienced internet and mobile entrepreneurial executive. He was the co-founder of both Amp'd Mobile and Boost Mobile. At Amp'd Mike was the SVP Emerging Technologies and was involved in all strategy, service and platform strategies. At Boost, Mike led the product management and data services team and was a key founder in both the Australian and US launches. Prior to Boost, Mike co-founded and sold ZIVO which was the largest Interactive Agency in Australia/New Zealand and one of the largest in Asia. Mike started his technology career at Microsoft serving in multiple product management roles.
Cliff Kushler – CTO and Founder
Dr. Kushler co-founded Swype in 2002. Before founding Swype, Dr. Kushler was the VP of R&D at Tegic Communications/AOL Wireless. Tegic, which was also co-founded by Dr. Kushler, developed a very successful text input method for cell phones called "T9" and was acquired by America On-line in 1999. T9 is now licensed on hundreds of millions of cell phones each year. Dr. Kushler holds 17 US patents, numerous foreign patents, as well as a large number of pending applications. He has an MS in Computer Science from Michigan State University,
and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Tokyo. He also speaks Japanese fluently.
Aaron Sheedy – COO
Mr. Sheedy has over 13 years of experience in interactive media strategy and business development. He is responsible for bringing Swype’s innovative input solutions to market. He has held numerous VP level roles in both new technology startups and established companies, including Microsoft, Verisign, Digeo, etc. Aaron also co-founded and sold ZIVO which was the largest Interactive Agency in Australia/New Zealand and one of the largest in Asia.
Loreen Milbrath – CFO
Ms. Milbrath directs the financial management and administrative operations of the company. She has over a dozen years experience in financial and operations management for technology companies focused on wireless and device software. Prior to joining Swype, Ms. Milbrath was a co-founder of Melodeo, Inc. and part of the original management team of Tegic Communications where she served as VP Finance and Administration from early stage start-up through the acquisition by AOL in 1999. Loreen started her career in audit and transaction support with Price Waterhouse.
Mark Illing – SVP, Engineering
Mr. Illing joined Swype in 2003 to head up Swype's software development efforts. Before joining Swype, Mr. Illing was a senior member of the software development team at Tegic Communications where he played a key role in the development of the T9 software. Prior to text input system development, Mark was intimately involved in SIMNET, the first global realtime interactive networked cooperative virtual simulation for tactical team training, responsible for managing visual system environment processing.
Board Members
Rob Burgess – Former CEO Macromedia; Current Adobe Board Member
Rob Burgess was CEO of Macromedia from 1996 to its sale in 2005 to Adobe for $3.9b. Under Burgess' tenure, Macromedia transformed from a CD-ROM based multimedia company to the leader in web authoring and development solutions. Macromedia provides software that empowers millions of developers and designers to efficiently create the most effective user experiences on the Internet. Its integrated family of tool, server, and client technologies enables the delivery of a wide range of Internet solutions from websites to Rich Internet Applications across multiple platforms and devices.
Prior to joining Macromedia, Burgess worked extensively in the field of high-performance computer graphics, spending years in key executive posts at Silicon Graphics, Inc., and as CEO of Alias Research, Inc. At Alias, Burgess oversaw the company's financial turnaround and subsequent ascent as the world's largest and most profitable high-performance 3D graphics software company.
Ross Bott – CEO SEVEN
Ross is currently the CEO SEVEN which is the leading provider of mobile email and messaging solutions backed by Greylock, Ignition and Softbank.
Previously, Bott served as Chief Operating Officer of Phone.com (now Openwave Systems). Bott joined Phone.com through Phone.com's acquisition of Onebox.com, where he was President and CEO. Bott joined Onebox.com from Adobe Systems (San Jose, California), where he was Executive Vice President, Product Divisions, with responsibility for US$1B in revenue and the five divisions producing and marketing all of Adobe's products. Formerly, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Graphics Division, responsible for the company's core graphics business. Prior to Adobe, Bott was at Silicon Graphics (Mountain View, California), where he was Senior Vice President of Enterprise Technologies.
Advisory Board
Randy Marsden – Founder
Mr. Marsden originated the concept of the Swype keyboard at the start of 2001 and co-founded Swype with Dr. Kushler in 2002. Mr. Marsden is also the founder and President/CEO of Madentec Limited, a successful assistive technology company that specializes in adapted computer input. Onscreen keyboard software developed by Madentec was licensed by Microsoft in 1998 and since that time has been included in every copy of Windows sold. Mr. Marsden has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and also speaks Japanese fluently.
Swype has attracted a number of highly experienced and knowledgeable individuals from the investment community and mobile devices industry to serve on an advisory board. The assistance of these individuals will be of great value in Swype’s ongoing partnership and business development efforts.
Bill Bryant
Mr. Bryant is an experienced entrepreneur with early and instrumental involvement in over twenty leading software and internet companies.
Bill was an early investor or Board member for the following nine companies that were later acquired or went public: Loudeye (Nokia), AEI Music (DMX/Liberty Media), Viafone (Extended Systems), Teamplate (Captaris), Exstatic Software (Xchange Applications), Throw (Excite), Singing Fish (Thomson/AOL); NearMe (Hands On Mobile) and WebRelevance (Medio).