Mike Heschel, Ph.D, formerly Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The Kroger Company
Wayne Levy, Chief Technical Officer, Market6
Dave McLean, General Partner, Sevin Rosen Funds
Bill Purcell, Chief Executive Officer, Market6
J. Mark Harran
Serving as a member of the Market6 Board of Directors, J. Mark Harran
is a strategic consultant, specializing in helping C-level management
teams develop actionable business strategies. Mark’s clients include
AT&T, SUPERVALU, Catalina Marketing Services, IKON, Coles Meyer,
and Bols Wessanen, among others.
Mark retired in 1995 as Senior Vice President, Sales, Customer Development and Marketing Services of Kraft General Foods (now Kraft Foods). During his 30 year career at Kraft General Foods, some of his most notable accomplishments include:
- Creating a single sales force from six sales forces to leverage
the company’s scale to an increasingly consolidated U.S. food retailing
industry.
- Forming customer business teams to better serve retail
customers.
- Developing successful new brands and products, including
Shake’nBake, StoveTop Stuffing, and Jell-O Pudding Pops.
- Co-creating and implementing the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiative to remove $40B in unnecessary costs from the U.S. food supply chain.
Mark received a B.A. from St. Lawrence University and a MBA from Northwestern University.
Mike Heschel, PhD
Mike Heschel is a member of the Market6 Board of Directors. He retired
as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for The
Kroger Company in 2006.
Prior to joining Kroger, Mike held senior leadership posts Security Pacific National Bank, Baxter International, Inc., American Hospital Supply Corporation, FMC Corporation, and Boeing Aircraft Company.
Some of Mike’s key accomplishments include:
- Complete overhauling of Kroger’s information systems environment.
- Creating
a world-class distribution center automation system for Kroger.
- Participating
in numerous food industry re-engineering efforts.
- Developing the
ASAP automated ordering system at AHSC
- Authoring a Harvard Business. School case study on systems that provided a competitive advantage.
Mike received a B.S.I.E., M.B.A., and M.S.I.E. from Ohio State University, and was awarded a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University. Mike has been honored as Information Systems Executive of the Year and Logistics Officer of the Year.
Dave McLean
Dave McLean is General Partner at Sevin Rosen Funds (SRF), and
serves as a member of the Market6 Board of Directors. At SRF, Dave
employs his extensive industry knowledge to investment opportunities
in semiconductor, hardware, and software systems ventures. He also
currently serves on Boards for HexaTech, NovusEdge, nTag and SensorLogic.
Dave’s experience spans both established companies and startups such as Pliant Systems, Applied WDM, Cicada Semiconductor and IBM. His served as CEO of Applied WDM, then as CEO of Cicada Semiconductor, overseeing the company rapid growth phase and playing an instrumental role in the company’s sale to Vitesse Semiconductor. While at IBM, Dave spearheaded the introduction of the company’s DSP product line into Asia.
Throughout his 20 years in the semiconductor and networking industry, Dave has worn many functional hats, including marketing, engineering, business development, and operations. Dave utilizes his extensive operational experience to guide SRF portfolio companies to success.
Wayne Levy
Wayne Levy is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Market6.
Wayne has been developing practical forecasting technologies and models
in the areas of promotion and price demand response, inventory estimation,
consumer choice, inventory flow with major retailers and manufacturers
for over 25 years. Wayne was a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
of efficient market services (ems). Previously Wayne served as the
Executive Vice President of Product Development for A.C. Nielsen, Director
of Sales and Logistics Information for H.J. Heinz, and Director of
Decision Support Systems for Needham, Harper & Steers Advertising.
Some of Wayne’s career highlights are:
- Co-developed one of the earliest and largest successful Computer
Automated Ordering systems with Kroger
- Developed the first ever systems
to monitor and forecast consumer demand from POS data on a daily
basis as co-founder of ems
- Developed ScanFactPC, the leading software for
monitoring sales and promotion execution for AC Nielsen
- Assisted in
the design of Apollo Space Management System’s algorithms with
the ABA group as their initial customer at Heinz
- Developed systems to determine
promotional impact on consumer sales at Heinz
- Developed innovative media optimization models at Needham, Harper & Steers
Wayne received a Masters Degree in Sociology from and was a professor and doctorate student at the University of Chicago.
Bill Purcell
Bill Purcell is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer at Market6.
Bill is a pioneer in bringing new technology to the Fast Moving Consumer Goods
industry. Bill’s career has been focused on bringing technology and information
solutions to the industry as co-founder of Apollo Space Management, Efficient
Market Services (ems), planet U and now Market6.
Bill started his career gaining operating experience from American Stores (now part of SuperValu/Albertsons) in a variety of store management, marketing, and technology roles.
Following the purchase of Apollo, Bill served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for IRI. Similarly, after the purchase of planetU, Bill became the Chief New Markets Officer at Transora.
Some highlights of Bill’s career include:
- Installed one of the first
POS scanning systems in 1978 while at American Stores.
- Designed and
developed the Apollo Space Management System in 1985 as a member
of the core development team. Apollo is still the market leader
in space management software.
- Assisted in the launch of InfoScan while
at IRI, which changed the market of marketing research in the
consumer packaged goods industry.
- Implemented ems as a leading provider of daily POS based consumer demand data used for supply chain applications.
Bill’s undergraduate study was in Computer Science and Business Administration and is a graduate of the Food Industry Management Program from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Southern California.
