Our Team
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Dr. Jay April, Chief Development Officer |
 Dr. Jay April, Chief Development Officer of OptTek Systems, Inc. holds bachelors degrees in philosophy and aeronautical engineering, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration (emphasis in operations research and economics). Dr. April has held several executive positions including VP of Business Development and CIO of EG&G subsidiaries, and Director of Business Development at Unisys Corporation. He also held the position of Professor at Colorado State University, heading the Laboratory of Information Sciences in Agriculture. (Back to top) |
 Mr. Michael Bailey is a Software Engineer of OptTek Systems, Inc. and is responsible for database development and customer data transformation and analysis. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University and has over 13 years of professional experience in application programming and database design. Before joining OptTek, Mr. Bailey worked in the library software industry where he developed large client-server systems and web applications for large institutions, such as the Chicago Public Library and the National Library Board of Singapore. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Marco Better is the Director of Custom Solutions of OptTek Systems, Inc. He obtained his Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Leeds School of Business of the University of Colorado at Boulder. He holds a B.S. in industrial engineering and an M.B.A. Dr. Better has over 15 years of professional work experience in the automobile, banking, and telecommunications industries, both in the US and in Latin America. His current interests lie in the application of optimization and data mining technology to solve complex problems in industry. (Back to top) |
 Ms. Candy Brinkman is the Director of Product Development of OptTek Systems, Inc. and is responsible for the design and development of new products. She holds a bachelors degree in mathematics and has 25 years of experience designing and implementing user interfaces. Ms. Brinkman has worked for several start-up companies and as an independent software consultant to several large corporations. (Back to top) |
 Ms. Buddie is the Director of Goodwill (DOG). Buddie is responsible for promoting goodwill within the professional staff and with visitors to our location. Buddie brings a lot of enthusiasm and excitement (and hair) to the office. (Back to top) |
 Mr. Anthony Chavez is a Software Engineer of OptTek Systems, Inc. He holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Regis University, with a Minor in Mathematics. Prior to joining OptTek, he worked as an IT Professional for Catapult Technology, under a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. (Back to top) |
 Ms. Britta Eckhardt is a Software Engineer of OptTek Systems, Inc. She holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Colorado State University, with a Minor in Mathematics. Prior to joining OptTek, she was a software engineer with Hewlett-Packard. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Fred Glover is the Chief Technology Officer in charge of algorithmic design and strategic planning initiatives. Dr. Glover is a leading figure in the field of metaheuristics, whose name he coined in the 1980s – an area that is now the subject of numerous books and international conferences, focusing on the development of models and methods enabling the solution of complex nonlinear and combinatorial problems that lie beyond the ability of classical optimization procedures. He also serves as the MediaOne Chaired Professor in Systems Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he holds the title of Distinguished Professor of the University of Colorado System. He has authored or co-authored more than three hundred fifty published articles and eight books in the fields of mathematical optimization, computer science and artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on practical applications in industry and government. Dr. Glover is the recipient of the distinguished von Neumann Theory Prize, an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has received numerous other awards and honorary fellowships, including those from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the NATO Division of Scientific Affairs, the Institute of Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), the U.S. Defense Communications Agency (DCA), the Energy Research Institute (ERI), the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Alpha Iota Delta, and the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. (Back to top) Follow Dr. Glover on TypePad |
 Ms. Nancie Graebeldinger is Office Manager for OptTek Systems, Inc. She is responsible for human resource and benefit issues, office management and assists with accounting. Her background includes extensive experience in business administration and human resources. She holds an Employment Law certificate from MSEC, as well as a Professional in Human Resources certification. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Frank Grange, Vice President of OptTek Systems, Inc., provides optimization and simulation thought leadership, strategy, architecture engineering and systems-of-systems engineering for OptTek clients. His client engagements include energy, semiconductors, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, high-tech manufacturing, defense/aerospace, mining and government. He was previously Chief Information Officer for ScriptPro LLC, a pharmacy robotics provider, as well as an Associate Partner at Accenture. His previous organizations include Lockheed Martin, Perot Systems, Jacobs Engineering, Science Applications International and BP companies. Dr. Grange was also an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Business, University of Colorado at Denver, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Mineral Economics at the Colorado School of Mines. His publications have addressed both theoretical topics in optimization as well as practical architectures for large-scale Simulation Optimization. Dr. Grange has the PhD and MS degrees in Mineral Economics (emphasis in Operations Research), and a BS in Chemical and Petroleum Refining Engineering, all from the Colorado School of Mines. (Back to top) |
 Dr. James P. Kelly, CEO of OptTek Systems, Inc. is responsible for all aspects of the business. He was an Associate Professor in the College of Business at the University of Colorado. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in engineering and a Ph.D. in mathematics. Dr. Kelly has authored or co-authored numerous published articles and books in the fields of optimization, disclosure limitation, computer science and artificial intelligence. His interests focus on the use of state-of-the-art optimization techniques for providing competitive advantages in engineering and business. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Gary Kochenberger is a Senior Research Associate of OptTek Systems, Inc. He is also Professor in the School of Business of the University of Colorado at Denver. He earned a Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1970) where he also holds a degree in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Kochenberger’s academic specialty centers on building, testing, and implementing algorithms for solving resource allocation problems that rise in both the private and public sectors. In recent years, his focus has been on problems of a combinatorial nature as commonly found in logistical management, human resource management, operations management, and related areas. He has published four books and more than fifty research papers in top journals in his field. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Manuel Laguna is a Senior Research Associate of OptTek Systems, Inc. He is Professor of Operations Management in the Leeds School of Business of the University of Colorado at Boulder. He received masters and doctoral degrees in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has done extensive research in the interface between computer science, artificial intelligence and operations research to develop solution methods for problems in areas such as logistics and supply chain, routing and network design in telecommunications, combinatorial optimization on graphs, and optimization of simulations. His research has appeared in numerous academic-journal articles and books. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Heuristics and is in the international advisory board of the Journal of the Operational Research Society. (Back to top) |
 Mr. Eric Parker is the Accounting Manager at OptTek Systems, Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an Accounting Concentration from Piedmont College. Prior to joining OptTek, Eric was in charge of accounting at RockSol Consulting Group, Inc. in Westminster, CO. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Diana Pfeil is an Analyst/Developer at OptTek Systems, Inc. She holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and bachelors degrees in computer science and mathematics from UC Berkeley. Her professional interests lie in applications of Operations Research, and include logistics, transportation systems, and machine learning. She has previously worked as a software developer at Amazon.com. (Back to top) |
 Mr. Joshua Snyder is a Software Engineer of OptTek Systems, Inc. He holds a bachelors degree in Mathematics and Information Systems from Nebraska Wesleyan University and a masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to joining OptTek, he worked on his masters degree with courses in Foundations of Constraint Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and Real Time Systems. (Back to top) |
 Dr. Ben Thengvall is an Optimization Architect of OptTek Systems, Inc. He has extensive experience solving complex problems in the commercial and government spheres where he has designed and implemented software that embeds state-of-the-art approaches from the fields of mathematical modeling, real-time optimization, transportation and scheduling, agent-based and discrete-event simulation, and simulation optimization. He earned his M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Thengvall has taught at the Peter Kiewit Institute at the University of Nebraska and at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters and holds multiple patents related to software and optimization. (Back to top) |
 Mr. Lloyd Weber is a Software Engineer of OptTek Systems, Inc. He holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science Applications in Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has over 12 years of experience designing and implementing commercial, production web applications and an additional 12 years programming for a very successful desktop publishing software company. (Back to top) |
 Mr. Terry Wubbena is the Director of Software Development of OptTek Systems, Inc. and is responsible for software design and development. He holds a bachelors degree in computer science from Iowa State University and earned a masters degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin in 1981. Mr. Wubbena has over 25 years of experience and has worked as an independent software consultant to large corporations and was a software engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories. He brings to our software team leadership skills in operating systems, programming languages, databases, GUI’s and the Internet. (Back to top) |
