Leadership Team
John Livingston, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
John has served as Absolute’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 1995, growing the company from its infancy to a global organization. Absolute invented the computer tracking and loss control product category with the introduction of "Computrace" in 1994. Under John’s leadership, Absolute has evolved to offer a full range of business solutions encompassing physical, data and network security as well as IT asset management.
After completing a traditional venture capital round of financing in 1998, John led the organization into the public market, completing a $22 million IPO in 2000. Prior to taking the helm of Absolute, John was a faculty member of the School of Business at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He also founded and managed a computerized reservation service and a record production company. John holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Calgary.
Phil Gardner, Chief Technology Officer
Before joining Absolute, Phil was a senior software architect at Quarterdeck Corporation where he was responsible for developing its flagship product QEMM, a software application to manage computer memory. He also assisted in the coordination of Quarterdeck’s in-house technical and field support, quality assurance and software development. Phil is a veteran of the United States Navy with a diverse range of PC, satellite communications and radar experience.
Rob Chase, Chief Financial Officer
Rob became Chief Financial Officer of Absolute in July 2004, and joined the management team as a Director of Finance in July 2000.Prior to joining Absolute, Rob obtained his Chartered Accountant designation in 1994 while working with Deloitte & Touche, and also worked as an executive compensation consultant with Towers Perrin.
Carter McCrary, Chief Operating Officer
Carter brings more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations to Absolute Software and is responsible for driving operational strategy, structure and effectiveness around Absolute’s SaaS business model.Carter most recently served as Area Vice President and General Manager – Americas Transactional Group with computer manufacturer Dell, Inc. Having spent 11 years with Dell, he led a sales, marketing and operations team of 1,200 Dell employees across seven sites in five countries. Prior to joining Dell, he founded and served as president of Digital Axis – a Value Added Reseller of computer products and consulting services.
Richard Cohen, Senior Vice President — Business Development
Rich leads Absolute’s Business Development department. He joined Absolute in 2002 as a Regional Sales Director. He has extensive sales management, technology and business experience.Prior to joining Absolute, Rich spent more than six years with Dell where he most recently was Director of Sales, managing Dell's global business with financial services and banking institutions.
Gareth Mason, Senior Vice President — Operations
Gareth joined Absolute as VP Service Delivery in June 2006 and is responsible for customer-facing and operational aspects of the business, including Implementation and Configuration Services, Technical and Customer Support, Program Management, IT and Hosted Operations.Prior to joining Absolute, Gareth spent 6 years at Pivotal Corporation and was responsible for similar services, support and training departments. He has over 15 years of software and services experience, and has run operations in Europe, North America and Asia.
Leigh Day, Vice President — Services
Leigh heads worldwide Technical and Customer Support at Absolute. An 18-year software industry veteran, Leigh was previously Vice President of Worldwide Support at CDC Software. In his role with CDC Software, he directed support operations in 13 international locations across 7 distinct product lines - generating annual maintenance revenues in excess of $80 million.Prior to joining CDC Software, Leigh spent 8 years with PeopleSoft where he set up and managed the software vendor’s Canadian Global Support Center.
Mark Grace, Vice President — Consumer Business
Mark leads the go-to-market strategy for Absolute’s Computrace LoJack for Laptops line of consumer products and is responsible for sales, business development and the partner ecosystem across the product line. A 20-year veteran of the consumer high-tech industry, Mark most recently spent 10 years with Dell where he held executive leadership positions including heading up the Dell Direct Retail division.Prior to joining Dell, he led several retail initiatives for Tandy Corporation including launching and opening “Incredible Universe” electronics superstores across the U.S. Mark is based in Absolute’s Austin, Texas office.
Jim MacCallum, Vice President — Finance
Jim joined Absolute in April 2007 and was promoted to Vice President, Finance in January 2008. Jim has more than 15 years of finance experience, and he has held Controller-level positions with PMC-Sierra and Cisco Systems, Inc.Prior to joining Cisco Systems, Jim was an audit manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Jose, California. Jim holds CA, CPA and CFA designations and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of British Columbia.
Stephen Midgley, Vice President — Global Marketing
In this role, he led the company’s worldwide online branding effort and developed the Internet as a primary marketing channel. His diverse 15+ year marketing career also includes senior marketing positions with Inovera Solutions and Citizen’s Bank of Canada.
Tim Parker, Vice President — Research and Development
Tim serves as Vice President of Research and Development, managing the ongoing innovation and new feature development for all Absolute products.Tim brings over 10 years experience in VP and Chief Technical Officer roles, including VP of Development for Computer Sciences Corporation, First Consulting Group and a number of other Fortune 100 companies. He holds post-graduate degrees from universities in Canada, the US and the UK.
William Pound, Vice President — Global Corporate Development
Bill oversees Absolute’s International Operations. He has 25 years of experience facilitating international business and developing strategies to move new products into foreign markets. As a Canadian Trade Commissioner for 18 years, Bill supported the business development efforts of literally hundreds of companies in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.Prior to joining Absolute, he managed a consulting group to help companies with their global expansion strategies. Bill has also lectured on international business at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.
John Sarantakes, Vice President — North American Sales
John joined Absolute Software in April 2008 as Vice President, North American Sales and is responsible for leadership and strategic direction of the company’s North American inside and field-based sales organization. John brings 15 years experience leading sales teams in the high-technology industry to the Absolute go-to-market team.Most recently, he was Area Sales Director at Dell where he was responsible for a $1.4 billion business. In this role, he drove a number of domestic and international programs, and developed strategic solutions for several industry sectors. He is based in Absolute Software’s Austin, Texas U.S. headquarters.