Executive Team
SAND’s strength is directly attributable to the quality of its people. The executive team at SAND has strong foundations, combining extensive knowledge of the traditional lines of business (mainframe and peripheral products) with expertise in the newer lines (systems services, open systems, data warehousing, decision support, and customer relationship management).
Thomas M. O’Donnell
President and CEO
Thomas M. O’Donnell is the President and CEO of SAND Technology, a current board member and major shareholder. Mr. O’Donnell has a wealth of experience in building and running successful software companies in both Europe and the U.S. . Mr. O’Donnell is the founder, CEO and majority owner of Edge Specialists, an Independent Software Vendor that provides electronic trading tools for options, stocks and futures. In addition, Mr. O’Donnell was a Designated Primary Market Maker on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange and is active in institutional money management. He is a co-inventor of two extensive electronic trading software patents, a C.P.A. and graduate of Harvard Business School.
Mike Pilcher
Chief Operating Officer
Before joining SAND, Mike was Sales Director Hiring Solutions, EMEA at LinkedIn Corporation, the largest professional network in the world. Prior to LinkedIn Mike has worked at Oracle Corporation where he led the UK Insurance group, Sybase where he ran UK Financial Services, and Tenfold Corporation where as WW VP Sales for Tenfold Technology, Tenfold completed a highly successful IPO. Also working at a number of early-stage start-ups, Mike brings experience of working in large public companies, dynamic start-ups across multiple industry and geographic sectors. Mike is also the author of Prosultative Selling, a book focused on how to leverage modern marketing techniques to drive enterprise sales.
Zainab Ahmed Schwartz
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Zainab Schwartz joined SAND in 2008, bringing considerable experience in internal controls and in audit and enterprise risk practices. Prior to joining SAND, she was Director of Internal Controls at Quebecor World Inc.. Before this, she worked in a variety of positions at Deloitte, with a specialization in the hi-tech and telecommunications industries.
Mrs. Schwartz has a graduate diploma in Chartered Accountancy from Concordia University and a BComm degree in Accounting and Finance from McGill University. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.
Richard Grondin
Vice President, R&D and Deployment, and Chief Technology Officer
Richard Grondin joined SAND in 1996 and has worked in a variety of technical and management positions. He played a key role in the development technologies such as Virtual Database, Octopus (MPSO), Advise (Vertically Integrated Search), Time Travel and SAND CDBMS, and works closely on deployment projects with SAND’s customers and partners.
Mr. Grondin holds a B.Sc. in computer Science (1984) from Laval University. Before joining SAND he worked as a Systems Engineer at Hitachi Data Systems, specializing in large technical architectures and data warehouse architectures.
Christian Niemann
Vice President, Business Development
Christian Niemann joined SAND in 2003. Previously, he was Managing Director and Business / Product Developer for a German manufacturing company. Mr. Niemann has also worked in prominent positions for German consulting companies focused on CRM and web analytics, amassing many years of experience in the BI/CRM market while working on projects for European Fortune-100 companies in the Retail, Finance, and Telecommunications sectors.