SAND's strength is directly attributable to the quality of its people. The management 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).
Arthur G. Ritchie
Chairman and CEO
Arthur Ritchie is one of the two founders of SAND Technology and a
visionary in applying high-performance data management technology to the
challenges of business. A firm believer in the power of data to guide
critical business decisions, Ritchie has championed development efforts that put data directly in the hands of decision-makers. Prior to founding SAND Technology he advised companies around the world as a principal in LGS Data Processing Consultants Inc. and in a variety of technical and management positions at IBM in both Canada and South Africa.
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.
Linda Arens
Vice President, Marketing & Alliances
Linda Arens joined SAND in 2005, bringing more than 20 years' senior management experience in alliances and marketing for the software industry. She held executive positions at Informix, Legato, Vitria and several start-ups. Ms. Arens’ career and successful track record has been focused extensively on building strategic relationships with System Integrators, Platform Vendors, ISVs, and Resellers, creating successful channel organizations. Ms. Arens has built key relationships with such companies as Sun, Network Appliance, HP, IBM, Avnet, Bell Micro, Bearingpoint and Accenture.
Richard Grondin
Vice President, R&D and Deployment
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), SAND/DNA Advise (Vertically Integrated Search), Time Travel and SAND/DNA Access, 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.
Dr. Michael Hahne
Vice President & Business Development Manager
Dr. Michael Hahne joined SAND in 2006. Prior to this he worked as a Data Warehouse architect and data modeller in the utilities industry, an IT manager in the hazardous waste management industry, and a branch manager of IT consulting in the Data Warehouse and IT security space. Dr. Hahne was formerly CTO and head of the "SAP AG BI Consulting Products" business unit at cundus AG, a BI consultancy and provider of SAP AG products. He studied mathematics at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, with an emphasis on crystallography and business information technology, and earned a doctorate from the Ruhr-University Bochum in 2002, focusing on multidimensional databases. Michael is a member of the German Computer Society (GI), TDWI, and the German chapter of the ACM.
Christian Niemann
Vice President & Business Development Manager
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.
About SAND Technology
SAND is an international provider of intelligent information management software. The SAND/DNA product suite scales to help any size enterprise cope with exploding data requirements, now and into the future. SAND/DNA Access allows for retaining all potentially relevant data in a tiny footprint while providing instant access to just what's required. SAND/DNA Analytics allows for complex what-if analysis to meet any planned and unplanned business need.
SAND/DNA solutions include CRM analytics, and specialized applications for government, healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, retail, transportation, and other business sectors. SAND/DNA has achieved "Certified for SAP NetWeaver" status and SAND Nearline Integration Controller has achieved "Powered by SAP NetWeaver" status.
SAND Technology has offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Central Europe.