Management
Dr. Jaime Carbonell, Chairman of the Board and Founder
Dr. Jaime Carbonell brings groundbreaking language technologies research and commercialization successes to Carnegie Speech.
Dr. Carbonell is Carnegie Mellon University's Chaired Allen Newell Professor of Computer Science and Director of Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute (LTI). His previous business ventures include the successful creation, IPO and sale of the Carnegie Group, Inc., a software-consulting corporation. Jaime previously served as an advisor to Lycos and currently serves on advisory boards of Vivisimo, Meaningful Machines, 3Ksoft USA, and Dynamix.
Jaime has also served on several editorial boards, including the Artificial Intelligence Journal and has served as executive editor of the Machine Learning Journal. He has also served on high-level Government advisory roles such as the NIH "Watson" Committee that created and coordinated the National Human Genome Initiative. Jaime invented multiple well-known methods in language technologies and machine learning, such as knowledge-based machine translation and proactive machine learning.
Jaime has Ph.D. and MS degrees in Computer Science from Yale University as well as BS degrees in Physics and Mathematics from MIT.
Angela Kennedy, President & CEO
Angela Kennedy is an experienced executive with demonstrated success in building companies that commercialize leading-edge products that feature artificial intelligence technologies. Angela leads sales, marketing and business development while overseeing product development and operations. She is also responsible for managing investor relations and coordinating the strategic planning for the organization.
Prior to joining Carnegie Speech, Angela founded WISDOM Technologies Corporation and served as its President and CEO. While at WISDOM, Angela raised venture capital and private investments and forged strategic relationships with Citibank, SEI investments, Selkirk Financial Technologies, SunGard Treasury Systems, and Union Fenosa of Spain.
Angela has sales and marketing experience with IBM and software development management experience with the Lead Artificial Intelligence Group at Westinghouse Electric Corporation. She is also well-published in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Cognitive Science, and Treasury Management.
Angela holds an MS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in College Scholars from the University of Tennessee.
Robert Turner, Chief Operating Officer
Robert (Bob) Turner is an experienced software operations executive who brings expertise in optimizing early-stage company values and streamlining international enterprise business operations to Carnegie Speech. Bob will direct business operations, participate in business development for Global Education, and lead account management support, including developing standards to optimize account performance and client satisfaction.
Bob has held senior finance, negotiations and operations management positions for large technology companies including IBM Corporation, Computer Associates and SAS Institute. In addition, Bob led business operations and contract negotiations for early-stage and growth companies including Legent Corporation and Candle Corporation. While serving in an executive capacity, Bob developed the negotiation, management and sales skills required to maximize the value of enterprise software licensing agreements, streamline business processes, and develop sales strategies that lead to significant revenue growth and increases in company valuations.
Bob has a JD from Ohio Northern University, Petit College of Law, and a BS in Business Administration from Ohio University.
Dr. Maxine Eskenazi, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Founder
Dr. Maxine Eskenazi contributes her speech recognition and linguistic expertise and her language tutoring experience to the development of Carnegie Speech's spoken language training curriculum and technology. As one of the world's leading experts on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Maxine chairs the ISCA Special Interest Group on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE).
As an Associate Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute (LTI), Maxine is uniquely qualified to use her language technology expertise to address the challenge of teaching spoken languages.
Maxine has led research initiatives in both Europe and the United States, and has been the principle investigator on many national grants. She is a reviewer for many top level journals in language technology and in language learning and has published over one hundred articles.
Maxine received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Paris 11, her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Paris 7, and her B.A. in Modern Languages and Education from Carnegie Mellon University.
John Lucke, Vice President, Marketing
John Lucke brings a record of success in leading marketing, sales and business development initiatives for emerging technologies and businesses in a variety of industry sectors. At Carnegie Speech, John is responsible for generating market awareness, building sector-specific brand strategies, developing product and market positioning strategies, leading research and evaluation efforts and engaging strategic partners in new markets and business sectors.
Prior to joining Carnegie Speech, John led strategic business development and marketing for emerging technologies at Symbol Technologies. Additional successes include serving in an executive capacity with multinational and entrepreneurial firms in both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer sectors. John also offers significant marketing and revenue-generation experience in the Information Technology, Consumer Goods, Media/Marketing, Retail, and IT Outsourcing sectors.
John holds an MBA from Rutgers University and a BS from Boston College.
Gary Pelton, Vice President, Product Development
Gary Pelton brings extensive experience managing technology development teams as well as commercializing spoken language products and intelligent tutoring systems to Carnegie Speech. Gary is responsible for developing the intellectual property and product strategies that ensure the continued growth and success of Carnegie Speech, including patent strategies, definitions and prosecution. Responsible for managing and directing the company's team of software development professionals, Gary ensures the reliability, functionality and scalability of Carnegie Speech's language learning products to our global customer base.
In addition to Carnegie Speech, Gary has led product development teams for a variety of organizations, from Bell Labs to entrepreneurial start-ups. Developing products ranging from robots and factory floor diagnostic systems to neural network simulators, Gary's successes give Carnegie Speech unique product development and delivery capabilities.
Gary received his MS in Computer Science and a BS in Physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Melanie M. Shivetts, Vice President, Finance and Operations
Melanie M. Shivetts brings expertise in finance and operations to Carnegie Speech from her years of experience at both large corporations and technology-based start-ups. Melanie is responsible for the finance and operations functions, including accounting, legal, administration and human resources. She also participates in investor relations, capital raising activities and strategic planning initiatives across the organization.
Prior to joining Carnegie Speech, Melanie served on the executive committee for WISDOM Technologies Corporation. As Corporate Secretary and Director of Operations, she also led all corporate finance, administration, operations, facilities, and human resource activities. During her several years at IBM, Melanie managed the financial operations for the RS/6000 Marketing and Software Vendor Support group and served in other finance, accounting and site operations functions.
Melanie holds an MBA and BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.