Corporate
Governance

Mr. Cowan is Director of The Center for Technology Management at Columbia University and most recently served as CEO at modomodo, a SaaS mobile application development platform company.

Mr. Cowan is recognized as a technology CEO and entrepreneur, creating value through execution with particular expertise in enterprise software, Big Data analytics, and SaaS delivery.  He spent more than two decades at IBM, starting in Finance and moving to CFO and GM roles.  He subsequently served as Chairman and CEO of OutlookSoft, a leading developer of business performance software, and positioned the company for its acquisition by SAP.  At Vcommerce, a pioneer developer of e-commerce software, Mr. Cowan served as Chairman/CEO/COO/CFO where he led a successful restructuring which established the basis for later acquisition by Google.

Mr. Cowan has served on numerous public and private boards including SMTC Corporation, Wake Forest University, and Tivoli Systems.  He has served on the boards of OutlookSoft, Tivoli, Tagetik, PGA.com, and NHL.com.  He has chaired audit, compensation, governance, and nominating committees, and has been Executive in Residence at RockRidge Capital Partners.

Mr. Cowan is the author of “From Idea to Business”, “Business Basics”, and “Leadership Basics”.  His academic background includes a Bachelor in Economics degree from Wake Forest University, an MBA from the University of South Carolina, and doctoral studies at Columbia University.