Management Team

John A. Meyer is Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the leading virtual solutions company in the world. John joined the company in 2011 to drive the organization’s growth, set the strategic vision and manage the global operations of the business. John has over 28 years of leadership experience with large publicly traded organizations, and building high growth organizations in both the United States and internationally.

Prior to joining Arise in 2011, John served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Acxiom Corporation, a $1.2 billion global interactive marketing services company with more than 6,500 employees. Previously, he served as President of the Global Services group of Alcatel-Lucent for five years, where he was responsible for more than $6 billion in annual revenue and the management of more than 20,000 people. Prior to joining Lucent, he spent almost 20 years in a number of high-profile positions at EDS, including Chairman of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operating Team, President of Diversified Financial Services and Credit Services Divisions, and CIO for the company’s GMAC business. John’s global, multi-industry experience at EDS was marked by numerous successes, including doubling revenue in EMEA from $3.6 billion to $7.2 billion in four years.

Before entering the business world, John served as a flight commander and was selected as a captain in the U.S. Air Force. He holds a MBA from the University of Missouri and a BS in management from Pennsylvania State University.

Angela Selden is Co-Chairman of Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. Angela was appointed as Co-Chairman in 2011 after having served as Chief Executive Officer for six years. Angela is a visionary who established virtual business services as a mainstream solution for Fortune 500 companies, and was instrumental in growing Arise into an industry leader, providing superior results and high client satisfaction and generating outstanding year-over-year revenue growth.

Before joining Arise in 2005, Angela spent 18 years at Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. During her last five years, she served as Managing Partner of the North American Consumer and Industrial group. She doubled the revenue of this group to $550 million in three years and drove 20 percent growth for the two prior consecutive years leading Accenture’s North American Retail practice.

In December 2009, Angela attended President Obama’s Jobs and Economic Growth Forum at the White House, where she joined approximately 130 small business owners, experts in the green jobs sector, business leaders, academics, mayors and representatives from nonprofits to discuss job creation and expanding the economy. She also participated in a breakout session on small business and entrepreneurship led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills.

Angela has received honors, including one of Consulting magazine’s “Top 25 Consultants” and The Business Journal’s “Women Change Makers.” She has shared her views on the benefits of leveraging virtual home agents on Good Morning America, Business Week, CBS Evening News, CNN, Forbes, Fox, Investor's Business Daily, MSNBC, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Angela graduated from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., with a Bachelor of Arts in both Accounting and Computer Science.

Scott is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Arise. Scott is responsible for leading and managing the global financial activities at Arise. Scott is also responsible for developing overall company strategy with the CEO, as well as international expansion and the commercialization of the Virtualize the Enterprise™ offerings.

Before joining Arise in 2009, Scott was the Vice President and CFO of the Partnered Brands division of Liz Claiborne, where he led a $1.5 billion global wholesale operation. Prior to joining Liz Claiborne, Scott spent 13 years at NBC Universal, a subsidiary of General Electric, where he served in numerous leadership roles. His most recent role was Senior Vice President and CFO for NBC Universal International. In that role he led $3 billion in annual sales and was responsible for international expansion.

Scott has served as a member of the Finance Committee of the New York Chapter of American Red Cross. While at GE, Scott earned General Electric’s Six Sigma Quality Green Belt Certification, graduated the GE Experienced Financial Leadership Program and the GE Management Development Course.

Scott is a graduate from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Accounting.

Juan is responsible for the company’s legal affairs and management of the Legal/Contracting Department. He also provides legal counsel to the senior executive team and the board of directors on domestic and international corporate law and commercial transactions, compliance with “safe harbor” provisions under Internal Revenue Code regulations, employment and technology agreements, intellectual property, tax, banking and finance and all litigation matters.

Before joining Arise in 2009, Juan was in private practice where he concentrated in international and business transactions, telecommunications industry, trademarks, commercial and professional liability litigation and corporate law. Previously, during his career, he has also served in senior management and in-house counsel positions in the legal departments of Global Grossing, Lucent Technologies and AT&T.

Juan was past member of the Advisory Board at the College of Urban and Public Affairs and the Latin American Studies Center at Florida International University. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Latin American Advisory Group Telecom Sector, the Board of Trustees of Caribbean and Latin American Action, the Board of U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, and the Board of the Hispanic Council on Foreign Relations.

Juan graduated from Boston College Law School with a Juris Doctorate after receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science/Spanish from Amherst College. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association and is licensed to practice in Colorado, New Jersey and Florida. Juan is a Civil Affairs Officer and holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Dan holds responsibility for business development with a focus on the Automotive, Energy, Financial Services, Health, Insurance and Telecommunications industries and venture-backed organizations.

Dan also holds responsibility for architecting breakthrough processes and technology industry solutions for automotive services and telecommunications clients and to leverage Arise’s capabilities to bring Undisputed Top Performance™ to these clients’ contact center activities.

Before joining Arise in 2008, Dan was a partner at Accenture, a $21 billion global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Dan managed Accenture’s North American wireless practice and served as lead partner for its largest North American Wireless client team. He was also the innovator and the Global Managing Partner for Accenture’s Content Quality Services BPO division.

During his time at Accenture, Dan led 12 post-merger integrations, improved revenue generation capabilities at multiple Fortune 100 companies, and launched two new businesses as white space BPOs.

Dan is an Advisor & Council Member of the Gerson Lehrman Group's Telecommunications Council and Professional Service Council and a Society of Industry Leaders Member of the Vista Research Telecommunications Council. He was honored as a Gerson Lehrman Group Scholar in 2005. He volunteers regularly for the American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Dan graduated from Union College in New York with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Minor in Physics.

Steven Gomez is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. Steven is responsible for developing the technology strategy and driving @Home product innovation. He oversees Development, Quality Assurance, Project Management and Database administration. Steven brings extensive experience in leading teams to develop products, and leverage cutting edge technologies to deliver enterprise solutions.

Prior to Arise, Steve was Vice President and Head of Technology for ING Direct ShareBuilder. ShareBuilder is an online brokerage providing investment and retirement tools and services. During this time, Steven developed ShareBuilder’s technical vision and strategy while overseeing delivery of all strategic product and IT initiatives which included the launch of the ShareBuilder product in 1999. Steven helped design the innovative dollar based investing platform which allowed users to purchase dollars of stock in an automated investment plan.

Steven served as CIO for Vote iQ the nation’s first non-partisan political network. Steve established both infrastructure and application architectures incorporating cutting edge cloud solutions and open source architectures.

Jared is responsible for the company’s VSC Operations Value Chain which includes: sourcing, recruiting, and screening of Arise’s Certified Professionals (ACPs), client curriculum development and certification. Previously, Jared served as Vice President of Transformation at Arise.

Before joining Arise in 2007, Jared was the founder of ResTrust, an award-winning premier provider of resume certification services. Jared's professional career includes executive and management positions at Accenture and Cap Gemini. He is the winner of the South Florida Business Journal’s 2007 Technology Award in the Rising Star Category and was a Top 20 Finalist in the Forbes.com “Boost Your Business Contest.”

Jared is a Certified Public Accountant and Six Sigma Black Belt Certified. He graduated from Emory University, Goizueta Business School with Masters of Business Administration with a focus on Strategy. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Miami.

Irynne leads the company’s focus on delivering Undisputed Top Performance™ for the company's clients in the High Tech, Energy, Retail and Travel & Hospitality industries. Irynne also drives innovation and continuous process and technology improvements in the Client Results Operations Organization, including workforce planning and scheduling, client curriculum development and certification, and ACP performance compliance and optimization functions.

Before joining Arise in 2008, Irynne served as Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager at Circuit City Stores. She was responsible for the company’s $2.6 billion business portfolio of Entertainment Content, Gaming and Mobile products. Irynne previously served as Managing Director at Infinitive, a management consulting firm. She was part of a team of six executives that grew the company 10-fold in a three-year period through strategic business development initiatives.

Irynne also served as a Senior Director at Best Buy, where she led the strategy and execution for one of the retailer’s six customer segments. She launched her consulting career at Accenture, most recently serving clients such as Nordstrom, Best Buy, Sears Canada, and AOL. Her areas of expertise include business strategy and planning, business process involvement, large-scale change management, category and assortment management, vendor management, advertising effectiveness, pricing optimization and inventory management.

Irynne speaks at public events, including sharing her insights with audiences of the American Marketing Association and Leadership Workshops with Noel Tichy. She has been actively involved in the United Way and the public school system.

Irynne graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science in General Engineering. She also completed her Engineering Graduate coursework there. Additionally, Irynne has completed the Strategic Retailing Program at Harvard University and the Corporate Leadership Development Program at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

David is Group Chief Executive of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., and is responsible for growing and accelerating Arise’s virtual business services and operations throughout this region.

Before joining Arise in June 2010, David spent 20 years at Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. A partner for the last 10 years, his roles with Accenture spanned sales, sales management, transition, delivery and operational management in the U.K., Ireland, France and the U.S.A.  
David led a number of Accenture’s largest and most complex sales utilizing the full range of Accenture’s services both onshore and offshore.  He has worked in the healthcare, utilities and more recently in the financial services sectors.  David spent two years running Accenture’s outsourcing business within the financial services industry for the U.K. & Ireland during a period of over 200% revenue growth.  

Prior to Accenture, David spent 2 years at NCR Ltd., developing new business and implementing IT systems.

David graduated from Loughborough University in the U.K., with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Diploma in Industrial Studies.

Carmine Izzi is Vice President and General Manager at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. In this role, he is responsible for Business Development and delivering Undisputed Top Performance™ for the company's clients in the Travel & Hospitality, Retail and Financial Services industries, and is leading Arise’s Government initiative. Carmine has 20+ years of experience in operations consulting where he provided advisory services and expertise to some of the world’s most recognized brands.

Prior to joining Arise in 2009, Carmine served as Partner for the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) practice of the America’s at IBM Global Business Services where he managed a staff of over 300 employees that delivered $170M in annual revenue, he also served as interim global lead where he was responsible for $600M in annual revenue. Prior to this, he was a Sr. Manager in Accenture’s Supply Chain Practice where he helped establish and lead it’s Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC) practice and worked on assignments in the U.S., Asia, and Europe in a variety of industries including electronics and high-tech as well as automotive and aerospace/defense. Carmine began his consulting career with A.T. Kearney where he spent 4 years as Manager in their Operations practice.

Carmine holds a Master’s of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Strategy as well as a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Mexico. He has also completed Executive Education in Investment Banking from the Investment Banking Institute, located in New York City and in Corporate Strategy at Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne Switzerland.

Kevin Kammer is Vice President and General Manager at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. In this role, he is responsible for Business Development and delivering Undisputed Top Performance™ for the company's clients in the Travel & Hospitality and Financial Services industries.

Prior to joining Arise in 2009, Kevin served as Vice President, Strategic Business Development at West Corporation where he was responsible for identifying M&A opportunities, annual strategic plans, and oversaw sales and contract renewals. Prior to this, he was a Principal Consultant with KMC LLC, Chief Operating Officer at Artios, President of Debit Services at First Data Corporation, and a SVP at First Data Corporation.

Kevin holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and Economics from Creighton University, a Bachelor of Science from the United States Air Force Academy, and an Executive Education in Mergers and Acquisitions from the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School.

Rick Matthews is Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. In this role, Rick is responsible for business development, global marketing and strategy for Arise.

Prior to joining Arise in 2011, Rick served as President of Amdocs Consulting, where he built and led the Management Consulting and SI Division with 1,900 professionals since joining the company in 2004. Prior to Amdocs, Rick was a Partner at Ernst & Young from 1993 to 2004, and previously he was a Product Manager at KnowledgeWare.

Rick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Auburn University.

Peter Formisano is Vice President and General Manager at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. In this role, he is responsible for Business Development and delivering Undisputed Top Performance™ for the company's clients in the Retail and Technology industries.

Prior to joining Arise, Peter was Senior Vice President, Global Contact Center Operations for Computer Generated Solutions. Peter’s international operations team, combined with CGS’ other business units, represented one of the most successful small- to medium sized outsourced contact center companies in the marketplace. Prior to this, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Latin American Operations at ClientLogic Corporation where he oversaw operations involving 8,000 employees in seven countries and helped manage ClientLogic’s multi-billion dollar acquisition of Sitel Corporation. Before his time at ClientLogic, Peter was Senior Director of Operations at Convergys Corporation and was responsible for the establishment and growth of the company’s cable support and retail support business units with more than a decade of successful growth.

Peter is a graduate from Iona College with a Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting and Management Information Systems.

Stephen Bengtson is Vice President & General Manager at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the world’s leading provider of virtual business solutions. In this role, he is responsible for Business Development and delivering Undisputed Top Performance™ client results to some of the world’s most recognized brands.

With over 15 years of leadership experience, Stephen’s professional career has concentrated on developing and managing key client relationships; delivering world-class outsourced services and driving organizational growth strategies with large, publically traded and privately-held technology and services companies.

Prior to joining Arise in 2011, Stephen was Vice President of Finance & Accounting Services for ACS, a Xerox Company providing BPO and IT Outsourcing solutions. While at ACS, Stephen managed over $140 million in Finance & Accounting services and was part of the senior management team that achieved numerous industry accolades including Gartner’s Leaders “Magic Quadrant” for outsourced finance and accounting, employee and customer support services. Stephen earned his Six Sigma Quality Green Belt Certification with ACS and drove the company’s Lean/Six Sigma quality process capabilities throughout client and service delivery organizations worldwide.

Stephen holds a Masters of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of San Diego, CA.

Ken Jackowitz is the Senior Vice President, Independent Business Owner Operations, at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the leading virtual solutions company in the world. Ken joined Arise in October 2011 and is responsible for the operations, planning, development, partner relationship and transformation of the organization.

Prior to joining Arise in 2011, Ken spent six years at Bank of America where he most recently led the Technology Innovation Portfolio team focused on Integrated Customer Experiences and Behavior of the Customer. He was responsible for design, prototype and delivery of customer experience solutions that integrated across the Bank of America brands and channels. In parallel, Ken was a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab, where he introduced new research that explored ways to provide an interactive customer experience through new visual enhancements and customer identification technology as well as investigating customized interactions by emotion and intention recognition.

Before Bank of America, Ken served as Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer for NetByTel, a provider of voice self-service solutions for enterprise-sized clients and outsourced call center partners, and previously held numerous senior leadership positions at Office Depot.

Ken holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Management from Bentley University, Waltham, MA.

Lisa R. Carstarphen is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., the leading virtual solutions company in the world. Lisa joined Arise in December 2011 and is responsible for leading the Arise legal team, as well as providing corporate governance leadership and legal counsel to the Arise senior executive team.

Prior to joining Arise, Lisa served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Russell Hobbs, Inc. (formerly known as Salton, Inc. and Applica Incorporated) for ten years where she was responsible all legal matters for the company, including Securities, Corporate Finance and Corporate Governance matters. Before Russell Hobbs, Inc. Lisa was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, P.A. and served as Vice President, Associate Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary of Capital Bancorp, a bank holding company.

Lisa brings a wealth of knowledge and over 20 years of broad-based legal experience in providing Boards of Directors and Senior Corporate Management of public and private companies with counseling on a wide variety of legal matters.

Lisa received her Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina, where she served as a member of the North Carolina Law Review, and her undergraduate degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Miami.