Dr. Rajiv Tandon, President & CEO
A founder of Adayana, Rajiv Tandon has more than 39 years of global business consulting and higher-education experience. He served as President and CEO of Adayana from its founding in 2001 until 2008. He now serves the organization as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior to forming Adayana, Rajiv was CEO and President of LearningByte International, a developer of custom e-Learning and web-based training solutions. Rajiv served as Director of Corporate Venturing Programs at the University of St. Thomas, and taught MBA courses in entrepreneurship and new venture management. In 1992, he was awarded the Edwin M. Appel Prize by the Price-Babson College Fellows Program "for bringing entrepreneurial vitality to academia." Earlier, Rajiv was Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Operations for National Car Rental, Inc. He also served as President of the American Car Rental Association.
Sandra L. Mathes, VP of Human Resources
Sandi Mathes has more than 20 years of professional human resource experience as the VP of Human Resources. She also uses her expertise to train HR professionals from a diverse group of organizations through an adjunct teaching position at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. Before joining Adayana, Mathes spent nine years with Conseco Services, LLC as Vice President of Human Resources. At Conseco, she was responsible for supporting an employee base of more than 2,300 associates by leading staffing and sourcing, employee relations and HR generalist teams. Mathes began her career in HR with the J. L. Hudson Company in Detroit, MI, and later relocated to Indianapolis, where she joined National City Bank.
Raymond Richie, CFO
Raymond Richie became Adayana’s CFO in April 2011. Richie previously served as Adayana’s Vice President of Strategic Business Development since April 2009, working to collaborate with strategic partners to fuel corporate growth and development. He led the strategy and research team of the former ABG, an Adayana predecessor company, for more than three years. Before coming to Adayana, Richie worked at Ernst & Young for five years, helping mid-cap companies restructure their businesses to meet growth goals. Prior to that, Richie managed several entrepreneurial companies in executive positions such as Controller and COO, where he helped to streamline business operations to strengthen each company. Richie is an MBA graduate of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business with an emphasis in Finance, Strategy and Marketing.
Charley Grady, VP of Strategic Finance
Charley Grady has more than 29 years of experience in finance, marketing and operations. One of the founders of Adayana, Grady previously worked as the Vice President of Pricing, Analysis, and Contracts for LearningByte International, and e-Learning company. His experience also includes 20 years with National Car Rental Systems, Inc., where he held positions such as Director of Financial Analysis, Vice President of Strategic Analysis, Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, and Corporate Economist. Grady holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and an MBA in Finance and Computer Systems from the University of Rochester in New York.
Steve Kerschenbaum, Chief Technology Officer
Steve Kerschenbaum’s 20 years of experience include Information and Learning System design and development, Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) design and development, Web-based Training (WBT) implementation, system requirements development and analysis, program and project management, data mining and analysis, business process reengineering, technology research, and Independent IT Verification and Validation (IV&V). Steve has worked with several Adayana Government Group’s current clients, including the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, Justice, Veterans Affairs, Labor, Treasury, and Energy. Steve has been recognized as an expert in the e-Learning field, and often participates in industry-related panels, organizations, and events. He has published several papers at I/ITSEC, and has contributed articles to other publications such as Training & Development Magazine.
Steve Koczara, VP, Marketing and Branding
Steve Koczara currently leads the marketing, branding and creative services for Adayana and has over 19 years of experience creating and growing global brands. Steve’s vision has led to the development of an award winning creative capability that grows commercial businesses and federal organizations. Prior to working at Adayana, Steve served as Partner and Executive Creative Director for various agencies leading strategic creative solutions for Fannie Mae, US Airways, USAToday, Aetna, Dicks Sporting Goods and many other Fortune 500 organizations. He holds a BFA in Graphic Communications from Oklahoma State University and an MFA from George Mason University.
Steve Wilson, VP of Industry Operations
Steve Wilson currently serves as Vice President of Industry Operations for Adayana. Steve works with more than 18 years of experience in business process outsourcing (BPO), human capital management, global standards compliance, and strategic management consulting. He previously served as Director of Strategy and Research at Adayana, where he led a team of experienced business consultants and strategy experts to support complex client engagements in the areas of strategic planning, decision analysis, channel marketing, business process improvement, market research and analysis, and global program management of multinational engagements. Prior to Adayana, he served as the International Director of Account Management at Kronos, Inc. and has experience with Fortune 500 companies and automotive industry engineering and automotive supply chain research and development support.
David Hollinrake, Vice President of Business Development for Adayana’s Commercial Business
David Hollinrake is Vice President of Business Development for Adayana’s commercial business, providing leadership and direction to the team of business development managers who serve our clients. In addition to his leadership role, David regularly provides strategy consulting and facilitation support for several clients.
David came to Adayana in 2007 from The Solae Company, a joint venture between DuPont and Bunge, where he was the Vice President of Global Marketing. In this role, David guided Solae’s strategic planning processes and led the global marketing unit.
Prior to joining Solae, David worked at Monsanto for more than 13 years in a number of sales, operations, sales management, marketing, and strategy roles, including leading the U.S. Crop Protection marketing unit. In this role, David was responsible for developing and implementing the post-patent strategy for Roundup herbicide.
David earned his Master’s in Business Administration degree from Washington University in St. Louis, graduating with honors. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Economics from the University of Illinois.
David and his son Andrew reside in Creve Coeur, Missouri.
Jeff Kidwell, Adayana Government Group President
Jeff Kidwell is a thought leader who has served as a strategic advisor to many organizations for nearly 25 years. He has helped increase their effectiveness through improved strategy in areas such as management consulting, process reengineering, benchmarking, and business operations. Prior to merging with Adayana in 2008, Kidwell led VERTEX Solutions as President and CEO. He previously served in various roles for defense contractors and consulting firms, and was an internal consultant for American General Corporation. He has co-authored several papers on the implementation of advanced distributed learning programs, benchmarking, scope management and schedule risk and has served as a college-level instructor in front line supervision and management. Kidwell holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and an MBA from Virginia Tech.
John Burwell, SVP, Business Development, Government Group
John Burwell has more than 25 years of experience developing business for a variety of organizations that create training/learning solutions as well as for innovative companies that develop related enabling technologies. His most recent experience was driving sales and marketing for Forterra Systems (acquired by SAIC in 2010), a Silicon Valley-based software company that produced on-line virtual world solutions for enterprise and government customers. Prior to Forterra, John worked in a variety of business development and marketing roles related to computer graphics, virtual worlds, video games, and geospatial imaging - including spending ten years at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (SGI). Early in his career, he gained considerable experience in the public sector working in the systems integrator community. John has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of Colorado and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
