Our Team

Founder

Peter G. Ness

Founder

Peter founded the company in 2014 after discussing the need for ski industry mobile technology with a member of the PSIA National Alpine team. Skiing since the 1970s, Peter taught alpine and telemark skiing for ten years at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire and was also the telemark supervisor and staff trainer at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire. He is a certified PSIA Level III alpine and telemark instructor. Peter practices law in the areas of corporate, securities and taxation and has since 1988. Peter also practiced with Ernst & Young in their national M&A group and began his career with Deloitte. Peter is a licensed Attorney, Certified Public Accountant, and has held FINRA 24, 28, 22, 62, and 63 licenses. Peter is an alumni member of the National Ski Patrol and a member of the AMC 4,000 footer club.

Developers

Joseph Crim

Director of Software Development

Joe is an engineer on our development team working on our payment services integration efforts. Joe joins us with over a decade of experience in web application hosting and development. He has also worked on coupon and digital signage systems that have been used in large national retailers. Most of Joe's career has been working with growing startups as well as large companies like Godaddy and iCrossing. Joe enjoys off-roading, camping and ATV riding with his family on the weekends in the Phoenix area.

John Loyd

Director of Applied Technology

John provides technical support to the team for help desk operations, IT strategies, client services, wireless, and location-based technologies. He worked for 28 years in the AEC industry as a managing partner and Director of Information Systems for a leading mid-Atlantic consulting engineering firm. There he provided training and technical support for IT hardware, networks, and engineering software applications to 450 employees across 18 office locations. Most recently he was the CIO for the Combined Federal Campaign National Capital Area where he managed the technology platforms and pledging operations for several $50M federal workplace charitable giving campaigns. He enjoys biking, skiing, cooking, gardening, and home improvement projects.

Preston Snead

Software Developer

Preston served 21 years in the US Air Force. He retired as a Master Sargent in June of 1994. His last 6 years in the Air Force he taught database architecture design. (Has also flown at Mach 1). So far Preston has been to all 50 states in the U.S. and 14 countries outside the U.S. He started programming as a hobby and went to school after he retired and was hired by the college after his first semester to write programs on their main frame. Preston has had numerous jobs as a programmer / analyst developing applications in windows environments coding in everything from Visual Basic to C# and web applications PHP and Java on Linux. He loves to target shoot, fish and go off-roading.

Advisors

R. Drew Ogden

Senior Advisor – Software Licensing & Development and Legal

Drew provides counsel to the company in legal and business matters involving software development and licensing. Drew is a founder and managing director of Ascentage Group, LLC – a business development firm and Ascentage Law, PLLC - a licensing and intellectual property law firm. Prior to founding Ascentage Group, Drew was the vice president of Legal and Business Development at Softdesk, Inc., a Nasdaq company. At Softdesk, he was part of the executive management team that took the company public and was responsible for negotiating strategic licensing agreements, spinoffs and multiple acquisitions. Drew is a member of the Bar of Massachusetts. Drew is also a registered securities principal, holding the FINRA Series 24, 79, 82, 99 and 63 licenses.

Christian Heiter

Senior Advisor – Software Technology and Development

Chris counsels the company on strategic technology issues and platform development. Chris is currently the chief technology officer in a public high technology company where he provide mission-oriented solutions for governmental agencies. Prior to this position, Chris was a member of the technical staff at Hewlett Packard, where he led a team to create new technologies and conduct advanced research with agencies, including the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency. He also served as the technical director for HP’s High Performance Technology Group as well as senior roles at Digital Equipment Corporation and Compaq Computer.

Jonathan Curts

Senior Advisor - Marketing & Business Development

Jonathan advises and directs the company’s marketing and branding efforts as well as business development. Jonathan has over 27 years’ experience in Business to Business and consumer marketing and branding, with a concentration in consumer products, outdoor equipment and manufacturing. During that time, he has developed several patented products. Jonathan is an avid hiker, fisherman and skier and participates in outdoor sports and recreation whenever possible. Jonathan holds an MBA from the University of Denver and a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Northern Colorado.

Tom Husson

Consulting Engineer

Tom is Director of Development leading our Mobile Application and backend development efforts. Tom specializes in developing scalable solutions which fulfill customer requirements. Tom joined us as a software engineer with 10 years of experience with global e commerce companies as well as well as a submersible robotics company. Tom is an avid snow skier. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Computer Science.

Erika Smith

Consulting Engineer

Erika is a front end web developer and web designer with a mindful eye on user experience. Erika has 7 years of web experience through various IT consulting firms and currently holds a position as Web Technologist at Harvard Business School. Her creative eye and attention to detail has helped bring shape to the OTTO web platform. Erika has a passion for travel and is always looking for her next adventure. When she’s not crafting she likes to explore various part of New England through hiking, kayaking, and camping. Erika holds a degree of computer science from University of New Hampshire.