Rick Berger is Chief Executive Officer at Rootstock, where he leads the company vision and strategy. With over 25 years of experience in technology and software, he has helped numerous enterprise software companies scale for growth and navigate the Salesforce ecosystem.

Most recently, Rick served as President of NewStore, a unified commerce platform helping brands manage their retail operations. At NewStore, he fostered high-performance teams, driving strong annual recurring revenue growth. During his tenure there, he also advanced the company’s partnership with Salesforce, helping to launch an omnichannel solution that integrated Salesforce capabilities into physical retail environments. Rick also spent several years as the Global Vice President of Sales at Infor’s Retail Business Unit and as the VP of Sales in Oracle Retail’s Business Unit. He earned his B.A. in Business Management / Finance from Brigham Young University and received an M.B.A from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Geoff Brannon is CFO of Rootstock Software. In this role, he oversees the finance, HR and IT functions to provide strong daily operational support of the business and to enable strategic decisions for growth and investment opportunities. Geoff brings more than 20 years of experience leading financial planning and analysis, treasury, accounting, M&A, compliance, and financial reporting functions in global technology organizations. Throughout his career, Geoff has focused on ensuring operational excellence at companies that offered an array of solutions, including software, hardware, and professional services, which helped customers address their complex business needs.

Prior to joining Rootstock, Geoff served as CFO at Oversight, where he helped manage a successful exit strategy via a private equity acquisition. Prior to that, he was Division CFO of NCR Corporation’s hospitality business. He joined NCR by way of its acquisition of Radiant Systems in 2011, where he was Corporate Controller after a successful progression of various management roles in its accounting function. Geoff also worked at LSI Corporation, which has since been acquired by Broadcom Limited, and started his career in the assurance practice of KPMG. Geoff holds a BA in Accounting and an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University. 

Raj Badarinath is Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Rootstock. In his role as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), he drives awareness of our industry-leading Cloud ERP and the value our product delivers to manufacturers, distributors, and supply chain organizations. In his role as Chief Product Officer(CPO), he assesses what our customers appreciate and need in our ERP solution and translates these insights into a product strategy and roadmap.

Over the course of his 25-year career, Raj was in charge of developing global go-to-market strategies across marketing, product and sales. After an initial decade with established global players such as Peoplesoft/Oracle, Capgemini and Infosys, he held leadership positions at many SaaS companies, including ArrowStream, Algonomy, Avangate, Nutanix, and others. All of these companies were at various stages of growth, from startup to IPO, and Raj’s guidance helped get them to their next level of success. When not working, Raj assists emerging startups as an angel investor and board advisor. He is also a voracious reader, self-published author and a mentor to students. He has bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and Computer Science (Eq.) from India and a strategic marketing diploma from the University of California at Berkeley.

As Senior Vice President of Global Professional Services & Enablement, Caroline Santander leads two key areas of Rootstock Software. First, she manages global Professional Services to enable rapid implementations, to establish the Rootstock Center of Excellence, and to support more partner-led implementations. Second, she continues to grow the company’s Enablement Program to provide customers and partners with product knowledge through the Rootstock Success Community and Learning Center.   

Ms. Santander is a global executive who speaks five languages and has in-depth experience in managing large-scale, global ERP implementations throughout North America and Europe. She’s seen ERP implementations grow in complexity and understands that manufacturers require the right blend of best practices around implementation, integration, and configuration, as well as well-timed product knowledge so they’re positioned to achieve faster ‘time to value.’ 

Santander has been with Rootstock since 2018. Prior to her current position, she served as Vice President of Enablement and Partnerships. She previously launched and managed Rootstock’s partner program and was instrumental in building and fortifying this ecosystem. These efforts supported Rootstock’s rapid business development and growth. As part of the Enablement Program, she first rolled out the Rootstock Success Community, an online destination which gives customers a way to network with other customers, as well as with Rootstock subject matter experts and other business partners. She also launched the Rootstock Learning Center, the cornerstone for Rootstock product training and knowledge.  

Santander has 25 years of overall experience with ERP solutions and has worked for other companies like Kenandy, NetSuite, Strategic Information Group, QAD. Throughout her career, she has exhibited a track record of success and progressive promotions stemming from the value she’s delivered in customer success and company growth. 

Robert Rostamizadeh is Chief Technology Officer at Rootstock. He sets the company’s technological direction, leading technology and software engineering. With over 15 years of experience in software engineering leadership, Robert employs an agile development methodology to continually enhance product quality, increase transparency, and deliver customer value more efficiently.

Prior to Rootstock, Robert was Executive Vice President of Engineering at Smarsh, where he led all aspects of engineering for the SMB Business Unit, which included the company’s market-leading hybrid-cloud communications compliance and archiving solution and cybersecurity products. Before that, he worked at CDK Global, where he ran core engineering for the company’s flagship Dealer Management System (DMS), which has many similarities to ERP solutions in complexity and capabilities. He also brought a new DMS to market at CDK Global from a General Manager role. Before taking on people leadership roles, Robert spent time as an Engineer and Architect at CDK Global. Earlier in his career, he held various engineering and leadership roles at Huron Consulting Group, in the healthcare software industry. Robert holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Oregon State University.

As the Vice President of Customer Success and Support at Rootstock Software, Taft is responsible for the overall customer experience and oversees global teams focused on delivering world-class support and value for Rootstock customers.

Taft has over 17 years of SaaS software experience leading customer success, services, and support teams in the mid-market and enterprise space. Prior to joining Rootstock, Taft was the Senior Director of Client Success for MRI Software and before that was the Chief Customer Officer for AMTdirect. Raised in a small business environment, Taft gained early exposure and a deep-seated passion for customer service, focusing much of his career on enhancing customer experiences and developing lasting customer relationships. He is a versatile leader who builds strong partnerships with customers and internal stakeholders, and he has a proven track record for making significant impacts on customer satisfaction, shared success, and growth. Taft holds a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.

Samuel Wood is the Vice President of Software Engineering for Rootstock Software. Sam spearheads Rootstock’s product roadmap from a functional perspective, drawing on his keen understanding of business processes and an ability to define and manage product specifications. Since 2012, Sam has held roles at Rootstock managing the development staff and served as the chief product architect overseeing both the technical direction on the Cloud and the functional development of the product.

Sam’s background includes almost 30 years of software design and development in manufacturing and accounting systems. Prior to joining Rootstock, he spent over 20 years at Relevant Business Systems (an ERP client-server software provider) as both software architect and developer serving in the chief product role reporting to the CEO from 1998 to 2006.

Bri Gasquet is Vice President of Growth Marketing. In her role, she plans, oversees, and scales key marketing activities, including demand generation, digital marketing, field marketing, and marketing operations to support sales and revenue growth.

Gasquet has over 17 years of experience in global technology marketing. She started her career in content development, copywriting, and communications and progressed to strategically manage marketing and demand generation teams. Her career demonstrates a passion for storytelling, buyer journeys, and using data to optimize marketing approaches. Prior to working at Rootstock, she led Coalfire’s growth marketing team and drove innovative marketing strategies that significantly grew her business lines’ revenue. She has also held VP-level positions at AlphaGraphics, SecureSet, and Burson-Marsteller. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and public relations from Texas State University.

Stu Johnson is Vice President of Product Marketing at Rootstock Software. In his role, he manages product positioning, messaging, market research, competitive strategy, content, and collateral. He has over 35 years of experience in manufacturing with 20 years focused on product marketing.

Johnson started his career as a mechanical engineer with a major defense contractor. He then jumped to the front-end of the manufacturing process, working for a PLM solution provider and also did a stint in the MES space. Now, with Rootstock Cloud ERP, he’s situated at the center of an end-to-end manufacturing platform—an opportunity that allows him to bring all of his experience to bear, as he’s now worked in almost every software category that a manufacturer could need.

Johnson also spends significant time getting to know Rootstock customers, so he can understand their needs within the context of today’s most pressing business challenges. His various experiences have enabled him to map out the intricate journey manufacturers take to leverage modern cloud technology to achieve business transformation.

He’s held various leadership roles at the enterprise software providers he’s worked for and served global manufacturers in the consumer, aerospace, automotive, medical, and food & beverage industries. He holds a degree is in mechanical engineering.  

Chad Kaser is the Senior Vice President of Sales for North America and possesses 18 years of experience partnering with global companies to assist in their digital transformation journeys. In his role at Rootstock, Mr. Kaser is responsible for developing and leading a world-class sales team and partnering with new customers and their C-Suite to solve meaningful problems anchored in business outcomes to achieve growth goals.

Prior to Rootstock, Mr. Kaser held various individual and leadership roles at Salesforce and was responsible for building a team of specialized, high-performers, and delivering value across the entire portfolio of products working cross-functionally within the business. He established strategic executive relationships with Fortune 1000 customers and partners focusing on revenue lift, cost take-out, and modernizing digital experiences to support growth from $5B to $32B. As a member of the leadership team that launched and grew the Manufacturing vertical at Salesforce, Mr. Kaser built strong partnerships with key internal stakeholders, platform partners, and customers to build winning behaviors across the organization.

Mr. Kaser holds a Business degree from Miami University (OH) and is an active Alumnus.

Peter O’Rourke is the Vice President of Sales for the EMEA market with extensive experience building international sales teams within SaaS and ERP technology companies. In his role at Rootstock, he works with new customers addressing their pain points, functional needs, and digital transformation visions to scope and build immediate value-add solutions in collaboration with Rootstock Solution Architects and Professional Services teams.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. O’Rourke has held sales leadership roles at ERP companies, such as Deltek, Unit 4, Sage, and the Access Group. He has a successful track record of building and developing strong teams from $3M ACV to $15M ACV ($40MM ARR) with two successful start-ups and exits. Mr. O’Rourke is skilled in leadership, strategy, mentoring, sales methodologies and collaboration in key sectors, such as Technology, Professional Services, Marketing, Media, Financial Services, and AEC.

Based in Dublin, Ireland, Mr. O’Rourke holds a Business degree from the University College Dublin (UCD).