Management Team
Melissa Simpler - CEO
Melissa Simpler has a rich and diversified background with proven results in business development, strategic planning, marketing, product development and applications engineering. She co-founded Affinegy in March of 2003 and as CEO, has provided the vision for ease-of-use that is the foundation for Affinegy’s Digital Lifestyle solutions. Melissa also led the company’s initial customer acquisition and business development initiatives, establishing relationships with some of the world’s largest broadband service providers, and setting the stage for the company’s expansion into channel relationships across the Digital Lifestyle market ecosystem.
Prior to Affinegy, Melissa led the next-generation development of Motorola’s triple-play Streamaster gateway system and negotiated sales and technology license agreements resulting in global deployments of Streamaster and more than $20M in sales revenues from top telecommunications and system integration companies. She brings over 15 years of startup and corporate business and engineering management experience from Entregate, Motorola, Dell, and National Instruments. Melissa has a BSEE, cum laude, and MBA from the University of Texas. She is a guest speaker for the UT College of Engineering and Girlstart, an NPO devoted to motivating girls to pursue and enjoy math and science. She has also served as Member Renewal Chair of the Austin Wireless Alliance, and on the board of UT’s Executive Alumni Association.
Art Lancaster - CTO
Art Lancaster co-founded Affinegy in March 2003 and has served as CTO since, where he is responsible for technology strategy and product development. As CTO, Art led the development of InstaLAN, delivering the first release in just six months. In deployment since 2004, InstaLAN has proven robust, enabling self-install service deployments and silencing calls to support desks at some of the world’s largest service providers. Art’s commitment to quality is further evidenced by Affinegy’s near-zero defect record in over four years of volume deployment.
Prior to Affinegy he was director of strategy and business development for Motorola’s Streamaster business where Art established strategies leading to the world’s most advanced interactive broadband gateway system and closed $20 million of sales with top telecommunications companies. While director of design engineering for Motorola’s Fast Static RAM Division, he contributed to sales growth of over 50% per year to over $500 million and #1 market share worldwide. Art has prior start-up experience at Entregate, Inmos Corporation, and as co-founder and VP of development of a joint venture between RCA and Sharp. He has a BSEE, cum laude, from the University of Missouri, an MSEE from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from the University of Texas. Art remains actively involved with UT’s leading entrepreneurship program and has been a regular judge in the UT MOOT Corp business plan competitions.
Jerry Hamrock - Director of Product Management
Jerry Hamrock joins Affinegy as Director of Product Management with over 15 years of product marketing and management experience of a broad range of communication, entertainment, and computing products serving consumer and corporate customers. Prior to joining Affinegy, Jerry served in a variety of leadership roles at Dell, including leading the integration efforts of ZING, a Silicon Valley startup acquired by Dell in August 2007, to develop a new line of entertainment software, devices and services for Dell’s Consumer Group. Jerry also managed Dell’s handheld product line, which successfully overtook HP’s #1 share position. At Hayes Microcomputer Inc., Jerry delivered the “World’s First” 56K PCMCIA modem. Jerry graduated from Youngstown State University with a BEEE, and holds an MBA from University of Texas.
Todd Greer - Director of Development
Todd Greer is an avid software development expert and brings over 10 years of architecture, implementation and product development leadership. As Director of Development, Todd has recruited and cultivated an execution-driven team of exceptional software developers with a demonstrated history of producing a reliable series of high-quality releases that meet and exceed customer needs. Prior to joining Affinegy, Todd founded TSG Software, and was previously a key contributor to the development of the LabVIEW Datalogging and Supervisory Control SCADA Toolkit, BridgeVIEW, and Lookout at National Instruments. Todd holds a BS in Computer Sciences, cum laude, from The University of Texas at Austin.