KDS is strengthening of its management team through the appointment of two new vice presidents.  Yves Michali has joined as Vice President of Product & Program Management and Jim Saunders as Vice President of Engineering.  The two will sit with CEO Yves Weisselberger, CFO Adi Sossover, and Executive Vice President Stéphane Donders on KDS’ Executive Committee.

Yves Michali, who will manage KDS’ product road map and product market strategy, brings considerable experience of the software industry. After serving as General Manager of Novell France he spent ten years at Microsoft, six of which were based in Seattle. Returning to France, he oversaw iMediation’s product strategy and co-founded Mobiclick. He was subsequently head of EMEA operations for Groove Networks, where he worked until the company was sold to Microsoft by founder Ray Ozzie, the creator of Lotus Notes.

 

Jim Saunders, who will lead the R&D team and oversee product development, maintenance and service delivery, brings a unique combination of technical and management skills. With over 20 years’ experience in the software industry, he started his career in Europe, where he first worked as a development engineer at Digital Equipment before passing eight years in California where he joined Apple Computer.  After being hired by Netscape as Senior Director of Engineering he managed engineering teams responsible for the Netscape Netcenter Portal and collaboration applications. From there he took over responsibility for the Instant Messaging and Chat service used by Netscape and AOL’s 140 million users.  Moving back to Europe with AOL he created the European Wireless Development Center. Prior to joining KDS, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Product Development for Cartesis SA, a financial reporting company which was recently acquired by BusinessObjects, which has in turn been bought by SAP.

 

Yves and Jim will share the responsibilities previously held by Moncef Khanfir, General Manager, who will leave KDS to pursue new business challenges.

 

Yves Weisselberger, CEO of KDS, commented, “The appointment of Yves and Jim represents a significant step for KDS. Both have strong track records in the development and efficient delivery of innovative software technologies.  Their expertise and international experience will bolster our ability to bring advanced new products to market and ensure world class customer service and support.”
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