The Team

Jordy Spiegel

Jordy Spiegel

CEO and Co- Chairman

Jordy Spiegel is the Managing Partner of Spiegel Partners, a Dana Point, CA based private equity firm focused on market leading growth companies with iconic brands. Jordy serves on the Board of Directors of Personalcare Physicians, the largest primary care concierge business in Orange County, and Miracles for Kids – an Orange County based charity.

Immediately prior to founding Spiegel Partners, Jordy was a founding partner of GESD Capital Partners, a San Francisco based private equity firm. Prior to that, Jordy was EVP with Laffer Associates, a San Diego based research and corporate finance firm owned by economist Arthur Laffer. Jordy began his career in finance as a securities analyst with Crowell, Weedon & Co., a Los Angeles based brokerage firm – following special situation publicly traded companies. Prior to that, Jordy was on the Research Staff of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C.

Previous portfolio companies includes Bankserv – a market leading SaaS payments business, Pic N Sav – a large closeout retailer, Telscape – an emerging international telecommunications company, and Boudin Bakery – an iconic bakery & restaurant. Jordy graduated from USC with a Bachelor of Arts degree in cultural anthropology as part of USC’s Thematic Option honors program, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

William Mundell

William Mundell

Co-Chairman

Mr. Mundell has been chairman of IKM, which provide web based knowledge assessment, since 2004 and is currently Co-Chairman.

Previously he served as Chairman of ZBB Energy Corporation, a New York stock exchange alternative energy company focused on the development of battery technology. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Vidyah Inc., a company founded out of Knowledge Universe to create a second generation of e-learning.

From 1989 through 1998, Mr. Mundell was with WEFA (now part of Global Insight), serving first as President and later as President and Chief Executive Officer. WEFA, the world’s premier economic forecasting authority, was founded in 1963 as Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates by the Nobel Laureate economist Dr. Lawrence Klein.

He was also Chairman of Trade, Inc. a leading competitive intelligence company specializing in international trade information controlled by Bain Capital and Sutter Hill.

Mr. Mundell was an adjunct professor at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, and is an honorary professor at Tsinghua University in China. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science at Carlton University in Canada where he was the recipient of the U.S. Ambassadors Award. He completed his graduate studies at Columbia University, earning an MBA in Finance and a Masters in International Economics and Public Finance.

In 2005, Mr. Mundell formed Californians For Fair Redistricting to advance fair redistricting reform. In 2010, he was the executive producer of “Gerrymandering“, a national documentary which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and focuses on the use of gerrymandering to fix elections and protect incumbents. He is currently the producer of a forthcoming documentary on the U.S – China relationship.

Frank Palinkas

Frank Palinkas

Vice President Global Sales and Marketing

Joining IKM in February 2000 as VP of Asia Pacific Operations, Frank Palinkas has broadened IKM’s footprint in the Asia Pacific region, having added clients such as Reuters Software Thailand, National Australia Bank and OCBC. Appointed as VP of Global Sales and Marketing in 2007, Mr. Palinkas is responsible for supporting the sales and marketing initiatives across all geographies. In parallel, Mr. Palinkas continues to manage the Asia Pacific operations including developing new sales channels, managing resellers and business partnerships and overseeing all operations in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

Mr. Palinkas brings over 25 years of IT and Management expertise to the leadership team. Prior to joining IKM, he spearheaded his own IT consulting company for six years, during which time he managed projects for Visy Industries, acted as a sales agent for Corvu (Business Intelligence Software), GEAC (Financial Management Software), Neller Software (HR/Payroll Software), Wang Australia (outsourced and managed Network and Desktop services), and Vantive (CRM Software) holding the only VAR agreement for Australia for 2 years.  With a keen interest in matching skills to projects, Mr. Palinkas also specialized in IT recruitment adding an extremely successful revenue stream for his company.

Before starting his own venture, Mr. Palinkas was also Director and Southern Regional Manager for Datamation Software Systems for more than 7 years where he was responsible for developing, supporting and supplying software to the Government Sector.

Catherine Harms

Catherine Harms

VP Business Development

Catherine Harms joined IKM as VP Business Development in 2012. In this role, Catherine oversees all aspects of IKM’s America’s territory direct sales and ensures the company offers compelling solutions that meet prospective customers’ needs. In addition to these responsibilities, she plays a critical role in managing strategic customers and partners in providing them with tools and service to support their continuous growth.

With extensive sales and leadership experience, Catherine has managed and consulted for Fortune 1000 organizations on the identification of assessments to retain new and existing talent needed to drive their businesses. She has proven ability to generate global revenue and close complex sales engagement with top executives.

Previously, Catherine served for over 21 years as an Executive Vice President at Manpower. During her tenure with Manpower, Catherine gained extensive experience in growth environments while structuring complex organizations to maximize their productivity and profitability. She had proven success in organizations for both expansion and retrenchment environments. Catherine was successful in leading new market development and negotiations to win new accounts. She also launched, and executed, HR Consulting Services and drove HR Transformation initiatives with clients to improve current HR processes and operations.

Catherine has a B.A. in Management of Human Resources from Spring Arbor College, Jackson, MI. She has received many awards over the years for exceeding sales and achieving customer service goals.

Andrew Stark

Andrew Stark

Vice President of South Africa Operations

Andrew Stark has had a long and fruitful association with IKM, initially employed as a distributor in Africa from 1997-2000, and now as Vice President of the South African operations under the TeckChek banner. Mr. Stark has established IKM’s assessment solutions as the industry standard in IT knowledge measurement amongst blue chip companies across the region.

Also a partner in Decisioneering, a business consulting firm that focuses on assisting companies with strategic group decision making processes, Mr. Stark adopts a hollistic approach to Talent Management.  Mr. Stark also brings first hand experience in human resources, skills assessment, development and recruitment.

Mr. Stark is currently completing a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of South Africa.

Doreen Nicholas

Doreen Nicholas

UK Customer Support Officer

Doreen’s working career spans over 30 years, thus far. Doreen worked in the Civil Service for just over 20 years, working in the Property Services Agency and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She then worked in a Pre-school for 6 and a half years. She honed her skills of communicating with ‘big’ and ‘little’ people during this time! Joining IKM TeckChek in March 2014, Doreen is currently the Administrator and Customer Support Officer for the UK branch.

Doreen’s interests are singing, watching films and spending time with her husband, two boys, family and friends.

Joy Butler

Joy Butler

UK Operations Manager

Joy Butler has worked with IKM TeckChek since 2000, starting in a Customer Support/Administrator role and is currently the Operations Manager for the UK office. Prior to working at IKM Joy worked in fashion & in a business college – where she worked with young people & the unemployed on a government sponsored training scheme. Joy is very much a people person – apart from being a good communicator, she is also a good listener, and endeavours to find suitable solutions for her clients.

In her spare time she enjoys riding her mountain bike, swimming, watching films, reading, travelling & good food! … Joy has been known to secretly visit restaurants and then write up her review for ‘The Croydon Citizen’ an online & paper publication.

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