Management Team


Bob Howe - Chairman

Bob Howe's experience spans over thirty years in information technology, consulting and services. Bob founded the IBM Consulting practice. Starting the group in 1991, Bob created the strategy and built a worldwide network of consulting practices, which supported all industries. When he left the group in 1994, it had grown to $250 million in revenues and today is one of the largest consulting organizations worldwide. At IBM, Bob also served as the General Manager of IBM's Global Banking, Financial and Securities business, a $12 billion division of IBM, where he was responsible for sales, strategy, and solutions. Following IBM, Bob was the chairman of Scient Incorporated, where he helped start the company as its CEO and built it to over 2000 professionals in less than 3 years. Currently, he is the Chairman of OpenCrowd.

Bob also had a distinguished career with Booz, Allen & Hamilton starting in 1976, where he consulted extensively in information technology. He was elected senior vice president in 1986, and served as a member of the Board of Directors and a member of the firm's executive committee. In addition, he serves on the Boards of ipIQ, JohnsonDiversey, NorthStar, and Symphony Services. He also started Montgomery Goodwin Investments, LLC. Bob holds a BBA from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.


Sushil Prabhu - CEO

Sushil is a Founder and CEO of OpenCrowd. Sushil has over 16 years of experience in IT consulting. As CEO, Sushil spends a significant part of his time consulting with clients on the benefits of open source technologies to produce economic results. Prior to joining OpenCrowd, Sushil was Head of Professional Services at CXO Systems responsible for managing client delivery. Before CXO Systems, Sushil was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Scient Inc, the fastest growing Internet Professional Services Company of the 90's. In this role at Scient, Sushil delivered enterprise e-Business solutions for many leading companies around the world. Prior to Scient, Sushil was Director of Technology for Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP). In this five-year tenure at CTP he was also Group Technology Manager for the company's Financial Services Practice.


Shawn Traynor - EVP, Solutions

Shawn Traynor is a Founder and Executive Vice President at OpenCrowd. He has extensive experience managing technology services within large enterprises and start-up firms. At OpenCrowd, Shawn helps clients plan and deliver innovative solutions based on open source technologies. Prior to joining OpenCrowd, Shawn has spent the last 10 years consulting for leading Financial Services firms, holding senior positions at CXO Systems, Scient and Cambridge Technology Partners. Prior to Cambridge Technology Partners, Shawn worked for over 8 years at Nasdaq developing advanced technology solutions within their Compliance and Trading departments.


Brad Buck - VP, Strategy and Development Services

Brad Buck is a Founder and VP, Strategy and Development Services. He has 19 years of experience successfully leading project teams and delivering diverse large-scale enterprise technology solutions including technology strategy, multi-channel architectures, customer management, and enterprise architecture design and implementation. Prior to joining OpenCrowd he was a Technology Director at Avenue A Razorfish working for clients such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and TIAA-CREF. Earlier he was a Managing Director at Scient were he was part of the CTO council, lead large technical teams delivering eBusiness systems, and helped start Scient's London office. Brad worked at Salomon Smith Barney where he architected and built a variety of transactional systems supporting Fixed Income, Equity, and Derivative trading and operations. In addition, he has worked in the Aerospace industry and helped start a small consulting company. Brad has an MS from the University of Oregon in Computer and Information Science.


Sandy Kaul - Head of Strategy Services

As the Head of Strategy Services at OpenCrowd, Sandy brings a deep knowledge of financial services products and processes, a recognized expertise at forecasting future-state industry trends and requirements based on primary research and a wealth of experience helping banks, asset managers, hedge funds and service providers align their capabilities to the goals and demands of the emerging investment environment. Sandy has a unique background combining buy-side, sell-side, wealth management and consulting experience. She is a frequent conference speaker and the author of the recognized SPIRAL survey outlining service needs for the emerging investment portfolio. She has developed a deep expertise in Prime Brokerage, Operational Excellence and advanced Multi-Asset Trading Strategies. Prior to joining OpenCrowd, Sandy worked as the head of Institutional Strategy for consulting firms Detica (m.a.partners) and Scient; was a portfolio manager with Goldman Sachs Asset Management and recognized Commodities analyst for Shearson Lehman Brothers. Sandy also worked with LabMorgan and the Private Bank at JP Morgan.