AppDirect Leadership

Company

Leadership

Nicolas Desmarais

Chairman & CEO

Nicolas founded AppDirect in 2009 with Daniel Saks, and serves as AppDirect's Chairman and CEO. Nicolas is focused on the evolution of AppDirect's product, investor relations, and overseeing the implementation of new marketplaces.

Chairman & Co-CEO

Nicolas Desmarais

Before co-founding AppDirect, Nicolas worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant focused on media and business services. Nicolas holds a bachelor's degree with a double major in economics and political science from Amherst College. In his spare time, Nicolas enjoys outdoor activities and traveling to new countries.

Renée Bergeron

Chief Operating Officer

Renée joined AppDirect with over 25 years of management and channel experience. She provides strategic vision and leads both the advisor and provider sides of the organization. She also drives the expansion of our catalog.

Renée Bergeron

Chief Operating Officer

Renée is a seasoned channel leader who most recently spent 10 years at the helm of the global cloud go-to-market organization at Ingram Micro. She previously oversaw the development of innovative solutions across managed security and cloud computing for Fujitsu America, led IT divisions at media and banking companies, was a CIO at a financial institution, and was a director at an international technology consulting firm. She holds a Bachelor's in computer science from Sherbrooke University and a Master's degree from McGill University.

Emanuel Bertolin

Chief Revenue Officer

Emanuel, also known as Bert, leads the AppDirect go-to-market teams including sales, account management, business development, AppDirect Capital and other key functions.

Chief Revenue Officer

Emanuel Bertolin

Bert is a strong believer in the amazing results that an empowered team who works well together can achieve. Highlights of his 25-plus years in technology include founding and acting as the CEO of Wmode, a mobile phone software company that later became AppCarousel, and working in the control systems industry for Telvent, now Schneider Electric. He graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in computing science, and also holds a diploma in electronics engineering from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Andy Sen

Chief Technology Officer

Andy joined as the technical co-founder of AppDirect in 2009, and currently leads the Engineering team. Andy is a long-time proponent of Agile software processes and rapid development cycles with over 15 years of experience.

Chief Technology Officer

Andy Sen

Previously, Andy headed product management for Salesforce.com’s AppExchange marketplace. He has also been responsible for implementing the world’s first and largest digital photo print-to-store service at Walmart.com. Andy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and started his career as a consultant for the eBusiness group at IBM Global Services. In his free time, he enjoys traveling with his wife and family.

Deb Tenenbaum

Chief People Officer

Deb joined AppDirect with more than 20 years of experience in human resources, business leadership, and executive coaching at a number of high-growth technology companies, guiding organizations from start-up stage, through acquisitions, to IPO.

Deb Tenenbaum

Senior Vice President, Chief People Officer

Deb was previously Chief People Officer at Yapstone where she led efforts to drive hyper-growth through aggressive hiring, redefining processes, cultural transformation, employment branding, and more. She has also led the People and Communications functions at Epicor Software, Charles Schwab, Rearden Commerce, Loudcloud/Opsware, and Netscape. In 2019, she was named one of the year's Most Influential Women in Payments by PaymentSource. She holds a Bachelor's from UC Santa Barbara and a Master's from the University of San Francisco.

Mark Liu

General Counsel

Mark joined AppDirect with over 15 years of experience in corporate law. At AppDirect, Mark is responsible for leading the worldwide legal function.

General Counsel

Mark Liu

Mark has previously served as General Counsel at public and private technology and software companies, including most recently as General Counsel at SugarCRM and before that at Meru Networks. Mark started his legal career at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Mark holds a BA from Cornell University and a JD from The University of Texas School of Law.

Mathew Spolin

SVP of Engineering

Mathew joined AppDirect with over 15 years of experience in technology leadership. Before AppDirect, Mathew was Founder & CTO at Sproutling, where he developed the world's first sensing, learning, & predicting baby monitor (acquired by Mattel).

Senior Vice President of Engineering

Mathew Spolin

Previously, Mathew was Co-Founder and CTO of DoubleDutch, creating the technology for the leading live event management platform. He has also been responsible for implementing the largest private database of human gene sequence information in the world for Human Genome Sciences (IPO, then acquired by GlaxoSmithKline). Mathew started his career in Washington DC doing federal contracting at age 12, and holds a BS from American University. In his spare time, Mathew enjoys photography and traveling with his wife and their son and daughter.

Andy Ellerhorst

Vice President of Operations & Chief of Staff

Andy joined AppDirect with over 15 years of experience in high-growth start-ups. Currently, he is responsible for managing initiatives that drive improvements for customers and employees, as well as M&A and integration processes.

VP of Operations and Chief of Staff

Andy Ellerhorst

Prior to AppDirect he was the COO of social shopping service Luvocracy, which was acquired by Walmart in 2014. Prior to 2011, he ran Marketing and Analytics at social gaming company A Bit Lucky (acquired by Zynga). Andy started his career at Documental Solutions, which became the industry-standard SaaS decision-support solution for the defense industry where he was responsible for customers globally (acquired by IHS). Andy holds a BA in Economics from American University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Learn more about the AppDirect team.