Daniel Kim led the company through considerable growth and continues to set the strategic direction of the company. In 2002, he expanded Appro's manufacturing, engineering team in Korea and added a sales and service office in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Kim has an MBA from the University of Missouri - Kansas City and a Business Administration degree from SoGang University in Korea.

He has been instrumental in repositioning Appro in the HPC market since 2000 and developing, as well as executing strategies to grow the company. He has provided essential leadership to the company as it weathered the economic downturns and has sustained the growth with creative financing strategies. His emphasis has also been on molding positive corporate culture.

James Yi graduated from the University of Missouri - Kansas City with a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with emphasis on Finance and International Business Management.

Before he joined Appro, Mr. Chukkapalli worked for Oracle as Principle Systems Architect and prior to Oracle, Giri worked for Sun Microsystems as HPC Systems Architect/Chief Technologist for the Global Solutions. Giri also worked for San Diego Supercomputing Department.

Giri received a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, and authored a number of publications related to HPC/Supercomputers.

Shannon Davidson
Chief Software Engineer

Shannon Davidson joined Appro in 2006 and is serving as Chief Software Engineer. He is responsible of developing Appro's core software technologies, and overseeing the planning, scheduling, and building of all Appro's supercomputing software components to ensure a positive customer experience. He brings extensive design and development experience in the areas of high performance computing and he is the lead architect behind the Appro Cluster Engine™ (ACE) management suite and future software solutions.

Prior to Appro, he worked for Raytheon Company as Senior Principle Software Engineer and developed cluster management to create high performance clusters from commodity computers. In the past, he also developed and contributed toward several hardware and software inventions (patented or patent applied) related to high performance clusters.

John Lee
Vice President, Operations & Advanced Technology Solutions Group

John K. Lee joined Appro in 2001. John provides Operations leadership strategy direction to Appro in partnership with the CEO and senior staff. In this role, he heads the Operations Group planning, coordination and growth initiatives for manufacturing and deployment of Appro’s products and complex supercomputing solutions. He is also responsible for leading Appro HPC Servers, Storage and Supercomputer Solutions Product Development Group.

This portfolio provides the foundation for Appro’s converged HPC Solutions, the company's strategy for next-generation supercomputers that enables customers to increase agility, lower costs of operations and drive innovation into their businesses.

Prior to his role at Appro, Mr. Lee served in both Sales and Service Management capacities at multiple storage and telecom companies.

Mr. Lee graduated from University of California, Los Angeles

Steve Lyness
Vice President, HPC Solutions Engineering

In November of 2007, Steve Lyness joined Appro as Vice President of HPC Solutions Engineering. Steve is responsible for the success of Appro’s closed-loop solution management, up-front consulting and pre-integration of Appro’s HPC solutions across a wide range of HPC applications. Steve also acts as a key member of the management team for project management, planning and coordinating of worldwide pre-sales and post-sales customer solution programs.

Before joining Appro, Steve Lyness was Director of Sales Engineering for NetEffect, a provider of 10 GigE adapter technologies for HPC and Enterprise customers. Prior to NetEffect, Mr. Lyness was the Vice President of Worldwide Support for SilverStorm Technologies, a leading provider of InfiniBand hardware (switches and adapters) as well as host and management software. Mr. Lyness was responsible for the pre and post sales engineering teams providing the high speed InfiniBand interconnect and associated software for HPC clusters.

Steve Lyness graduated from Drexel University with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis on radar and signal processing technologies.

Mike Vildibill
Vice President, Worldwide Sales

Mike Vildibill joined Appro in 2010 and is responsible for strategic direction and management of Appro's WW sales organization. In this role, he develops sales strategy, builds teams, and provides operational management.

Before he joined Appro, Mr. Vildibill worked for Sun as Sr. Director of Strategic Engagement responsilble for forming and leading a global team tasked with growing Sun's HPC business. Before Sun, he worked as Director of High-End Computing and Network Research at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

Mr. Vildibill holds a B.S. in Mathematics & Computer Science and a MBA from San Diego State University.

Anthony Kenisky
Vice President, North America Sales

Anthony Kenisky joined Appro in 2001; he is responsible for the overall leadership of the Global Sales organization at Appro. Kenisky leads a customer-focused team delivering a consistent, integrated and responsive customer experience through a unified sales and services organization worldwide.

Prior to his role at Appro, Mr. Kenisky served as senior sales and business development management role at Dell Corporation for 10 years. He has also served as senior executive sales positions at Storage Apps Inc. and Penguin Computing.

Mr. Kenisky graduated from Southwest Texas State University.

Maria McLaughlin
Director of Marketing

Maria McLaughlin joined Appro in 2002 and has responsibility for all Appro's marketing, which includes branding, market analysis, perception improvement, marketing communications, and demand creation. She is also responsible for coordinating the product-definition and Go-to-Market Plan activities across Appro.

Prior to her role at Appro, Mrs. McLaughlin worked at Hewlett-Packard for 13 years, where she held several marketing roles in the WW Enterprise Infrastructure Group, Support Group, Sales and Marketing Group and Internet Services Group. She also has international business experience gained while working at 3M Corporation in Campinas, SP, Brazil.

Mrs. McLaughlin graduated from Pontificia Catolica University in Brazil with a Bachelor’s degree in Business and English. She has also attended Berkeley Extension University in San Francisco.

Andrew Yoon
Director of Operations

Andrew Yoon joined Appro in 1999, and is responsible for leading Appro's Purchasing, Inventory, manufacturing, system integration testing, and shipping team. Under Andrew's leadership, Appro Operations delivers the HPC servers and clustering products to the customers with high quality standard.

Prior to his role at Appro, Andrew served as Sr. Production Manager for 12 years at Solectron Corporation.

Andrew graduated from Kukmin University in Korea with a Bachelor's degree in Business and Administration.

Susan Kraus
Director of Software Product Management

Susan Kraus joined Appro in 2011 and is responsible for the management of the Appro's software engineering team, product roadmap and portfolio. This portfolio includes the Appro Cluster Engine Management Software for the Xtreme-X Supercomputer.

Prior to joining Appro, Ms. Kraus held technical and managerial positions at NEC's High Performance Computing Division from 1988-2010.

Ms. Kraus graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor's degree in Meteorology.