Management Team
The main strength of Smart Button lies in its personnel advantage. The team has rock-solid industry experience in every aspect of business and software development with companies ranging from the early stage of development through Fortune 100 companies. The team has previously built a 150 person, $18 million software company from a startup and has turned around struggling companies. They've built transactional systems that currently handle billions of dollars of real-time transactions and large-scale database systems used in Fortune 100 companies.
James Altrichter
COO and Co-founder of Smart Button
James Altrichter has extensive experience providing fan loyalty systems for the sports, leisure and entertainment industries. Prior to co-founding Smart Button, Mr. Altrichter led enterprise software development for EnviroMetrics, the leading provider of environmental compliance software to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Altrichter also spent nine years developing transaction processing systems and point of sale terminals for horse racing facilities at Scientific Games Corporation. He is an expert on database marketing systems and has spoken at several conferences including the 2000 International Gaming and Wagering Business Expo, the largest show for the gaming industry and the 2001 World Gaming Congress.
Samuel Forker
Chief Technologist and Co-founder of Smart Button
Samuel Forker leads the technical development and oversees design, implementation and support of all Smart Button products. Mr. Forker directs the development and delivery of new products and technology into the Smart Button product line. Mr. Forker brings over 18 years of experience in the design and engineering of large-tier enterprise transactional systems. Sam has intimate knowledge of database design, embedded systems and communication protocols custom solutions. He has an extensive range of skills with programming languages, operating systems and on non-standard PC clients such as PDAs, kiosks and RFID technology. Sam has received numerous credits for his design of large, real-time transactional based systems in the gaming and environmental industries. Mr. Forker is a member of the Bloomsburg University Corporate Advisory Board.
Philip Sugar
CEO
Philip Sugar has extensive start up and management experience with a variety of software companies. He also sits on the board of other emerging technology companies such as Return Central. At EnviroMetrics Corporation, he built a successful sales and marketing infrastructure and later served as their CFO. At National Business Services, he analyzed poorly performing companies and recommended the best course of action as to whether the companies should sell, restructure or close. Mr. Sugar was recently a featured speaker at the National Sports Forum, INTIX and PACnet where he discussed database and loyalty systems for the sports, entertainment and leisure industries. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Management and Technology Program, Mr. Sugar received dual degrees with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Wharton School of Business; Concentration in Entrepreneurial Management and a Bachelor of Applied Science, Engineering; Concentration in Systems Engineering from Moore School of Engineering.