Mr. William H. (Will) Benton President and Chief Operating Officer

As President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Benton also leads teams responsible for the design, development, and delivery of the GAINS® Supply Chain Optimization solution. Mr. Benton is a recognized authority on Demand Planning, Inventory Optimization, Distribution & Network Optimization, Collaborative Planning, and General Operations Planning with more than 14 years in the field. His engagements have included work with a variety of Distributors, Service Parts Distribution and Maintenance/Repair (MRO) organizations, as well as Manufacturers.

In the Distribution and Manufacturing areas, Mr. Benton has designed and implemented optimization solutions for inventory, distribution, sourcing, and ‘rough-cut’ scheduling optimization. Organizations have included product and service part distribution/service-center-oriented companies (AM Castle Metals, Hagemeyer, Red Man), discrete manufacturing (e.g., Motorola, Abbott Laboratories, Cintas, ITT), process manufacturing (Chaparral, PPG), and retail (Super Cheap Auto, Jewel Foods/Albertson’s).

In the MRO area, Mr. Benton has built optimization expertise through solving mission critical problems for military organizations as well as private sector Aerospace and Defense companies. These projects revolved around issues such as optimizing the stocking and staging of parts, optimally distributing parts throughout a network, managing in times of elevated/decreased effort, cost-effectively improving the availability of rotable parts in light of performance-based logistics (PBL) commitments, and optimizing mixed-demand environments (where parts are shared between manufacturing and after-market). Organizations have included the Australian Defense Forces, Raytheon Aircraft, AAR, Gulfstream Aerospace, Textron Systems (including Bell Helicopter), Kaman Aerospace, and other similar companies and organizations.

Mr. Benton received an MBA (magna cum laude) from the University of Chicago, dual BS/BA degrees
(cum laude) from Southern Methodist University, and was the 1999 recipient of the University of Chicago’s
Bain Award for Strategy.

Mr. William E. Stillman Vice Chairman, Executive Vice President

Mr. Stillman is the co-owner and Executive Vice President of GAINSystems. Prior to joining GAINSystems, he spent 10 years as the CEO of Knowlex, Inc. working with scientists and engineers to build effective business organizations around their leading edge technical discoveries. His efforts include the commercialization of Supercritical Water Oxidation for processing toxic waste, bringing to market a multi-lingual, multi-platform translation software for data collection, and the organizational development and market expansion of an AI based Finite Capacity Scheduling and Planning software.

After his military service, Mr. Stillman began his commercial career with Emerson Electric. He then joined GTE Transmission Systems’ where he ran the global repair and remanufacture operations. GTE Transmission Systems was acquired by Siemens. Mr. Stillman went on to join Apollo Computer, in Geneva, Switzerland, as the Director of International Market Development, founding Knowlex after Apollo was acquired by Hewlett-Packard.

Mr. Stillman has been a featured speaker for such organizations as APICS, ASQC, and the American Management Association. He has spoken on such topics as the creative thought process, reducing costs by reducing conflict, and building international markets. He is the author of Off the Business Path: Search for the Creative Process, and has written for several international publications.

He holds an MBA from Washington University, an MA from Gordon University, a translators certificate from the U. S. Defense Language Institute and a BA from Principia College where he was a Phi Alpha Eta scholar.

Mr. Doug Zahour Vice President, Sales

Mr. Zahour brings more than 25 years of experience in Supply Chain Services and ERP software products to the table with a focus on both manufacturing and distribution operations.

Prior to joining GAINSystems, Mr. Zahour was COO of Sunstone Imports, North America's largest manufacturer and distributor of sterling silver jewelry, where he implemented a global supply chain that reduced operating and inventory costs 23%, while improving Customer Services levels that led to an overall revenue growth of over 32%.

Mr. Zahour started his career in the ERP Software industry with Friedman Corporation including 4 years as President, where he lead a strategy of Make-to-Order manufacturing software development and implementation that facilitated 325% revenue growth in 4 years.

Mr. Zahour is a graduate of The University of Michigan with a degree in Business Administration.

Mr. Jeff Gosz Vice President, Professional Services

As head of the Professional Services organization, Jeff and his team are responsible for providing pre-sales support, leading customer evaluation (IIPSE) studies, oversight for implementation projects, and support of product development. He has been involved in delivering substantial operational improvements to GAINSystems customers through his extensive work experience with customers in industrial distribution, manufacturing, and the metals industry.

Prior to joining GAINSystems, Mr. Gosz was in the General Manager Development Program at Ryerson Inc. where he served as a Materials Manager. His earlier work experience includes five years at Caterpillar Inc. as a large mining equipment design engineer where he was awarded a U.S. patent for his wheel loader linkage design.

Mr. Gosz holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, where he graduated with honors, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, where he was awarded the Walter P. Murphy fellowship, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering, with distinction, from the University of Wisconsin.

Mr. Willis Wendell Vice President , Customer Services

As head of the Customer Services organization at GAINSystems, Mr. Wendell and his team are responsible for the delivery, implementation, and on-going support of all GAINS customers.

Mr. Wendell is an experienced professional with more than ten years in the field of Customer Relationship Management, solutions implementation, and technical support. His team comprises Consultants, Analysts, and Customer Relationship Managers with a track-record of on-time implementation services and exceptional post-implementation support (claiming one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry).

Mr. Wendell holds a BA from the University of Vermont.

Mr. Leonid Fridman Vice President, Technology

Mr. Fridman brings more than 18 years of international and domestic experience to GAINSystems He has worked extensively with and managed teams that dealing with enterprise architecture, data base development and software production. In his role as VP Technology, Mr. Fridman manages and directs both the GAINS software development team as well as the company’s IT operations.

Mr. Fridman started with the company almost 10 years ago as a Senior Software Development Engineer and project team leader. As GAINSystems grew and it became clear that the company required a singularly focused Vice President of Technology, Mr. Fridman’s comprehensive knowledge of systems architecture, data base structure and design, Java, and other software development tools combined with his leadership skills, made it apparent that he was more than adequate to fill the position.

Mr. Fridman has an MS degree from National Technical University of Ukraine and an MBA in MIS from University of Illinois in Chicago.