Hear from our CEO, Bruce Reading, on his vision for Act!
Bruce brings many years of experience leading innovative technology companies and guiding executive teams to achieve their full potential professionally and personally. As President and CEO of Act!, he’s responsible for the global operations of the company delivering technology-driven business solutions, driving profitable revenue growth, overseeing global marketing and sales, and leading the development and maintenance of key strategic partnerships.
Previously, Bruce was the CEO of Perceptive Automata – a provider of human behavior prediction software for machines – where he led the team to enable ‘theory of mind’ in robotic environments. Prior to that, he was CEO & Chairman of Pica9, a marketing software firm, and President & CEO of Volt Active Data, a data platform designed to support telco applications in the age of 5G.
A native Canadian, Bruce has spent his career creating value around emerging technologies and helping companies realize their potential. He is an active seed investor and mentor to early-stage companies and founders. His unique blend of strategic perspective and disciplined tactical execution is suited to environments where uncertainty is the rule rather than the exception.
Bruce holds a bachelor’s degree from McMaster University, and an MBA from the University of Toronto in addition to completing the Tuck Advanced Management Program at Dartmouth College.
As Senior Vice President and General Manager, Lindsay oversees Act!’s international operations and is responsible for channel management globally.
Before Act!, Lindsay was Commercial Product Manager at Sage, the market leader for business management solutions for small businesses. For nearly a decade, he was responsible for the commercial success of Sage UK’s upper mid-market ERP and CRM software portfolio that included Act!, Sage CRM, and SalesLogix. Lindsay began his tenure at Sage as a corporate attorney. Prior to Sage, he was a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, practicing with a global law firm, and worked in the City of London with a specialist IP and IT law firm.
Lindsay received a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Sheffield.
Steve leads Act!’s global marketing team overseeing the planning, developing, and execution of the company’s marketing strategy. Bringing over 20 years of experience to Act!, his success in generating revenues by increasing sales has led to successful marketing initiatives throughout his career.
Prior to Act!, Steve was CMO at DaySmart, a leading provider of business management solutions. There, he oversaw a multi-disciplinary marketing team that drove demand generation and lead capture for four distinct product brands. This team drove exponential inbound leads, which tripled the company’s revenue — resulting in DaySmart’s acquisition by LLR and Parthenon Capital in 2019. Prior to that, he was VP of Marketing at Sonian, an information archival company (acquired by Barracuda Networks in 2017) focused on retaining and retrieving critical data and protecting intellectual property. At Sonian, Steve served on the executive committee and instituted marketing automation systems and GTM strategies which drove 40 percent YOY revenue growth. Before that, he ran his own marketing and creative services firm, bold, which delivered award-winning design and comprehensive marketing campaigns to B2C and B2B Fortune 500 and start-up clients around the world.
Patrick leads Act!’s Product Development activities overseeing the planning, development, and delivery of the company’s product strategy. Bringing over 20 years of experience to Act!, his success in developing innovative products that heavily leverage the company’s technology assets has led to successful business outcomes throughout his career.
Prior to Act!, Patrick was CPO of Preceptive Automata, a provider of human behavior prediction technology for autonomous machines where he led the development of solutions involving high-risk human/autonomous machine interaction. Prior to that, he was CPO at DaySmart, a leading provider of SaaS business management solutions. There, he oversaw the development of products serving multiple SMB vertical markets. During his tenure, DaySmart tripled its revenue, resulting in DaySmart’s acquisition by LLR and Parthenon Capital in 2019. Patrick was also VP of Engineering at Sonian, a SaaS information archival company that was acquired by Barracuda Networks in 2017 and focused on retaining and retrieving critical data and protecting intellectual property.
He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Boston University and is named on several patents.
As CTO, Chad oversees Act!’s engineering efforts including product development, research, quality assurance, DevOps, IT, and infrastructure, while leading strategic planning and customer relations. With nearly three decades of creating successful technology companies with fruitful exit strategies, his entrepreneurial roots lie in innovation. At Act! Chad employs new technologies creating and implementing technology strategies across the company and its product portfolio. As SVP, he oversees the development, implementation, and security of the company’s overall information systems.
Before Act!, Chad served as both CEO and CTO of Kuvana. He started the company to compete in the SMB market with marketing automation. During his time there, Chad developed an integration with Act!, which is now known as Act! Marketing Automation. In 2018, Act! acquired Kuvana. Prior to that, he was co-founder and CTO of Sudu (acquired by Arbest), a VC-backed freight marketplace centered around voice and conversational AI connecting large enterprises that ship freight with a network of 300,000 owner-operators. Chad has served as CEO and CTO for other well-known companies – Salesfusion, an enterprise marketing automation company, and Sage Software, a software development consulting company focusing on geographical information systems and telephony. At both companies, he was responsible for global operations, driving profitable revenue growth, overseeing marketing and sales, and leading the development of key strategic partnerships. The result of his success at Salesfusion led to the company’s successful acquisition by SugarCRM.
Chad holds an MBA in international business from Georgia State University. He also obtained a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and certification in computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Andrew leads Act!’s Finance and Accounting operations overseeing the planning, development, and delivery of the company’s financial reporting, investment, and business performance. He brings many years of private equity experience to Act! along with proven success in building highly performant teams, operational discipline and growth outcomes.
Prior to joining Act!, Andrew spent over a decade at SFW Capital Partners investing in and advising software, information and other technology companies. He was responsible for leading the evaluation and execution of new investment opportunities, as well as supporting SFW’s existing investments, including Act!, Greenshades Software, Captify Technologies, Devada, GLG, Essen Bioscience, MD Buyline, among others. Mr. Kane previously served on the Boards of Act!, Greenshades Software, and Devada, and currently serves on the Board of Captify Technologies.
Andrew earned a B.S. in Operations Research and Information Engineering from Cornell University.
As a long-time member of the leadership team, Joe leads a team focused on customer revenue growth, strategic commercial programs, and operational excellence. With over a decade at Act!, he is a change agent driving pricing and commercial strategies, product and service launches, messaging and positioning, sales enablement, and customer lifecycle optimization.
Before Act!, Joe spent 13 years at Sage in various product and commercial leadership roles, with the majority of his tenure leading high-performance Product Marketing teams. His efforts helped ensure the alignment of customers’ needs with the company’s product and commercial strategy while driving exceptional go-to-market readiness and stakeholder enablement. Through strategic collaboration with functional marketing teams, vendors, and channel partners, Joe and his teams drove campaigns, promotions, and lifecycle management programs that increased revenue while fostering loyal customer relationships and ensuring retention.
Joe holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Santa Clara University.
Duston leads Act!’s sales team overseeing the rapid growth, expansion, development, and execution of the company’s sales strategy. Bringing nearly 20 years of value-driven software sales, SaaS, and CRM experience to Act!, his success in generating growth while increasing revenue by leading successful sales teams has resulted in several accolades throughout his career.
Before Act!, Duston was the Sales Director at DaySmart Software, a leading business management software solutions provider. His supportive, process, order, discipline, and team-first mentality successfully led his Sales Account Executives, Account Managers, and SDRs to achieve their full potential personally and professionally, driving rapid revenue growth of four vertical-specific product brands. His sales teams executed exceptional focus on new logos and existing customer growth, which tripled the company’s overall revenue — resulting in DaySmart Software’s profitable expansion through two separate acquisitions.
Duston holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University and licenses and certification achievements from LLR Partners Leader Academy and SRG for High-Impact Sales Coaching.