EXECUTIVE TEAM

Deane Price brings more than 25 years of executive management experience to iPipeline. She has an extensive background in software company operations, professional services, and research and development leadership.

Before joining iPipeline, Price spent 10 years in the law firm vertical at Aderant. Price joined Aderant as their Chief Financial Officer and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and then served as Chief Executive Officer. Aderant grew significantly during Price’s tenure both organically and via acquisition. Price oversaw 13 acquisitions each with their own strategy. Today Aderant enjoys the number 1 or 2 market position with each of their software products and has made great strides in transitioning from an on-premise software delivery model to SaaS.

Prior to Aderant, Price spent 25 years in the utility vertical. Price served as Chief Financial Officer of Ventyx Inc, the world’s largest provider of software to the energy and utilities industry. She was responsible for all back-office functions. Price integrated six acquisitions and established a highly effective team covering accounting, tax, finance, legal, human resources, facilities, and information technology. Price was also a key member of the transaction team culminating in a transaction valued at over $1 billion to sell Ventyx to ABB. Price joined Ventyx via its acquisition of NewEnergy Associates, LLC from Siemens. Price was the President and CEO of NewEnergy and a founding principal of the company. NewEnergy provided planning and operational software and associated services to the unitality industry. Prior to becoming the President and CEO, Price was the Chief Operating Officer and held many positions of increasing responsibility covering all areas of product consulting, software development, and back-office operations.

Price holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia Honors Program.

Daphne Thomas has 25+ years of experience managing and delivering software projects, working in both large and small environments with diverse teams from all around the globe. She has experience transforming organizations, within both development and services, into high performing teams who deliver on time and within budget.

In her current role as Chief Operating Officer, Daphne is responsible for overseeing the organization’s ongoing operations and procedures as well as the overall efficiency of the business. She also advises the Senior Executive team about the operations capabilities required to ensure the successful continuity of the business.

In her prior role as Chief Transformation Officer at iPipeline, Daphne lead the Professional Services Delivery team, providing consultative services for digital transformation across 8+ product lines, and in the process grew the Professional Services business from a $1 million organization to over $60 million.

Prior to joining iPipeline, Daphne was VP of Operations at Miria Systems, an IBM FileNet partner, responsible for delivering ECM solutions to companies such as DHL, and the PA DEP. Earlier, she served as VP of new product Development at Siemens Health Services, where she led a multi-site development team automating the Workflow of Patient Care Information Systems.

Daphne was born and educated in Dublin, Ireland. She is a Computer Science graduate of Rathmines College, Dublin. She serves as a board member of the Networking Women in Computer Technology and is also a member of the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Forum. Her true passion lies in mentoring young women in their careers. Daphne is a popular speaker at many local IT Forums and Conferences. She resides in Eagle, PA with her husband and 4 children.

Bill Atlee founded iPipeline in 1995, creating the first multi-carrier network where distributors and agents could digitally access insurance quotes, check underwriting status, compare product information, and complete electronic applications through cloud-based software.

Bill’s experience personally selling over 6,000 life insurance policies gives iPipeline an inside perspective on how to create and launch software products that focus around industry behavior. He also has a unique ability to leverage his infamous stickman drawings to depict solutions to the industry’s most complex problems.

Bill began his career as a life insurance agent with Fidelity Mutual Life where he gained valuable experience in implementing tax, legal, and estate planning techniques for high net worth individuals. In 1992, he founded Direct Quote America, Inc., a nationally licensed brokerage firm that developed one of the industry’s first automated term insurance shopping services. The company enabled consumers to receive quotes and purchase insurance through a call center.

Today, Bill is a renowned industry speaker, delivering over 200 presentations a year. He is a thought leader that utilizes his decades of industry experience to deliver humor-based messages provoking the financial services industry to advance digitally. As Chief Innovation Officer of iPipeline, Bill drives innovation and go-to-market strategy based on customer needs and industry pain points.

Bill graduated with a BA in Business Administration from Westminster College.

John Bryner, Chief Financial Officer at iPipeline, leads the Accounting, FP&A, and Security operations of the organization. John joined the iPipeline team in April 2012 as a Finance Manager, with a strong skillset and business acumen that later helped him advance to Director of Finance, AVP of Finance, and now CFO. Over the course of his time with iPipeline, he has successfully guided the finance organization through numerous acquisitions, as well as debt and equity recapitalization.

At the start of his career, John worked as an auditor at Mercedian, P.C., CPAs, and BDO Seidman. He later went on to become a Controller at Independence Capital Partner, before beginning his career at iPipeline.

John holds a B.S. in Accounting from Lehigh University, an MBA from Villanova University, and is a Certified Public Accountant. He resides in Malvern, PA with his two daughters.

Chris Nichols, Chief Technology Officer, brings over 24 years of Life Insurance software experience to his role at iPipeline. Joining the team in 2007 as Director of Research & Development, he was quickly recognized as an invaluable asset within the organization, overseeing multiple extensive application platform rewrites and updates, and even leading initiatives for iPipeline Japan.

Chris became a member of the Life Insurance Software industry in 1995 when he started as a  developer at LifeLink, progressing to a product manager and eventually the Director of Technology. It was in these early stages of his career that he began developing his experience managing products, information technology strategies, and quality assurance.

In his current role as CTO, Chris has a special focus on DevOps and improving processing within the organization.

Chris is a graduate of University of Kansas with a Bachelor of General Studies in Environmental Studies. Outside of the office, Chris is an avid trail runner and raises puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

As Chief People Officer, Diane Rowell plays a critical role in guiding the employee experience at iPipeline to strengthen its transformative growth. With more than 20 years of experience as a global human resources leader, Diane leads the company’s global talent and people strategy for attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining its team of diverse professionals.

Prior to joining iPipeline in 2022, Diane served as Vice President of Human Resources, Business Partners, and Business Operations at Allscripts, a global electronic health records software company. Earlier in her career, she was Vice President of Human Resources at Misys Healthcare Systems, where she led all aspects of Human Resources for a business unit and led the Corporate and Executive Recruiting function. Diane is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

George McDonnell serves as iPipeline’s General Counsel, overseeing the full spectrum of iPipeline’s legal operations, including customer and vendor contracting, intellectual property, employment law, privacy and data security, corporate compliance and regulatory matters, and providing advice on strategic corporate planning and decisions.

Prior to joining iPipeline in 2022, George spent four years as Corporate Counsel for PowerPlan, Inc., providing a wide range of legal advice supporting the company’s business of providing corporate performance and asset management software and SaaS solutions primarily to asset-intensive, heavily regulated utilities and other participants in the North American energy marketplace.  Before joining PowerPlan, George spent 10 years on active duty as a judge advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served as a prosecutor and a forward deployed operational law advisor for all U.S. and international special operations forces in Afghanistan. He also served as deputy general counsel for the Marine Corps Logistics Command, which oversees and manages the provision of logistics support across the entire Marine Corps enterprise, as well as serving as Headquarters Company Commander.

George holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.  He resides in Sarasota, Fla., with his wife, Elizabeth, and their five children.

Ian Teague is UK Group Managing Director of iPipeline, helping financial businesses move forward in the digital age, adapting their processes and systems as required.

At iPipeline, Ian is responsible for delivering innovative solutions which dramatically improves the planning, selling and servicing of financial products. Over the past six years, iPipeline has contributed to growing the UK protection market, making insurance more accessible to all, leading to recognition across a variety of industry awards.

Ian has over 20 years’ experience working within the financial services industry operating at a variety of leadership level roles. His primary focus has been growing revenues and profitability of technology companies within the insurance industry. Ian joined Assureweb in 2008 and was previously Assureweb’s COO and CFO managing commercial and operational aspects of the company that led to its acquisition by iPipeline in 2012, and he led the acquisition of TCP LifeSystems in 2017 providing iPipeline with market-leading new business, underwriting, and administration capability.

Ian is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (England and Wales) and has served as a Director in various other companies including Vertex Limited, where he played a lead role in the sale of this business to a consortium of Private Equity investors, and various Misys plc companies.

Bill Hunter is a proven sales executive with over 20 years of experience in technology and financial services. In his two decades at iPipeline, Bill has built strong relationships with hundreds of key members of the insurance community, and drove the value of collaboration and straight through processing technology as a game changer for carriers, BGAs, IMOs and financial institutions.

In his current role, Bill is the Senior Vice President of Sales at iPipeline, responsible for overseeing North American sales. Prior to iPipeline, Bill served in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Hill AFB, UT with the 75th Operations Support Squadron. Bill lives in Montgomery County, PA with his wife Susan, and 5 children.

Roy Goodart, Vice President, Product Management plays a critical role in advancing iPipeline’s SSG Digital® platform and the direct to consumer digital experience. Goodart has more than 20 years of success in managing SaaS and business process automation platforms for the life insurance and financial services industry. He was instrumental in bringing to market the industry’s first web-based agency management system and the first commercially available multi-carrier e-Delivery platform, of which he is the co-inventor of a software patent that iPipeline currently owns.

He comes back to iPipeline from Paperless Solutions Group, where he served as Chief of Product and Customer Success. Prior to Roy’s role at Paperless Solutions Group, he held key executive positions at Prospect9, Aplifi, AgencyWorks, and InsureSocket. He earned a BS in Marketing at Westminster College, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

In his free time, Roy loves to travel both domestically and internationally whenever possible, spending time on the beach or in the mountains. He also has a passion for restoring vintage cars.